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Fiction. Literature. HTML: For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuhrer of Buchenwald. Driven by the guilt of her heritage, Trudy, now a professor of German history, begins investigating the past and finally unearths the dramatic and heartbreaking truth of her mother's life. Combining a passionate, doomed love story, a vivid evocation of life during the war, and a poignant mother/daughter drama, Those Who Save Us is a profound exploration of what we endure to survive and the legacy of shame..… (more)
Library's review
This is a dual story with the original perspectives of an ordinary young German woman and her difficult conditions, told simultaneously with the story of her daughter, who was 3 years old at the time of the her mother's tale. Now in her 50s, she is a German history professor living in Minneapolis. Her mother rarely spoke of the past, so her daughter, Trudy, finds other ways to discover it. How about this for a starting point: All Trudy has is an old photograph. Taken during World War II, it is a family heirloom, as it shows Trudy as a toddler, her mother, Anna, and a Nazi officer.
Meanwhile, her mother, Anna, works in a bakery during the war. Few popular accounts exist of viewpoints of regular Germans, so this is particularly enlightening. We read how they experienced poverty, terrible living (and working) conditions, and Nazi ruthlessness & harassment. While their conditions were certainly not comparable to ones of Jews, they were still surprising.
While this is fiction, the plausibility of the work is two-pronged: Ms. Blum is of German and Jewish descent, and she worked for Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation for four years.
This book has extra special meaning to me, as it was the first selection in my Temple's annual One Book, One Congregation reading program (in 2007). I highly recommend Those Who Save Us as a book that is original , dramatic, gripping, and insightful.
-Dave
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This novel will stay with me for quite awhile. I am astounded that it is Jenna Blum's debut because of the depth of the subject and the brilliance of the writing. Wherever she is, I hope she is writing. I will be one of the first to buy whatever future books she writes.
Quote: "She is really more irritated with herself than Anna, for she has wasted this chance given to her. She has tried to crack her most important subject, and she has failed."
Although this book moved slowly at times, I liked it overall. I found myself wanting to skip over the Anna and Trudie sections, so I could get back to Anna in Germany faster. Usually when I read World War II book I read about concentration camps or members of the resistance, not about how life might have been for someone who, for whatever reason, may have been a collaborator. It was an interesting perspective.
But compliment to the author to really dig into the history and implement so many facts and truths.
The novel is told in dual timelines: the adult Trudy in 1990s Minnesota, and her mother, Anna, as a young woman in war-torn Germany (1941-1944). The reader is all too aware of Trudy’s past, while watching Trudy struggle to make sense of her dreams, her vague recollections, and the one clue she has found among her mother’s belongings.
I was not expecting much from this “book-club favorite;” I’ve been disappointed by so many books that were popular with book clubs. But I’m certainly glad I put my pre-conceived notions aside and read it. I found complex issues, well-developed characters, and a compelling narrative.
Are we doomed to love “Those who save us,” despite their otherwise reprehensible behavior? I was nearly as frustrated by Anna’s obstinate silence as Trudy was. Learning her story, what she felt forced to do to save her child (and herself) gave me some understanding into her character, her motives, her fears, and her reluctance to examine the past. However, my sympathies lie more with Trudy, whose life and potential for happiness is so damaged by the secret Anna refuses to reveal. And I am left wondering whether Jack ever made peace with Anna’s past … and if so, how?
...So far the writing includes forced metaphors, awkward dialogue, and a preoccupation with bodily functions and related substances.
12/18: Hate to say it, but I'm looking forward to finishing this book so that I can move on to something better. As I believe other reviewers have noted, this seems to be a great idea for a book in the hands of a writer who's just not up to it. Sorry, Ms. Blum.
It has improved, I'll give it that.
Final review: Good topic, but this book is just awful. The character development is poor, the dialogue is weak. There's enough gratuitous sex--even without the scenes between Anna and the Nazi officer, which perhaps you could argue are necessary to the story--for a cheap romance novel. This is a sadly inelegant book that, given the subject matter, could have been a whole lot better.
Although the book is told through Trudy's life and her "German project", the story is more of her mother's struggles and survival. This is my first book of the holocaust coming from an innocent German perspective so I really can't compare it to any others but I really felt where Anna was coming from and enjoyed learning more about life in Germany during that time.
Be forewarned, there is quite a bit of graphic sex throughout the story. While at first I was a little taken aback by it, I soon realized that it provided an excellent tool from which the reader can follow Anna's path and progression in her relationship with the officer.
Final report: Definitely worth the read. The chapters alternate between the adult Trudy in the present time and her mother, Anna during the war. This kept me reading past my bedtime numerous times when I wanted to find out what happens in one thread or the other but had to read through the other thread to get there! A great story of two women trying to understand their past . One small quibble, the ending was a little too neat and tied with a bow for me. It was too coincidental but that didn't take away from the majority of the book.
I have always been fascinated by the repercusions of war, the effects of men killing men. This book provides insight regarding this and the women who are left behind in war and even the children of survivers.
From what I understand, it was well researched, so the
I highly recommend.
5/31/08
The story follows Anna's tale of love, hardship and survival trying to keep daughter and herself alive when her employer and friend is murdered. Anna's daughter Trudy does not understand her mother and does not know her story. It is best left dead and in the past according to Anna. Trudy has never known who her father is and struggles to understand how people could let the Holocaust occur. It is that mission that leads Trudy to discover the truth of her existence and the horrors of what happened in Germany 50 years before.
This book is honest and horrifying. It is well written and progresses in ways that keep you guessing and turning pages. Overall, the key to this book is to subtly ask the question, "What would I have done in that time and place?" It is a soul-searching question.