I Want You To Know We’re Still Here by Esther Safran Foer

Title: I Want You To Know We're Still Here
Author: Esther Safran Foer 
Genre: Non-fiction, Biography, World War II, Holocaust

Esther Safran Foer grew up in North America, the daughter of two Holocaust survivors. Her growing up years were haunted by her parents' pasts which were ever present but never spoken of and relegated to remaining locked up secrets. The impetus to seek out a more complete understanding of her history came when Esther's mother casually mentioned that her father had had a wife and daughter who were both killed during the Holocaust. This bombshell piece of news was completely unexpected and precipitated her journey to find out more about her sister. Esther went with her son back to their family's homeland of Ukraine, where they followed the brave and devastating footsteps of her ancestors and met other survivors of that terrible time. In this enthralling tale of her search for her sister we are given the opportunity to join her as she is finally able to gain a more complete picture of her ancestors' lives and to restore her knowledge of her family tree. Most cathartic of all for Esther as well as for the reader is that she is finally able to grieve all that was so tragically lost and put to rest the burdens that she had unwittingly been carrying for decades.

- Elizabeth

Check out I Want You To Know We're Still Here out @ the library

All the Flowers in Paris by Sarah Jio

Title: All the Flowers in Paris
Author: Sarah Jio

Genre: Historical Fiction, World War II, Romantic Fiction, Memory Loss

In this captivating novel, we follow a story that spans both our present day as well as the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. In our times, Caroline, an American, wakes up from a coma in a Parisian hospital and has no memory of her past. She knows it is a sad life that she has forgotten and that Paris has been her escape from it. In her search for clues she looks through her apartment but it is barely decorated and does not offer up much about her past. She does discover a stash of love letters in her search and it leads her to connect with people she had little time for before her accident. Little does she know that she shares more in common with the occupants of her apartment during the Second World War than she would have ever imagined. During the dark history of Nazi-occupied France, Céline, a widow, and her daughter are barely surviving the rampant antisemitism, but its terrors are starting to be felt as their flower shop is vandalized and a Nazi officer preys on them. Céline finds herself in a very dangerous position and has to draw on strength and courage to help her through. Both women show resilience in the face of challenges and you will find yourself rooting for them both all the way.

- Elizabeth

Check out All the Flowers in Paris @ the library.

The Lost Letter by Jillian Cantor

Much like Jillian Cantor's other works of historical fiction, The Lost Letter, beautifully weaves together two stories of love and loss. One part of the storyline, set in 1938 Austria, follows the Fabers, a Jewish family trying to survive as the Nazis march into Austria. Patriarch Frederick Faber is a master stamp engraver making postage stamps for the Austrian government. When the Nazis institute antisemtic legislation in Austria, the Fabers are forced to leave Austria leaving young Kristoff, Frederick's non-Jewish apprentice, in charge. When one of Frederick's daughters refuses to leave Austria, and becomes involved with the resistance movement, Kristoff finds himself falling in love.

Fast forward to 1989 shortly before the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Katie, the daughter of an avid stamp collector is sorting through her father's stamp collection as her father suffers from the late stages of Alzheimer. When Katie finds a letter with a unique stamp on it she begins to journey into the past to uncover the story behind the unopened letter.

Cantor, much like she does in her other historical fiction novels, tells a completely captivating story. With seamless incorporation of historical events, Cantor alternates between characters with ease, perfectly blending the two time periods together.

The Cherry Harvest by Lucy Sanna

Set during World War II in Wisconsin's beautiful Door County peninsula, The Cherry Harvest follows the story of Thomas, Charlotte, and Kate Christiansen, the owners of a cherry farm. With their son Ben and most of the men on the peninsula sent away to fight the Nazis, Thomas and Charlotte worry how they're going to survive the harvest season, until the mention of German POWs enter the picture. Many in Door County fear that these German POWs are nothing more than Nazi sympathizers. With enemies on Wisconsin soil, many living in Door County fear for their safety. Even though it's unpopular, the Christiansens, needing all the help they can get to make this cherry harvest successful, agree to have the POWs work on their property.

Much of this story focuses on the relationship between Kate and her mother Charlotte. Their relationship is not rooted in love. Kate is a typical teen, interested in fashion, her friends, and boys, particularly Clay the son of an Illinois senator vacationing in Door County for the summer. When a secret threatens to tear the family apart, Kate and Charlotte are forced to deepen their relationship.

The Cherry Harvest is written by the Wisconsin-born Lucy Sanna. Although this is a work of fiction, there were in fact German POWs who worked the cherry orchards of Door County. During 1944 and 1945, Wisconsin was in fact a harboring place for many German POWs. POW camps were scattered throughout the state from Door County to Eau Claire and Rockfield, just outside of the Cedarburg/Germantown area.

The Book of Aron by Jim Shepard

When Aron was eight years old, his large Jewish family moved from their impoverished Polish village to Warsaw so his father could take a better job. His older brothers also found work and his mother took in laundry. Aron and his younger brother attended school. But their relatively better circumstances did not last long. The German army soon marched into Poland and into Warsaw. Eventually they established the Warsaw Ghetto, literally walling in the Jewish population, forcing 400,000 people into a small area of the city. Families had to double and triple up. Not only shelter, but food, medicine, fuel and clothing were in very short supply. Families began to rely on their smallest children for support. The children were able to leave the ghetto through small openings in the wall and then return, smuggling in the necessities of life. Aron joined a gang engaged in this activity. It was risky labor and getting caught could be fatal. Consequently, life became cheap. The children became inured to the pain and death of others, easily betraying and sacrificing cohorts to protect themselves. Aron lost all the members of his family, one by one, to disease and deportation. Then his fellow gang members either died or turned against him. Eventually he was put out of his own home by a squatter family and nearly died on the streets. Only the efforts of Dr. Janusz Korczak, a real life hero who advocated for and protected children even before the war, saved his life. Dr. Korczak found and brought Aron into his orphanage. Eventually, under the patient care of the doctor, Aron recovered his strength and, more importantly, his ability to empathize with others. He became a valuable assistant to Korczak, accompanying him on the begging excursions needed to feed the orphans. All in the ghetto were in bodily danger, but Aron’s humanity had been saved. Few stories on this subject have a happy ending but the right unhappy ending can be uplifting. 

Check out The Book of Aron at the library!

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

New York Times bestseller Kristin Hannah's newest book The Nightingale is set in 1939 France. With the world set for war, sisters Vianne and Isabelle are put to the test as World War II rages through Europe. Vianne, the oldest of the sisters, says goodbye to her husband Antoine as he heads to the eastern front. With an empty house, Vianne quarters a Nazi officer. Life is no longer what it was as Vianne's every move is watched, forcing her to act cautiously to protect her daughter Sophie. Vianne decides to make a bold move when the Nazis implement anti-Jewish laws in France. Realizing that she can't just stand by, Vianne does all that she can to make sure Jewish children are safe, even if it means risking her family's safety.

Younger sister Isabelle has always had the rambunctious streak. She doesn't sit by idly as chaos erupts. She's never been afraid to speak her mind, even if it gets her into trouble. Life in war-torn France is no different. Risking her life, Isabelle, known as the Nightingale, takes in downed airplane pilots. She doesn't just make sure they're safe from the enemy, she actually leads them over the Pyrenees to safety in Spain.

The Nightingale beautifully tells the tale of two women in the French Resistance movement. Kristin Hannah has the ability to paint the picture of just how desperate World War II made people in this heartbreaking, beautiful story.

When Books Went to War by Molly Guptil Manning

World War II was a war that united the American population like no other. Young men enlisted to serve in the Armed Forces and civilians pitched in by making whatever sacrifices they could make: planting Victory Gardens, living with food and gasoline rationing, turning possessions into scrap (metal, paper, cloth), and donating books for the troops. Unfortunately, the book donation program was not entirely successful. Many titles donated were not of interest to young American men (knitting, theology, and foreign policy, just to name a few of the not terribly enticing subjects.) But an even bigger problem was the size of the books. Before the 1950’s, very few books were published in paperback. The hardcover books were simply too big and bulky for an infantryman to add to his already heavy load of over 60 pounds. A solution was proposed and accepted—small, lightweight books printed especially for the men in the Armed Services. ASEs (Armed Service Editions) were designed. Titles were chosen, printed and distributed to the far corners of the earth. And they were greatly appreciated by men in foxholes, in jungles, in deserts, on ships and in hospitals. Surprisingly perhaps, the most popular title was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Many soldiers and sailors wrote to her, describing the comfort they found in her story of a Brooklyn family, living an American life much like theirs. Second in popularity was Chicken Every Sunday by Rosemary Taylor, a memoir of life in her mother’s boarding house with many mouth-watering descriptions of good old American food. There were many other popular authors like Ernest Hemingway, Marjorie Rawlings, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain and Charles Dickens, as well as histories, biographies, poetry and numerous other subjects. Many of the service men were readers who took solace in books. Others were introduced to reading for pleasure by the ASEs and returned home with a new interest in literature. Librarians and publishers fought shortages of funds, shortages of paper and, eventually, even censorship to keep the program running and, in the end, they were as victorious as the American Armed Forces.  Anyone reading a blog like this one can appreciate the contribution the ASEs made in the quality of life of the American G.I. When Books Went to War lists all the titles published by the program, year by year. Some of the titles are out of print, but, for the information of the omnivorous and curious reader, many are available in our library system.

Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

After its army captured Burma from the British during World War II, Japan identified a need for an overland route in order to safely supply its troops. For this purpose, the army’s High Command decided that a railroad line through Burma was necessary. It was to be built with limited plans, primitive tools, slave labor, impossible orders and unfailing devotion to the emperor. Many of the laborers were Australian prisoners-of-war who had surrendered at the fall of Singapore.  In Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan tells the story of some of these Australians. Dorrigo Evans was a doctor who tried his best to protect his men from the worst cruelties of the Japanese deprivations. But the men who were forced to work on this railroad, surviving on starvation rations, without proper tools, without adequate clothing, shelter, rest and medicine, could not be protected. They died by the thousands. Every man was missed but one unnecessary death seemed to affect this tightly-knit group more than any other—that of Sergeant Darky Gardiner, a man of inner strength, a steady demeanor and common sense. After the war, Gardiner’s death haunted the survivors, both war hero Evans and the rank-and-file enlisted men as they struggled to put the horrors of the war behind them. In this Man Booker Prize winning book, Flanagan writes moving depictions of men suffering from hunger, exhaustion and disease. He creates characters the reader comes to deeply care about. Perhaps this is because the book is dedicated to Prisoner san byaku san ju go (335), his own father. 

Margot by Jillian Cantor

At some point in life, whether it be in school or based on personal interests, chances are you've read the classic, The Diary of Anne Frank. Thanks to Anne's diary quite a bit is known about the Franks and the Annex they hid out in to avoid Nazi persecution during World War II, yet not much is known about Anne's older sister Margot.

Margot, a work of fiction by Jillian Cantor, is written from Margot Frank's perspective had she survived and not died in Bergen-Belsen in 1945 along with her sister Anne. Margot follows Margie Franklin (Margot Frank's Americanized name) as she's a typist for a law firm in the United States during the 1950s. Settling on Philadelphia after the war, Margie struggles to find her true love Peter van Pelt, who lived alongside the Franks during hiding in the Annex. Margie does everything she can to keep her former identity hidden including lying to her friends, wearing a sweater even in the hottest weather to cover up the tattooed number on her arm, saying Shabbat in secrecy on Friday nights and even denying any Jewishness. When The Diary of Anne Frank comes to theaters, Margie's life is turned upside down. Will she reveal her true identity or do everything she can to avoid embracing who she once was?

Much of the book reflects on Margot's life during hiding while also focusing on the overwhelming guilt she would feel, as many did feel as a Holocaust survivor. Cantor has woven a wonderful story around the classic Diary of Anne Frank and such a tragic historical event while shining light on the stories of survival and never forgetting where one comes from.

Check out Margot @ the library!

Some Luck by Jame Smiley

Jane Smiley’s newest novel is the first in The Last Hundred Years trilogy.  The Pulitzer prize winning author intends to cover 100 years in the life of an Iowa farm family and the first novel, Some Luck, covers the years 1920-1953.  Smiley follows the Langdon family of Denby, Iowa through childbirth, death, the Great Depression and World War II in a unique fashion.  Not only does the author write from many of the different characters points of view, but each chapter itself represents one year. 

We begin with Walter, the 25 year-old father and owner of the farm.  His wife Rosanna is about to give birth to their first child, Frank, and he is ruminating on all of the things that farmers think about: which crops to plant this year, how many animals are there to take care of and can I really afford to farm all of this land? As the years move forward, Smiley introduces us to all of the Langdon children: Frank, Joe, Mary Elizabeth, Lillian, Henry and Claire and their unique personalities.  We see Walter struggle with changing technologies (horses vs. tractors) and Rosanna has her own challenges with loss and religion. 

Each of the Langdon children is different than the last, and we hear a lot from the point of view of Frank, the handsomest and, arguably, the most cunning Langdon child.  When the US gets involved in World War II, he joins the army and becomes a sniper while his sensitive younger brother Joe stays home on a II-A deferment and takes care of the family farm.  Lillian falls in love with a handsome stranger and Henry devours books as fast as he can get his hands on them.  The reader is quickly absorbed into the world that Smiley creates and is soon laughing and crying along with the family. 

Some Luck has been shortlisted for the National Book Award and is a profound family saga.

The Wives of Los Alamos by Tarashea Nesbit

In The Wives of Los Alamos, Tarashea Nesbit tells the story of the creation of the atomic bomb through the experiences of a group who knew nothing about the work, the wives of the scientists recruited to develop a project they called the “Gadget.”

Families began arriving in Los Alamos in 1943 when it was a city still under construction. Although the wives were a diverse group, coming from various backgrounds and various parts of the country, they quickly became a group, a neighborhood and a sisterhood, united by isolation from friends and family, physical hardship, patriotism, and keeping secrets when they didn’t even know what secrets they were keeping. For this reason, the author’s choice of telling the story through the first person plural, the communal “we,” works very well. Most of the wives were young, newly married college graduates. Their names were changed and their letters home censored. They were assigned to live in hastily constructed apartments with army-issued home furnishings. The roads and yards were either mud or dust. Sometimes there was no water or power. They tried to lead ordinary lives: cooking, cleaning and raising children. They formed friendships and helped each other. They formed book clubs and held dances. They argued and gossiped. After August, 1945, when everyone in the world learned what their husbands had been working on in Los Alamos, they were free to return to normal life. Some stayed in Los Alamos, their husbands taking jobs with the National Laboratory. Some left, their husbands taking teaching positions or jobs in private industry. Some felt pride and some felt guilt about the bomb. They resumed their middle-class American lives, but for a few years they had been part of something that changed the history of the world.

Check out The Wives of Los Alamos @ the library!

Middle C by William H. Gass

Middle C is unlike any other novel I have ever read.  The storytelling doesn’t unfold in typical linear fashion and because of this the reader becomes increasingly curious about how our narrator, Joseph Skizzen, gets from point A to point Z.  Joseph’s tale begins before he is even born, with his parents and sister living in their native Graz, Austria just before the dawn of World War II.  Sensing that the Nazis will soon be creating more than their fair share of problems in his homeland, Rudi Skizzen flees to London with his family by pretending that they are Jewish refugees.  Joseph is born shortly after their arrival and the Skizzen (now called Fixel) family manages to survive the Blitz.  Joseph’s father “reinvents” or renames himself several more times and then disappears mysteriously after the war.  After desperately searching for her husband, Joseph’s mother Miriam then manages to relocate herself and her two children to a small town in rural Ohio. 

And here is where Joseph’s story takes off.  We can see the two Skizzen children grow into their new lives as Americans.  Joseph is quiet and not particularly book-smart while his sister Debbie becomes a cheerleader and wants to be a part of all things fashionable.  Joseph begins to enjoy his piano lessons with a local teacher, but it is apparent that he is self-taught in playing popular tunes than anything else.  We are then shown a look at Joseph as an older man, one who has used the entire attic of his large home to house what he calls his “Inhumanity Museum” which is host to countless newspaper clippings spotlighting all manner of man’s terrible acts.  We bounce back and forth in time to see Joseph working as a high schooler in a music store, then as a college professor, then a college student, then as an assistant in a small town library.  Each sector of Joseph’s life creates another layer of lies he tells himself to continue on his way. 

I began this book thinking (due to the title) that it was about music.  And in many ways, music plays a big role in Joseph’s life.  But the result of Gass’s novel is so unlike any story I’ve seen told that it is hard to place my finger on what the biggest point of the narrative truly is.  Middle C  is a fascinating, careening tour through the mind of a seemingly ordinary man who lives a seemingly ordinary life but it is certainly an extraordinary novel. 

Letting it Go by Mieiam Katin

In this book, graphic artist Miriam Katin explores hatred and resentment and the difficulty of Letting it Go. Katin was born a Hungarian Jew during World War II. She and her mother endured much hardship trying to survive. For this reason, she has hated Germany and particularly Berlin nearly all her life. Eventually she immigrated to the United States, married and had a son. When her son informs her of his intention to live Berlin, she must struggle between two emotions: her love for her son and her hatred of Berlin. After two visits to Berlin, she finally realizes that Germany and Berlin have changed and she must do so as well. She observes that just as the evil of the past must be acknowledged, so must the changes brought about by a new generation and new attitudes. Graphic books are not only for children and teens. Many are thoughtful examinations of adult experiences.  Letting it Go is a graphic memoir in which the author uses skillful pencil drawings as well as words to explain her struggle to leave the past behind. 

Check out Letting it Go @ the library!

City of Women by David R. Gillham

The year is 1943 and while most of the men are fighting in the war, Berlin is a city of women.  One of these women is Sigrid Schroder.  Her husband is a soldier at the front and she is living with his mother.  On the surface Sigrid appears to be a good German, going to work every day and sacrificing for the war effort.  In actuality she has a Jewish lover and is helping move Jewish men, women, and children to safety.  In contrast to a lot of books about World War II the Germans aren't all bad just as the Jews aren't all victims.  The author captured the feel of wartime Berlin when everyone was looking over their shoulder and had to watch what they said lest they be turned into the Gestapo.

This story will make you reflect on what you would do when faced with the decision Sigrid faces:  help and risk your own safety or sit by while people are murdered.  Checkout City of Women @ the library!

Boy 30529: A Memoir by Felix Weinberg

There are a lot of Holocaust memoirs out there.  This one is a little bit different.  Czech-English physicist Felix Weinberg does not like to refer to himself as a “camp survivor.”  He considers it a series of miracles that he lived and his family did not.  But I find it hard to call Weinberg anything but a survivor.  This book tells the story of a teenager who survived not only Terezín, but Auschwitz-Birkenau, Blechhammer, the Blechhammer death march, Gross-Rosen and Buchenwald.  Once the war was over, Weinberg vowed only to look toward the future.  But years of not talking about his experiences left him feeling that he owed it to both his living and deceased relatives to put his story on paper.

Much of this book is a monument to his family.  Weinberg’s memories begin when he was a young child living in Aussig (Ústí nad Labem), Czechoslovakia.  He speaks fondly of the beautiful family home. How he and his mother, father and brother went to visit his mother’s parents in Prague during the holidays.  He talks about his health obsessed father, Victor,  who always took the family on nature outings, fed them all vitamins and even went so far as to hire a gymnastics trainer for young Felix. 

In 1939, Weinberg’s father left Czechoslovakia for London where he was arranging to move the entire family.  Hitler invaded the country in March of that year.  Victor had secured three Red Cross transportation passes for the remaining Weinbergs but through some sort of red tape or missing documents, they were not allowed to leave the country.  Nelly, Felix’s mother, moved them all to the small town of Wildenschwert (Ústí nad Orlicí) to live with the family of Rudolph Pick, a family friend.  Things continued to deteriorate in Czechoslovakia.  Soon, Felix was refused access to the local school due to his status as a Jew.  Food shortages worsened.  The SS even had the nerve to confiscate all of the skis belonging to Jews living in that mountain town.  Rudolph and Nelly decided to send inexperienced Felix to live at a nearby farm where he would be well fed.  This arrangement lasted about a week.  The Germans requisitioned the Picks’ large home in 1942 and the Weinbergs were soon after deported to Terezín; beginning a five year journey of horror and chance survival.

Weinberg’s short memoir is striking in its straightforward tone but is not filled with ghastly details of Nazi atrocities.  Felix explains that he does not remember large portions of those five years; that his mind enabled him to “see without seeing” as a coping mechanism.  Weinberg defied so many odds by surviving the war and his everyday account of life in Nazi concentration camps makes for an enthralling read.  Boy30529 is a thoughtful account of one man’s family and his experience during the holocaust.  

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

This book is an unusual work of fiction. The main character is a group of young Japanese women traveling to join their husbands in California. These husbands are men they have seen only in twenty-year old photographs and know only through letters filled with lies, written by professional letter writers. They arrive in the United States around 1920, a time when Japanese immigrants were not welcome. The women speak as a chorus, illustrating the universality of their experience. Individuals are identified simply as “one of us,”  “a few of us,” and “others of us.”  The group is made up of many different types of women. There are women from wealthy backgrounds and women from poverty, women from the city and women from the farm. There are talented women and women with ordinary skills, faithful wives and adulteresses.  There are women who are satisfied with their lot in life and women who are never happy. The story takes us through twenty-three years of their lives (their journey, husbands, hard work, children and relationships with whites), until the pivotal year of 1942. Then, after they have been labeled “Traitors,” the author finally identifies each woman by name as they prepare to depart for the government internment camps where they will live for the duration of the war.  The Buddha in the Attic, a prequel to Julie Otsuka’s earlier book, When the Emperor Was Divine, which is about life in those camps, is a lyrically written ode to human perseverance.

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

Sage Singer bakes all night by herself.  She enjoys her solitary job because she doesn’t like being around people.  A scar on her face makes her self-conscious.  As Josef Weber from her grief support group starts dropping by the bakery she slowly lets down her guard and begins to enjoy his company.  Then Josef confesses he was a Nazi guard at a concentration camp and needs her to do something for him.  Her world is turned upside down as she discovers her history and is forced to confront evil and forgiveness.  This well-researched novel is sure to leave you with a different perspective on right and wrong.  Be sure to add bestelling author (and queen of the ethical dilemma and twist of an ending) Jodi Picoult's newest novel, The Storyteller, to your spring reading list!

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Ursula Todd is born early on a snowy morning in February 1910 to a banker and his wife in a charming English home named Fox Corner. Or rather, Ursula is delivered still-born and then is promptly born again on a snowy morning in February of 1910.  Thus begin the lives of Ursula who finds new challenges in each life that she lives including: two world wars, death by drowning, almost being asphyxiated by a cat (and her older brother), death by falling off of a roof, an attempt on Hitler's life, domestic abuse, a creepy typing instructor, an illegal abortion, multiple deaths by Spanish Flu (Four times.  Four!), and a dismal marriage- among many other things.  The two sections of the book that are probably the most interesting are the depictions of war time with Ursula as a child whose father has gone to fight in WWI and then as an adult who has joined a rescue unit for civilians during the WWII blitz.  Ursula has extraordinary feelings of deja vu and in most instances these help her to find a way around some sort of potentially traumatic event.  But figments of lives past and the daily life of the present become entwined in a way which is hellish for poor Ursula.  At one point, Ursula ends up in a private clinic and tries her best to explain in as banal a way as possible: 

"Time isn't circular," she said to Dr. Kellet.  "It's like a...palimpsest." 

"Oh dear," he said. "That sounds very vexing."

The reader is never really sure if Ursula's lives will end or if she solves all of the problems that she is meant to.  But that is the way of things, in this book.  The layers of experience never really end.  

It is difficult to tell you a lot about this novel. A lot of critics have been describing this book as Groundhog Day meets The Butterfly Effect or Cloud Atlas.  But this book is more than that.  Though we see Ursula born time and time again, she owns a different personality, has different knowledge and different actions in each life.  We see the ways in which her family members differ in even the smallest of ways.  We see that no matter how hard Ursula works or tries to remedy a situation that life never turns out the way one plans.  I would highly recommend Life After Life to readers who enjoy an interesting non-linear style plot line or have enjoyed Atkinson's other novels.

HHhH by Laurent Binet

How is it possible to write an entertaining book about Reinhard Heydrich, “Hitler’s Hangman,” “the Blond Beast,” the architect of the Nazis’ Final Solution? Lawrence Binet has done so by writing a Metafiction in which the subject of the book is the actual writing of the book.  HHhH (Himmler’s Hirn Heist Heydrich or Himmler’s Brain is Called Heydrich,) is a fictional recounting of the attempted assassination of Reinhard Heydrich by two Czechoslovakian partisans. By making this story his own story, the author is able to distance the reader from the tension and horror of the actual story, that is, until the end. The bare bones of the plot are that in late 1941, three men parachuted into German-occupied Czechoslovakia for the purpose of assassinating Heydrich and in mid-1942 made their attempt. But by inserting himself into the book, the author has made the story into so much more. In the course of explaining the history of Nazism and the beginnings of World War II, he makes the book an examination of courage, cowardice, wisdom and stupidity.

Comedy in a Minor Key by Hans Keilor

What happens to ordinary people trying to do the right thing during dangerous times?  A young Dutch couple hides a Jewish man in their home during the German occupation of The Netherlands during World War II in Comedy in a Minor Key. They manage to handle all the small difficulties that arise, but when the man sickens and dies, the matter of disposing of the body brings the biggest danger of exposure into their quiet lives.