This book tells the truth. The truth of a horrific time period and the point of view is so different from other historical fiction novels set in the Nazi Germany era.
So do you want to know what it’s about?
Our protagonist is a girl called Gretchen who considers Hitler her ‘Uncle Dolf’. Her family has high privileges due to her fathers sacrifice. He took a bullet for Hitler during the Munich Putsch and due to this, our protagonist views Hitler as her father figure but then she meets Daniel, a Jewish reporter.
This summary of such does not do this book justice. I feel that this is a book that everyone should read to see how easy it is to become indoctrinated or brainwashed even. Our protagonist has been brought up with Hitler’s anti-Semitic ideas being whispered in her ear from all angles. Her father, her mother and her brother believed that Hitler’s every word was truth. She was even exposed to Hitler himself as he was considered a family friend. Because of this I can tell you that Prisoner of Night and Fog was at times, an extremely uncomfortable book to read. We disagree solely with our protagonists twisted views and it is impossible for us to comprehend these opinions. It is as if the author is telling us a joke that falls flat on its face.
Anne Blankman provides us with a truly harrowing read and expresses Germany as other-worldly and to be frank quite terrifying. This book is set in the very early years of Hitler in which few were interested in Hitler and few took his ideas seriously. His ideas only came to be more popular when the Great Depression in the US struck in the early 1930s. This impacted Germany in the sense that unemployment averages rose in an already weak economy. The German people wanted someone to blame and Hitler provided that someone.
There is only one historical issue I can pick out from Prisoner of Night and Fog is the fact that Hitler is already referred to as Fuhrer yet from my own knowledge and understanding I’m led to believe that Hitler did not resume this title until the death of President Hindenburg in 1934. Apart from this Anne Blankman’s knowledge is, from what I can see, flawless and the way in which she weaves fact with fiction is truly commendable. I really enjoyed the fact that where possible Blankman included real people as characters in her novel. It really adds to the realism I think Blankman wants to portray and provides us readers with a vivid picture of what life was like during this time.
If you haven’t already then I would love for you, reading this to get yourself a copy of this book. I was so excited for reading this book and it made it straight to the top of my tbr pile. It did not disappoint and I turned the pages so fast the book disappeared in all but a day. It will keep you on the edge of your seat as you will Gretchen to open up her mind and her heart to expand her very narrow minded view.
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