Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

Grade:   A
Recommended for fans of historical fiction. 


This may very well be the hardest book I have ever read.  Not because the book is boring or challenging, but because the subject matter is so unsettling.  This is not a book for the faint of heart.

Those Who Save Us is a World War II story from the German civilian perspective.  It is the story of Anna Schlemmer, a German woman who survived the war.  Anna falls in love with a Jewish man while the war broke out and tried to keep him safe.  We all know the horrible things that the Nazis did during the war, and those disturbing facts are not spared here.  Anna finds herself pregnant and alone doing whatever she can to stay safe.  A Nazi officer meets Anna and takes her for his mistress while providing Anna and her daughter with things that they otherwise could not have afforded or had access to. 

This is also the story of Trudy, Anna's daughter, born during the war and growing up with the Nazi presence around her.  Anna and Trudy find their way to the states and settle in Minnesota.  Anna does not speak of her time in Germany during the war and Trudy has only a photograph of her with her mother and the Nazi.  Trudy is a German History professor working on a research project when the pieces of her mother's past begin to fall into place.

This book is extraordinarily well written and a most impressive debut from Jenna Blum.  The book is emotionally heavy and at times warrants some separation to process what you just read.  The story is also told in alternating viewpoints from present day Trudy to Anna during the war.  Just when things start to get too heavy to bear another page, the viewpoint switches.  It works perfectly.  I highly recommend this book, but if you are going to read it, have a lighter book in mind to read afterwards.