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Shadows Walking
"What leads men and women of good will to violate fundamental ethical principles? How do they justify their behavior? Are we all capable of such acts? And if so, how can we guard ourselves from making these choices? These are the questions at the heart of my endeavor. ... My novel describes [an "ordinary" Nazi doctor,] able, for a while, to justify his actions and believe he was still fulfilling his sworn responsibilities to "do no harm." It tells the story of his descent into this abyss. And it allows me to raise two questions: first, what, if anything, can a perpetrator do to redeem himself? and second, what should society do if it becomes aware of his deeds? I have tried to be as faithful and attentive to historical events as I can be. ... Everything [in Shadows Walking] either did happen or, I believe, could have happened. I want to evoke an historical reality--from the experiences Johann Brenner and Philipp Stein might have had in their childhood, to their involvement in the First World War and its chaotic aftermath during the fourteen years that "Germany tried democracy," to the impact of the Nazi regime on their lives and choices. These are crucial public events, affecting everyone who lived through them. The novel's more incidental facts, too--from the color of the American automobiles in Nuremberg in the immediate aftermath of World War II, to the improbable herd of goats in the streets of war-ravaged Berlin, to the slaughterhouse next to the train station in Freiburg--are drawn from my study of the sources, from reading other historical accounts, and from my personal experiences." -- from the author's "Afterword and Acknowledgments."
For more detailed information about the more than eighty historical persons, places, incidents and events, as well as guides to further reading on aspects of Germany in the first half of the 20th century, please visit the website that I have designed as an enhancement of my novel: go to the world wide web on your URL address bar and type shadowswalking.com
For more detailed information about the more than eighty historical persons, places, incidents and events, as well as guides to further reading on aspects of Germany in the first half of the 20th century, please visit the website that I have designed as an enhancement of my novel: go to the world wide web on your URL address bar and type shadowswalking.com
470 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 21, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 10, 2012
This is excellent - so informative. This is a different look at the holocaust from a German doctor's perspective.
November 3, 2011
"More people thinking everything is stupid or corrupt or evil than people who think things are good. More people hating. Wanting to do someone or something harm. Anti-Semites, Anti-Communists, Anti-Women, Anti-modern art, music...Hating everything and everyone different from them. We're all in trouble if this doesn't stop."
Philipp's prophetic words appear in an early chapter of the book, Shadows Walking, by Douglas Skopp. I've noted already that I think highly of the novel, which is considered historical fiction but based on detailed and thorough study of historical documents from the time period prior to and through the Holocaust.
Philipp is a friend of the protagonist, Johann Brenner, and they lead nearly parallel lives as the novel begins just after WWI. Both are medical students, eager to make a positive impact in their community despite the troubled times that Germany is experiencing. Their friendship becomes strained as an underlying current in their social class begins blaming the Jews for the problems.
Thus begins a study, not so much of the Holocaust exactly, but more precisely a study of the how studies in eugenics and the desire to rid Germany of "undesirables" was used to justify the killing of millions. Author Skopp analyzes how both men felt about eugenics and how it conflicted with their code as physicians. In Brenner's case, it becomes a question of status. As a trained physician he feels that he's due more distinction in his life, while Philipp as a Jew faces questions about how his beliefs in ending unnecessary suffering are twisted into a vindication of the evil the Nazi's perpetrate.
"Johann felt unable to dissect Hitler's categorical statements, to think of opposing arguments, to consider the implications of what he was reading. He had never been taught to think critically, to ask why and how an author might be trying to grab his mind and shape his convictions. His whole generation had assumed that if a statement appeared on the printed page, it must be true."
The novel is grim, but it displays significant restraint in not trying to exploit the subject for gratuitous horror. Two features especially stood out to me as noteworthy. One was that it provides especially detailed insight in the period between WWI and WWII and the context of pre-Holocaust years. Few books go back that far to find the links; they only start with WWII. I can only think of Markus Zusak's The Book Thief as one that lays the groundwork for the events, and even it doesn't go back as far as this novel. To me, this information was both new and critical to understanding how people were manipulated so thoroughly.
The other key to this novel is the rendering of the character of Johann Brenner. While we know from the start he's a villain (for lack of a better word), the story goes backward to explain how he came to that end. He's never a sympathetic character; as a reader there's never a point where he is especially appealing. Yet, rather than portray him as a stereotypical mad scientist, the novel proceeds to show how his flawed reasoning came to be. Additionally, a sense of suspense and tension is created because he's hanging around the Nuremberg Trials, incognito, while his peers are being tried for war crimes. As a reader, I wanted to know why.
Philipp's prophetic words appear in an early chapter of the book, Shadows Walking, by Douglas Skopp. I've noted already that I think highly of the novel, which is considered historical fiction but based on detailed and thorough study of historical documents from the time period prior to and through the Holocaust.
Philipp is a friend of the protagonist, Johann Brenner, and they lead nearly parallel lives as the novel begins just after WWI. Both are medical students, eager to make a positive impact in their community despite the troubled times that Germany is experiencing. Their friendship becomes strained as an underlying current in their social class begins blaming the Jews for the problems.
Thus begins a study, not so much of the Holocaust exactly, but more precisely a study of the how studies in eugenics and the desire to rid Germany of "undesirables" was used to justify the killing of millions. Author Skopp analyzes how both men felt about eugenics and how it conflicted with their code as physicians. In Brenner's case, it becomes a question of status. As a trained physician he feels that he's due more distinction in his life, while Philipp as a Jew faces questions about how his beliefs in ending unnecessary suffering are twisted into a vindication of the evil the Nazi's perpetrate.
"Johann felt unable to dissect Hitler's categorical statements, to think of opposing arguments, to consider the implications of what he was reading. He had never been taught to think critically, to ask why and how an author might be trying to grab his mind and shape his convictions. His whole generation had assumed that if a statement appeared on the printed page, it must be true."
The novel is grim, but it displays significant restraint in not trying to exploit the subject for gratuitous horror. Two features especially stood out to me as noteworthy. One was that it provides especially detailed insight in the period between WWI and WWII and the context of pre-Holocaust years. Few books go back that far to find the links; they only start with WWII. I can only think of Markus Zusak's The Book Thief as one that lays the groundwork for the events, and even it doesn't go back as far as this novel. To me, this information was both new and critical to understanding how people were manipulated so thoroughly.
The other key to this novel is the rendering of the character of Johann Brenner. While we know from the start he's a villain (for lack of a better word), the story goes backward to explain how he came to that end. He's never a sympathetic character; as a reader there's never a point where he is especially appealing. Yet, rather than portray him as a stereotypical mad scientist, the novel proceeds to show how his flawed reasoning came to be. Additionally, a sense of suspense and tension is created because he's hanging around the Nuremberg Trials, incognito, while his peers are being tried for war crimes. As a reader, I wanted to know why.
June 14, 2013
I've read dozens of books about the Holocaust, fiction and nonfiction, alike, but I'd never read a book like this one. If I hadn't already known that Skopp was a Holocaust historian, I'd probably have guessed. It was all there, the inhuman things the Nazis did to the Jews (and many others), But what set this book apart for me was that (for the most part) it was written from the POV of a Nazi doctor.
Without giving away spoilers, I can say this: the book was so well written that within four chapters I was shocked at my own reaction. I didn't see him as a barbaric animal, I didn't see him as a hate-filled man bent on eliminating an entire race of people. But his actions showed that he was very much a part of the process toward that goal.
It was gut-wrenchingly emotional at times. And it opened my mind to a perspective I had not considered. We all draw arbitrary lines, and few of us realize when we cross a certain point beyond which we should go. Sometimes the consequences of those arbitrary lines elude us until we are so far beyond them, we can't help but see we've gone too far, and that our choices have forever altered our lives and worse, the lives of others.
It never made me think that what the Nazis did during the holocaust was anything less than horrid. As a whole, the Nazis needed the condemnation that they got. But considering them one at a time, as individuals, it's a shocking reminder that at some level, we are all human.
A good read. It holds up a mirror that at times is uncomfortable to behold...
A good read. It holds up a mirror that at times is uncomfortable to behold...
Without giving away spoilers, I can say this: the book was so well written that within four chapters I was shocked at my own reaction. I didn't see him as a barbaric animal, I didn't see him as a hate-filled man bent on eliminating an entire race of people. But his actions showed that he was very much a part of the process toward that goal.
It was gut-wrenchingly emotional at times. And it opened my mind to a perspective I had not considered. We all draw arbitrary lines, and few of us realize when we cross a certain point beyond which we should go. Sometimes the consequences of those arbitrary lines elude us until we are so far beyond them, we can't help but see we've gone too far, and that our choices have forever altered our lives and worse, the lives of others.
It never made me think that what the Nazis did during the holocaust was anything less than horrid. As a whole, the Nazis needed the condemnation that they got. But considering them one at a time, as individuals, it's a shocking reminder that at some level, we are all human.
A good read. It holds up a mirror that at times is uncomfortable to behold...
A good read. It holds up a mirror that at times is uncomfortable to behold...
June 14, 2011
My mission was to read this book pretending I did not personally know the Author. I treated it as just another book. It wasn't too hard. But in all honestly it is still one of the best books I have ever read. Knowing him aside.
Dr. Douglas Skopp's mission in this book is to portray what he calls an “ordinary” Nazi Dr, like the normal Joe Schmo not one of the higher ranking officials. He created Johann Brenner, and gave him a Jewish (non practicing) best friend Philipp Stein. A lot of the book focuses on the relationship between the two, growing up together and their mirrored lives as they were both Herr Doktors. Many other characters develop their stories as well but these two are the main focuses.
The Walking Shadows themselves in which the book is titled- reference Shakespeare's Macbeth, and these persons were mainly breathing and that was about it, they had lost all qualities of valued life and Phillipp's mentor Hoche refers to them as “a useless eater.” And suggests their lives are not worth living and they should do them the favor of ending their lives- or putting them out of their misery.
As much as Johann appreciates his wife Helga, he discredits her opinions to being those of a woman. A cultural feeling relevant to his time period.
Johann is conflicted with himself for awhile in whether or not to join the Party, he attends a meeting of top Nazi Doctors and the topic of Sterilization is brought up. Not of everyone- just those of mixed races seen to be “ruining” the strong Germans. This ideal is brought to Johann before he officially joins the party and becomes one of his first missions once he does, after his loyalty to the party is in question and he confirms he is joining and will be swearing his oath.
This book is not for the faint of heart, for it does describe the terrifying procedures the Nazi Doctors performed on both men and women in the sterilization processes.
Philipp compares the Nazis trying to eliminate the Jews as Germany as a body fighting within itself. As Germany gets closer to World War and the Jews are being forced to wear their yellow stars, and always produce their papers when out in public, then the Jewish Drs are deprived of their status to treat every day Germans and can only treat fellow Jews. Also Jews trying to get treatment from Party Drs are refused service and sent to Jewish hospitals.
Although the subject manner is difficult and depressing to read about, Skopp almost makes you sympathize for Johann- like he had no choice to join the party and then perform the procedures for the benefit of the Volk.
A part I definitely enjoyed was the beginning of each chapter referred to a letter Johann was writing to his wife Helga confessing everything he had done during the war. And the guilt on his conscious but his hope she would take him back, when she finds out he did not die. And we are left wondering at the end of Johann has indeed been caught and will be held responsible for what he had done, although he was working at the Court House where the trials of the Nazi Doktors were being held. He is almost free from it all then runs into American troops at the very end and we are left to wonder what happened to him. Philipp perished at one of the camps in which he was united and given special treatment by Johann. He felt he had nothing left to live for regardless after losing his wife Christine to a bomb.
Would I recommend this book? Most certainly whether you have the stomach for it or not- if it gets to be too much take a break and come back to it, tis which I did.
Dr. Douglas Skopp's mission in this book is to portray what he calls an “ordinary” Nazi Dr, like the normal Joe Schmo not one of the higher ranking officials. He created Johann Brenner, and gave him a Jewish (non practicing) best friend Philipp Stein. A lot of the book focuses on the relationship between the two, growing up together and their mirrored lives as they were both Herr Doktors. Many other characters develop their stories as well but these two are the main focuses.
The Walking Shadows themselves in which the book is titled- reference Shakespeare's Macbeth, and these persons were mainly breathing and that was about it, they had lost all qualities of valued life and Phillipp's mentor Hoche refers to them as “a useless eater.” And suggests their lives are not worth living and they should do them the favor of ending their lives- or putting them out of their misery.
As much as Johann appreciates his wife Helga, he discredits her opinions to being those of a woman. A cultural feeling relevant to his time period.
Johann is conflicted with himself for awhile in whether or not to join the Party, he attends a meeting of top Nazi Doctors and the topic of Sterilization is brought up. Not of everyone- just those of mixed races seen to be “ruining” the strong Germans. This ideal is brought to Johann before he officially joins the party and becomes one of his first missions once he does, after his loyalty to the party is in question and he confirms he is joining and will be swearing his oath.
This book is not for the faint of heart, for it does describe the terrifying procedures the Nazi Doctors performed on both men and women in the sterilization processes.
Philipp compares the Nazis trying to eliminate the Jews as Germany as a body fighting within itself. As Germany gets closer to World War and the Jews are being forced to wear their yellow stars, and always produce their papers when out in public, then the Jewish Drs are deprived of their status to treat every day Germans and can only treat fellow Jews. Also Jews trying to get treatment from Party Drs are refused service and sent to Jewish hospitals.
Although the subject manner is difficult and depressing to read about, Skopp almost makes you sympathize for Johann- like he had no choice to join the party and then perform the procedures for the benefit of the Volk.
A part I definitely enjoyed was the beginning of each chapter referred to a letter Johann was writing to his wife Helga confessing everything he had done during the war. And the guilt on his conscious but his hope she would take him back, when she finds out he did not die. And we are left wondering at the end of Johann has indeed been caught and will be held responsible for what he had done, although he was working at the Court House where the trials of the Nazi Doktors were being held. He is almost free from it all then runs into American troops at the very end and we are left to wonder what happened to him. Philipp perished at one of the camps in which he was united and given special treatment by Johann. He felt he had nothing left to live for regardless after losing his wife Christine to a bomb.
Would I recommend this book? Most certainly whether you have the stomach for it or not- if it gets to be too much take a break and come back to it, tis which I did.
August 9, 2011
From the Author
"What leads men and women of good will to violate fundamental ethical principles? How do they justify their behavior? Are we all capable of such acts? And if so, how can we guard ourselves from making these choices? These are the questions at the heart of my endeavor. ... My novel describes [an "ordinary" Nazi doctor,] able, for a while, to justify his actions and believe he was still fulfilling his sworn responsibilities to "do no harm." It tells the story of his descent into this abyss. And it allows me to raise two questions: first, what, if anything, can a perpetrator do to redeem himself? and second, what should society do if it becomes aware of his deeds? I have tried to be as faithful and attentive to historical events as I can be. ... Everything [in Shadows Walking] either did happen or, I believe, could have happened. I want to evoke an historical reality--from the experiences Johann Brenner and Philipp Stein might have had in their childhood, to their involvement in the First World War and its chaotic aftermath during the fourteen years that "Germany tried democracy," to the impact of the Nazi regime on their lives and choices. These are crucial public events, affecting everyone who lived through them. The novel's more incidental facts, too--from the color of the American automobiles in Nuremberg in the immediate aftermath of World War II, to the improbable herd of goats in the streets of war-ravaged Berlin, to the slaughterhouse next to the train station in Freiburg--are drawn from my study of the sources, from reading other historical accounts, and from my personal experiences." -- from the author's "Afterword and Acknowledgments."
For more detailed information about the more than eighty historical persons, places, incidents and events, as well as guides to further reading on aspects of Germany in the first half of the 20th century, please visit the website that I have designed as an enhancement of my novel: go to the world wide web on your URL address bar and type shadowswalking.com
From the Back Cover
"...reveals the skein of forces that press on an ordinary life: professional ambitions; needs for esteem and belonging; the desire to emulate or obey those charismatic and self-certain figures who would shape us for their own ends; the anesthetizing affects of family crises; the self-serving construction of historical memory; and inattention to the best convictions of the good people who love us...powerful in the way it constructs this awareness and in the unexpected, haunting, and richly symbolic unfolding of its final moments." -- from the "Foreword" by E. Thomas Moran, Director, Institute for Ethics in Public Life, State University of New York at Plattsburgh
"This meticulously researched, brilliantly written novel about the descent into darkness of two friends, one a Nazi, the other a Jew--and both doctors in Hitler's Germany--will haunt readers of history and fiction alike." -- Margaret Lavinia Anderson, Professor of History, University of California / Berkeley
"Skopp's desire to fathom what can turn an ordinary man into a callous Nazi doctor leads him and the reader on a memorable trip through hell as we watch Johann Brenner's descent, step by plausible step." -- Ann Blaisdell Tracy, author of Winter Hunger, I am Ahab, Higher Ground, and What do Cowboys Like?
"A horrifying study of moral corruption." -- Nick Woodin, author of The Natural History of the Present
"What leads men and women of good will to violate fundamental ethical principles? How do they justify their behavior? Are we all capable of such acts? And if so, how can we guard ourselves from making these choices? These are the questions at the heart of my endeavor. ... My novel describes [an "ordinary" Nazi doctor,] able, for a while, to justify his actions and believe he was still fulfilling his sworn responsibilities to "do no harm." It tells the story of his descent into this abyss. And it allows me to raise two questions: first, what, if anything, can a perpetrator do to redeem himself? and second, what should society do if it becomes aware of his deeds? I have tried to be as faithful and attentive to historical events as I can be. ... Everything [in Shadows Walking] either did happen or, I believe, could have happened. I want to evoke an historical reality--from the experiences Johann Brenner and Philipp Stein might have had in their childhood, to their involvement in the First World War and its chaotic aftermath during the fourteen years that "Germany tried democracy," to the impact of the Nazi regime on their lives and choices. These are crucial public events, affecting everyone who lived through them. The novel's more incidental facts, too--from the color of the American automobiles in Nuremberg in the immediate aftermath of World War II, to the improbable herd of goats in the streets of war-ravaged Berlin, to the slaughterhouse next to the train station in Freiburg--are drawn from my study of the sources, from reading other historical accounts, and from my personal experiences." -- from the author's "Afterword and Acknowledgments."
For more detailed information about the more than eighty historical persons, places, incidents and events, as well as guides to further reading on aspects of Germany in the first half of the 20th century, please visit the website that I have designed as an enhancement of my novel: go to the world wide web on your URL address bar and type shadowswalking.com
From the Back Cover
"...reveals the skein of forces that press on an ordinary life: professional ambitions; needs for esteem and belonging; the desire to emulate or obey those charismatic and self-certain figures who would shape us for their own ends; the anesthetizing affects of family crises; the self-serving construction of historical memory; and inattention to the best convictions of the good people who love us...powerful in the way it constructs this awareness and in the unexpected, haunting, and richly symbolic unfolding of its final moments." -- from the "Foreword" by E. Thomas Moran, Director, Institute for Ethics in Public Life, State University of New York at Plattsburgh
"This meticulously researched, brilliantly written novel about the descent into darkness of two friends, one a Nazi, the other a Jew--and both doctors in Hitler's Germany--will haunt readers of history and fiction alike." -- Margaret Lavinia Anderson, Professor of History, University of California / Berkeley
"Skopp's desire to fathom what can turn an ordinary man into a callous Nazi doctor leads him and the reader on a memorable trip through hell as we watch Johann Brenner's descent, step by plausible step." -- Ann Blaisdell Tracy, author of Winter Hunger, I am Ahab, Higher Ground, and What do Cowboys Like?
"A horrifying study of moral corruption." -- Nick Woodin, author of The Natural History of the Present
December 16, 2011
Shadows Walking by Douglas Skopp is a fictional novel about a Nazi doctor battling his conscience after the war. While this novel was difficult to read, it was also difficult to put down.
Dr. Johann Brenner is an idealistic man and a German nationalist. Dr. Brenner has joined the Nazi party out of a sense of patriotism and believes their propaganda even though it clashes with his real world experiences.
After the war ended, Brenner has accidently taken on a new identity and becomes a janitor in the courthouse where the Nuremberg Trials are being heard. Trying to heal is conscious, Brenner writes a letter to his wife which set up each chapter of the book.
One of the phenomena which, to me, is fascinating is how people blindly follow others even though they know that the leaders are wrong, manipulative or even worst, that what they are doing is against their own upbringing.
How could people who consider themselves national socialists (Nazis) act to this way towards their own families and neighbors? How could a régime train hundreds and thousands of people to murder civilians, children, women and the elderly? What happened when one suddenly realizes that he or she is the "bad person" in the story of life?
This is one of the questions Douglas R. Skopp is trying to answer in his fascinating book Shadows Walking. In this book Skopp, who is a historian, uses Johann Brenner, a doctor from Bavaria, as the protagonist who questions himself over his role as a Nazi doctor in Auschwitz.
This is a bleak novel describing some of the medical atrocities which happened in concentration camps in vivid detail. The protagonist, Dr. Johann Brenner, agrees to participate in castration experiments on Jewish prisoners. How Dr. Brenner comes to terms with his heinous acts as well as being conflicted about the role that Jews played in the destruction of Germany (according to Nazi propaganda) weighed against his intimate knowledge of Jewish friends is one of the interesting angles of Shadows Walking.
Dr. Brenner is never a sympathetic character, a very brave choice for a protagonist and a dangerous gamble by the author which paid off. The protagonist is introduced as a Nazi doctor while the story examines how, from an honorable well meaning man he became a part of such harsh acts.
Mr. Skopp, a historian, also goes to length to describe how World War I laid the ground works, in social as well as economical aspects, to the rise of the Third Reich and World War II. I wouldn’t be surprised if in several hundred years historians will combine both world wars into one.
What really struck home, especially after the last 10 years or so is how the false sense of patriotism can play a major role in the way people react in a group. As everyone knows a crowd-mentality is dangerous and can cause good people to do bad thing and, as we saw inRwandafor example, government sanctioned atrocities can quickly spiral out of control when the populace takes their sense of patriotism to new heights.
For more reviews and bookish thoughts please visit: http://www.ManOfLaBook.com
Dr. Johann Brenner is an idealistic man and a German nationalist. Dr. Brenner has joined the Nazi party out of a sense of patriotism and believes their propaganda even though it clashes with his real world experiences.
After the war ended, Brenner has accidently taken on a new identity and becomes a janitor in the courthouse where the Nuremberg Trials are being heard. Trying to heal is conscious, Brenner writes a letter to his wife which set up each chapter of the book.
One of the phenomena which, to me, is fascinating is how people blindly follow others even though they know that the leaders are wrong, manipulative or even worst, that what they are doing is against their own upbringing.
How could people who consider themselves national socialists (Nazis) act to this way towards their own families and neighbors? How could a régime train hundreds and thousands of people to murder civilians, children, women and the elderly? What happened when one suddenly realizes that he or she is the "bad person" in the story of life?
This is one of the questions Douglas R. Skopp is trying to answer in his fascinating book Shadows Walking. In this book Skopp, who is a historian, uses Johann Brenner, a doctor from Bavaria, as the protagonist who questions himself over his role as a Nazi doctor in Auschwitz.
This is a bleak novel describing some of the medical atrocities which happened in concentration camps in vivid detail. The protagonist, Dr. Johann Brenner, agrees to participate in castration experiments on Jewish prisoners. How Dr. Brenner comes to terms with his heinous acts as well as being conflicted about the role that Jews played in the destruction of Germany (according to Nazi propaganda) weighed against his intimate knowledge of Jewish friends is one of the interesting angles of Shadows Walking.
Dr. Brenner is never a sympathetic character, a very brave choice for a protagonist and a dangerous gamble by the author which paid off. The protagonist is introduced as a Nazi doctor while the story examines how, from an honorable well meaning man he became a part of such harsh acts.
Mr. Skopp, a historian, also goes to length to describe how World War I laid the ground works, in social as well as economical aspects, to the rise of the Third Reich and World War II. I wouldn’t be surprised if in several hundred years historians will combine both world wars into one.
What really struck home, especially after the last 10 years or so is how the false sense of patriotism can play a major role in the way people react in a group. As everyone knows a crowd-mentality is dangerous and can cause good people to do bad thing and, as we saw inRwandafor example, government sanctioned atrocities can quickly spiral out of control when the populace takes their sense of patriotism to new heights.
For more reviews and bookish thoughts please visit: http://www.ManOfLaBook.com
August 21, 2014
This is a question that I have always pondered. I've even (unfairly) felt anger toward the Germans of today for the sins of the past. This is inherently wrong. Intellectually I know that. But because I couldn't understand, I couldn't place the blame or the understanding where it belongs.
This book, written by an esteemed historical scholar shows the two sides of the Nazi coin. One side is of a German doctor who truly loves his country and wants to help. The other is of a German-Jewish doctor whose optimism and stubbornness leads him to stay while others flee. These two doctors are childhood friends and both served in the Great War (WWI). The times and situations were complex. The people were ripe for change... any change. When Hitler came to power (anti-semitism aside - it was rife even without Hitler's pressure creating it more and more to devastating results) he help to bring around the economy of Germany. There were signs of prosperity were there was nothing but poverty before. I think that positive turn around turned him into the German "volks" savior. He was unstoppable after he shone the bright light of National Socialism and Political Pride on the desperate masses. Taste of the better life was what the Germans needed. The book investigates the thought processes of both doctors. The why and the how are contemplated and masterfully investigated by the authro. It has come closest to helping me understand the time and the reasons why the Holocaust was allowed to happen.
It makes me think really hard on who I would have been in those times. If I'm honest... .the answer is not that I would have resisted... the answer is I am really not sure who I would have been in that time because I wasn't there. I hope I'd resist and encourage others to do so. But the consequences of going against the Nazis would be difficult to contemplate at the same time. So, would I go along to get along, or would I stand up to what I would know was just wrong on a basic human level. I just don't know.
I didn't like the book in the beginning... it seemed a little juvenile... but by the end, the writing and story is truly good and thoughtful. I highly recommend this book for people interested in the WWII and Nazi genre. It is well worth finishing.
This book, written by an esteemed historical scholar shows the two sides of the Nazi coin. One side is of a German doctor who truly loves his country and wants to help. The other is of a German-Jewish doctor whose optimism and stubbornness leads him to stay while others flee. These two doctors are childhood friends and both served in the Great War (WWI). The times and situations were complex. The people were ripe for change... any change. When Hitler came to power (anti-semitism aside - it was rife even without Hitler's pressure creating it more and more to devastating results) he help to bring around the economy of Germany. There were signs of prosperity were there was nothing but poverty before. I think that positive turn around turned him into the German "volks" savior. He was unstoppable after he shone the bright light of National Socialism and Political Pride on the desperate masses. Taste of the better life was what the Germans needed. The book investigates the thought processes of both doctors. The why and the how are contemplated and masterfully investigated by the authro. It has come closest to helping me understand the time and the reasons why the Holocaust was allowed to happen.
It makes me think really hard on who I would have been in those times. If I'm honest... .the answer is not that I would have resisted... the answer is I am really not sure who I would have been in that time because I wasn't there. I hope I'd resist and encourage others to do so. But the consequences of going against the Nazis would be difficult to contemplate at the same time. So, would I go along to get along, or would I stand up to what I would know was just wrong on a basic human level. I just don't know.
I didn't like the book in the beginning... it seemed a little juvenile... but by the end, the writing and story is truly good and thoughtful. I highly recommend this book for people interested in the WWII and Nazi genre. It is well worth finishing.
November 10, 2011
The premise of this book is one that I haven't come across too often in historical fiction. Skopp looks at WWII from the point of view of a German doctor who becomes a Nazi and actually ends up working with the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele, the doctor who performed many despicable and heinous experiments on Jews and other groups of people that the Nazis deemed a threat to Germany.
Skopp doesn't seek to excuse Dr. Brenner's behavior but to understand his behavior and why he did what he did. Johann doesn't like what's happening to Germany. Money is worth nothing. There aren't really jobs. When a friend of his suggests he reads Hitler's Mein Kampf, he does so grudgingly but thinks that maybe Hitler is onto something. There's only one thing, his best friend, Phillipp, is Jewish. Brenner doesn't know what to believe. He's sucked into the Nazi movement though.
This book sucked me right in. The Holocaust is still something that I have a hard time thinking about. It's unbelievable that one group of people could kill other groups of people so systematically. This book goes into some detail of the type of experiments that Mengele performed. They are absolutely monstrous and it's hard to see how even if the Nazis hated Jews and the other singled out groups so much that they could perform such horrible experiments on other human beings! This book definitely tugged on my emotions a lot.
I was not very happy with the ending. We don't really get to find out what happens to Brenner. We can imagine but it would have been nice to find out for sure. The author's point could have been to only show Brenner's sadness over what he played a part in, I'm not sure. That being said, this is still a great read and one that I will remember for a long time.
Skopp doesn't seek to excuse Dr. Brenner's behavior but to understand his behavior and why he did what he did. Johann doesn't like what's happening to Germany. Money is worth nothing. There aren't really jobs. When a friend of his suggests he reads Hitler's Mein Kampf, he does so grudgingly but thinks that maybe Hitler is onto something. There's only one thing, his best friend, Phillipp, is Jewish. Brenner doesn't know what to believe. He's sucked into the Nazi movement though.
This book sucked me right in. The Holocaust is still something that I have a hard time thinking about. It's unbelievable that one group of people could kill other groups of people so systematically. This book goes into some detail of the type of experiments that Mengele performed. They are absolutely monstrous and it's hard to see how even if the Nazis hated Jews and the other singled out groups so much that they could perform such horrible experiments on other human beings! This book definitely tugged on my emotions a lot.
I was not very happy with the ending. We don't really get to find out what happens to Brenner. We can imagine but it would have been nice to find out for sure. The author's point could have been to only show Brenner's sadness over what he played a part in, I'm not sure. That being said, this is still a great read and one that I will remember for a long time.
August 10, 2012
I started Shadows Walking in 2012 and it was one of the first books I finished in 2013. But I needed time to digest it all.
Let me tell you right away that if you are interested in German history, in the Nazi era, and in what happened then, you need absolutely to read this novel. Fruit of 20 years of study and work, it is extremely rich and mulch-layered.
You can also easily read it as a warning to what can happen with a nice logical and good-looking system, especially when people’s minds are getting progressively led not to think (nowadays, thanks to easy entertainment and lack of culture); whatever the country and the century.
This story is set during the Nuremberg Trials. Johann is a janitor in the building. For fear of being finally recognized and arrested for what he did as a Nazi doctor, he can’t resolve to live in the open and go back home. His wife Helga, ignorant of her husband’s role and occupation during the war, does not understand his behavior; so he decides to....
full review:
http://wordsandpeace.com/2013/02/24/b...
Let me tell you right away that if you are interested in German history, in the Nazi era, and in what happened then, you need absolutely to read this novel. Fruit of 20 years of study and work, it is extremely rich and mulch-layered.
You can also easily read it as a warning to what can happen with a nice logical and good-looking system, especially when people’s minds are getting progressively led not to think (nowadays, thanks to easy entertainment and lack of culture); whatever the country and the century.
This story is set during the Nuremberg Trials. Johann is a janitor in the building. For fear of being finally recognized and arrested for what he did as a Nazi doctor, he can’t resolve to live in the open and go back home. His wife Helga, ignorant of her husband’s role and occupation during the war, does not understand his behavior; so he decides to....
full review:
http://wordsandpeace.com/2013/02/24/b...
October 2, 2011
As the story progressed, my respect for this author grew. Skopp takes us through the dark days of the Reich's evils and the choices that people must make. The final chapters are particularly masterful as they draw the threads together.
I shall not forget this book.
Further thoughts:
The story (set in the rise and fall of the Third Reich) is soaked in historical atmosphere. I felt as though I inhabited that time and it has left a mood on me that fades only slowly. I've since learned that the author writes from a background of years of research - but I felt that my education was conducted with a light but sure hand. Admirable.
I shall not forget this book.
Further thoughts:
The story (set in the rise and fall of the Third Reich) is soaked in historical atmosphere. I felt as though I inhabited that time and it has left a mood on me that fades only slowly. I've since learned that the author writes from a background of years of research - but I felt that my education was conducted with a light but sure hand. Admirable.
January 27, 2012
Shadows Walking address the issue of how people who perceive themselves as doing good can become entwined with evil. The main characters in Shadows Walking are two doctors, whose career choice is influenced by their respective traumas in WWI and whose paths diverge as they pass from student days into the Nazi era.
July 2, 2013
This well-written, well-researched book gives real insight to how political and social pressures can make ordinary people become involved in horrible events. Skopp masterfully takes us through the Reich's power and evil and the choices that people make. An unforgettable book.
July 19, 2015
World War II again. Not a long lost romance reconnected or any other "soft" story. This uncovers the unimaginable cruelty the Nazi doctors performed for the Third Reich. Not all doctors enjoyed performing these tasks. It took me a long time to finish this book. Very hard to read at times.
Want to Read
February 22, 2011Written by one of my favorite professors from college at SUNY Plattsburgh...can't wait to find a copy and read it!
September 30, 2011
Loved it. Story of two doctors and the paths their lives take during the rise and fall of Hiltler.
February 28, 2012
Overall, very good read. Hard to put down. We'll be discussing it at my bookgroup next month...
Read
January 8, 2020The book was very good, even though the topic was not.
It was written by a professor here at SUNY Plattsburgh.
It was written by a professor here at SUNY Plattsburgh.
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