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Alone in Berlin
Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear. At the house on 55 Jablonski Strasse, its various occupants try to live under Nazi rule in their different ways: the bullying Hitler loyalists the Persickes, the retired judge Fromm and the unassuming couple Otto and Anna Quangel. Then the Quangels receive the news that their beloved son has been killed fighting in France. Shocked out of their quiet existence, they begin a silent campaign of defiance, and a deadly game of cat and mouse develops between the Quangels and the ambitious Gestapo inspector Escherich. When petty criminals Kluge and Borkhausen also become involved, deception, betrayal and murder ensue, tightening the noose around the Quangels' necks ...
Afterword written by Geoff Wilkes. Includes scans of the original documents from the investigation, as well as explanatory footnotes.
612 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1947
About the author
Hans Fallada
246 books788 followersHans Fallada, born Rudolf Wilhelm Adolf Ditzen in Greifswald, was one of the most famous German writers of the 20th century. His novel, Little Man, What Now? is generally considered his most famous work and is a classic of German literature. Fallada's pseudonym derives from a combination of characters found in the Grimm fairy tales: The protagonist of Lucky Hans and a horse named Falada in The Goose Girl.
He was the child of a magistrate on his way to becoming a supreme court judge and a mother from a middle-class background, both of whom shared an enthusiasm for music and to a lesser extent, literature. Jenny Williams notes in her biography, More Lives than One that Fallada's father would often read aloud to his children the works authors including Shakespeare and Schiller (Williams, 5).
In 1899 when Fallada was 6, his father relocated the family to Berlin following the first of several promotions he would receive. Fallada had a very difficult time upon first entering school in 1901. As a result, he immersed himself in books, eschewing literature more in line with his age for authors including Flaubert, Dostoyevsky, and Dickens. In 1909 the family relocated to Leipzig following his father's appointment to the Imperial Supreme Court.
A rather severe road accident in 1909 (he was run over by a horse-drawn cart, then kicked in the face by the horse) and the contraction of typhoid in 1910 seem to mark a turning point in Fallada's life and the end of his relatively care-free youth. His adolescent years were characterized by increasing isolation and self-doubt, compounded by the lingering effects of these ailments. In addition, his life-long drug problems were born of the pain-killing medications he was taking as the result of his injuries. These issues manifested themselves in multiple suicide attempts. In 1911 he made a pact with his close friend, Hanns Dietrich, to stage a duel to mask their suicides, feeling that the duel would be seen as more honorable. Because of both boys' inexperience with weapons, it was a bungled affair. Dietrich missed Fallada, but Fallada did not miss Dietrich, killing him. Fallada was so distraught that he picked up Dietrich's gun and shot himself in the chest, but miraculously survived. Nonetheless, the death of his friend ensured his status as an outcast from society. Although he was found innocent of murder by way of insanity, from this point on he would serve multiple stints in mental institutions. At one of these institutions, he was assigned to work in a farmyard, thus beginning his lifelong affinity for farm culture.
While in a sanatorium, Fallada took to translation and poetry, albeit unsuccessfully, before finally breaking ground as a novelist in 1920 with the publication of his first book Young Goedeschal. During this period he also struggled with morphine addiction, and the death of his younger brother in the first World War.
In the wake of the war, Fallada worked several farmhand and other agricultural jobs in order to support himself and finance his growing drug addictions. Before the war, Fallada relied on his father for financial support while writing; after the German defeat he was no longer able, nor willing, to depend on his father's assistance. Shortly after the publication of Anton and Gerda, Fallada reported to prison in Greiswald to serve a 6-month sentence for stealing grain from his employer and selling it to support his drug habit. Less than 3 years later, in 1926, Fallada again found himself imprisoned as a result of a drug and alcohol-fueled string of thefts from employers. In February 1928 he finally emerged free of addiction.
Fallada married Suse Issel in 1929 and maintained a string of respectable jobs in journalism, working for newspapers and eventually for the publisher of his novels, Rowohlt. It is around this time that his novels became noticeably political and star
He was the child of a magistrate on his way to becoming a supreme court judge and a mother from a middle-class background, both of whom shared an enthusiasm for music and to a lesser extent, literature. Jenny Williams notes in her biography, More Lives than One that Fallada's father would often read aloud to his children the works authors including Shakespeare and Schiller (Williams, 5).
In 1899 when Fallada was 6, his father relocated the family to Berlin following the first of several promotions he would receive. Fallada had a very difficult time upon first entering school in 1901. As a result, he immersed himself in books, eschewing literature more in line with his age for authors including Flaubert, Dostoyevsky, and Dickens. In 1909 the family relocated to Leipzig following his father's appointment to the Imperial Supreme Court.
A rather severe road accident in 1909 (he was run over by a horse-drawn cart, then kicked in the face by the horse) and the contraction of typhoid in 1910 seem to mark a turning point in Fallada's life and the end of his relatively care-free youth. His adolescent years were characterized by increasing isolation and self-doubt, compounded by the lingering effects of these ailments. In addition, his life-long drug problems were born of the pain-killing medications he was taking as the result of his injuries. These issues manifested themselves in multiple suicide attempts. In 1911 he made a pact with his close friend, Hanns Dietrich, to stage a duel to mask their suicides, feeling that the duel would be seen as more honorable. Because of both boys' inexperience with weapons, it was a bungled affair. Dietrich missed Fallada, but Fallada did not miss Dietrich, killing him. Fallada was so distraught that he picked up Dietrich's gun and shot himself in the chest, but miraculously survived. Nonetheless, the death of his friend ensured his status as an outcast from society. Although he was found innocent of murder by way of insanity, from this point on he would serve multiple stints in mental institutions. At one of these institutions, he was assigned to work in a farmyard, thus beginning his lifelong affinity for farm culture.
While in a sanatorium, Fallada took to translation and poetry, albeit unsuccessfully, before finally breaking ground as a novelist in 1920 with the publication of his first book Young Goedeschal. During this period he also struggled with morphine addiction, and the death of his younger brother in the first World War.
In the wake of the war, Fallada worked several farmhand and other agricultural jobs in order to support himself and finance his growing drug addictions. Before the war, Fallada relied on his father for financial support while writing; after the German defeat he was no longer able, nor willing, to depend on his father's assistance. Shortly after the publication of Anton and Gerda, Fallada reported to prison in Greiswald to serve a 6-month sentence for stealing grain from his employer and selling it to support his drug habit. Less than 3 years later, in 1926, Fallada again found himself imprisoned as a result of a drug and alcohol-fueled string of thefts from employers. In February 1928 he finally emerged free of addiction.
Fallada married Suse Issel in 1929 and maintained a string of respectable jobs in journalism, working for newspapers and eventually for the publisher of his novels, Rowohlt. It is around this time that his novels became noticeably political and star
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 4,107 reviews
May 5, 2012
Loved this.
But first, some context:
Hans Fallada is the pen name of Rudolf Ditzen. At the age of 18, Ditzen and a friend went out in the countryside and, in the manner of duellists, fired guns at each other over some adolescent sexual rutting. The friend missed, but Ditzen's aim was true. Taking his friend's gun, Ditzen shot himself in the chest, but survived. For the first of many times, Ditzen was committed to a sanatorium for the mentally ill. Released, Ditzen turned to alcohol and narcotics. This didn't stop him from becoming a successful novelist. Perhaps it helped? His 1932 novel Little Man, What Now was a popular success and Hollywood turned it into a film. Hitler spurned him though, because of the Jewish producers of the film. His drinking and drug use increased, he became more unstable, and was committed to a Nazi insane asylum. There, he wrote the novel The Drinker, not published until 1950 (and now on my Mount TBR). The war ended; Ditzen was released from the asylum, but he was now a dying man. A friend gave him the file of a middle-aged couple who began leaving handwritten anti-Nazi notes after the wife's brother died in combat. IN 24 DAYS Ditzen wrote Every Man Dies Alone based on their story. 24 DAYS!
He died before it was published, a morphine overdose. It was not translated and published here until 2009.
You may turn your head, thinking this is just more Holocaust literature. But turn back because this is special. Otto and Anna Quangel are special. The basis of the story is admittedly small because the crime is small: writing anti-Nazi postcards and dropping them in random stairwells. Anna asks, "Isn't this thing that you're wanting to do, isn't is a bit small, Otto?" Otto tells her, "Whether it's big or small, Anna, if they get wind of it, it'll cost us our lives."
And so we are sold.
Anna and Otto are surrounded by many characters though. And that is the brilliance of the novel. Each character, however small, becomes important, definitional. Let me share just one: "the doctor", who is really a symphony conductor. He shares a cell with Otto. He is not exactly Otto's kind of guy. But the doctor grows on him. The doctor is forbidden to sing. So he hums. Outside, during their morning walk....
Quangel got used to listening to this humming. Whatever his poor opinion of music, he did notice its effect on him. Sometimes it made him feel strong and brave enough to endure any fate, and then Reichhardt would say, "Beethoven." Sometimes it made him bafflingly lighthearted and cheerful, which he had never been in his life, and then Reichhardt would say, "Mozart," and Quangel would forget all about his worries. And sometimes the sounds emanating from the doctor were dark and heavy, and Quangel would feel a pain in his chest, and it would be as though he was a little boy again sitting in church with his mother, with something grand--the whole of life--ahead of him, and then Reichhardt would say, "Johann Sebastien Bach."
What amazed me, and why I led off with the author's life story, is that this is not simply a genre of a book; it's not just a book about WWII or Nazis or an anti-Nazi movement. This is superb craftsmanship. Written in 1947, there is nothing dated about it. Perhaps that's the wonderful translation. (Although there are numerous ghastly typos, which I do not count against the author or translator). It feels timely, immediate.
By way of post-script, here are just two things I learned from this book:
First, a proverb: He who has butter on his head should not go out in the sun. True that.
And second, under the Racial Purity Laws, all Jewish women in Nazi Germany had to change their first names to "Sara" and all Jewish men had to change their names to "Israel".
But this is a book about simple people, like Philip Roth's Al Gionfriddo, "A little man, Doctor, who once did a very great thing."
But first, some context:
Hans Fallada is the pen name of Rudolf Ditzen. At the age of 18, Ditzen and a friend went out in the countryside and, in the manner of duellists, fired guns at each other over some adolescent sexual rutting. The friend missed, but Ditzen's aim was true. Taking his friend's gun, Ditzen shot himself in the chest, but survived. For the first of many times, Ditzen was committed to a sanatorium for the mentally ill. Released, Ditzen turned to alcohol and narcotics. This didn't stop him from becoming a successful novelist. Perhaps it helped? His 1932 novel Little Man, What Now was a popular success and Hollywood turned it into a film. Hitler spurned him though, because of the Jewish producers of the film. His drinking and drug use increased, he became more unstable, and was committed to a Nazi insane asylum. There, he wrote the novel The Drinker, not published until 1950 (and now on my Mount TBR). The war ended; Ditzen was released from the asylum, but he was now a dying man. A friend gave him the file of a middle-aged couple who began leaving handwritten anti-Nazi notes after the wife's brother died in combat. IN 24 DAYS Ditzen wrote Every Man Dies Alone based on their story. 24 DAYS!
He died before it was published, a morphine overdose. It was not translated and published here until 2009.
You may turn your head, thinking this is just more Holocaust literature. But turn back because this is special. Otto and Anna Quangel are special. The basis of the story is admittedly small because the crime is small: writing anti-Nazi postcards and dropping them in random stairwells. Anna asks, "Isn't this thing that you're wanting to do, isn't is a bit small, Otto?" Otto tells her, "Whether it's big or small, Anna, if they get wind of it, it'll cost us our lives."
And so we are sold.
Anna and Otto are surrounded by many characters though. And that is the brilliance of the novel. Each character, however small, becomes important, definitional. Let me share just one: "the doctor", who is really a symphony conductor. He shares a cell with Otto. He is not exactly Otto's kind of guy. But the doctor grows on him. The doctor is forbidden to sing. So he hums. Outside, during their morning walk....
Quangel got used to listening to this humming. Whatever his poor opinion of music, he did notice its effect on him. Sometimes it made him feel strong and brave enough to endure any fate, and then Reichhardt would say, "Beethoven." Sometimes it made him bafflingly lighthearted and cheerful, which he had never been in his life, and then Reichhardt would say, "Mozart," and Quangel would forget all about his worries. And sometimes the sounds emanating from the doctor were dark and heavy, and Quangel would feel a pain in his chest, and it would be as though he was a little boy again sitting in church with his mother, with something grand--the whole of life--ahead of him, and then Reichhardt would say, "Johann Sebastien Bach."
What amazed me, and why I led off with the author's life story, is that this is not simply a genre of a book; it's not just a book about WWII or Nazis or an anti-Nazi movement. This is superb craftsmanship. Written in 1947, there is nothing dated about it. Perhaps that's the wonderful translation. (Although there are numerous ghastly typos, which I do not count against the author or translator). It feels timely, immediate.
By way of post-script, here are just two things I learned from this book:
First, a proverb: He who has butter on his head should not go out in the sun. True that.
And second, under the Racial Purity Laws, all Jewish women in Nazi Germany had to change their first names to "Sara" and all Jewish men had to change their names to "Israel".
But this is a book about simple people, like Philip Roth's Al Gionfriddo, "A little man, Doctor, who once did a very great thing."
April 3, 2018
Who would have thought that the novel concerning middle-aged couple dropping postcards on stairwells of random buildings would be so thrilling. But make no mistake. They were not ordinary cards. They carried on their surface some home truths and it was reason enough to give your head to executioner. Alone in Berlin or Every man dies alone reads like first-rate thriller though it’s something more. It’s a record, a meticulous one, of awakening and refusal. Awakening of spirit and refusal to be part of murderous and inhuman system anymore. It had its roots in personal matters at first place but it quickly became something bigger.
There are so many things the story so strongly resonates with readers. It was written shortly after the war ended and has an air of something to be closest to depictured events and the fact it was based on police reports gives it even more authenticity. The other reason is Fallada’s style. Sometimes it feels very unsophisticated, unpolished even. Maybe it’s his own unique voice or perhaps the effect he wrote it in barely three weeks. And third reason and maybe the most important is the novel is based on true events and Fallada changed only some details.
Literary Anna and Otto Quangel are based on Elise and Otto Hampel’ case. The married couple through almost two years were delivering hand-wrote cards calling people to resistance against the Third Reich. After arresting they were tried for high treason and executed on April 1943. There are facts and the novel is fictionalized account of their life with some rather cosmetic changes.
It’s captivating and fascinating story and though I knew the outcome from the start I loved reading it. There was something touching in the way Anna and Otto, this seemingly cold and remote Otto, were discussing their deed and how they imagined their cards circulating among people, making its way through factories to open people’ eyes. One could say it’s naivety from their part to think such an action could bring collapse of Nazism. One could even shrug their shoulders on unimportance of their doings but in the long run consequences were deadly serious. Hans Fallada brilliantly evoked an atmosphere of growing horror and menace, constant terror, Gestapo agents and people turned into snoopers that for fear or money were spying their families and neighbours. He created unforgettable protagonists both these heroic and mean-spirited as well, and some of them in best Dickensian manner.
Anna and Otto Quangel are neither young nor rebellious and in the beginning even not very hostile to Nazi politics. Hardly heroic material, indeed. The moment Otto Quangel finds out how many from over two hundred postcards he wrote with his untrained hand really reached its readers is
truly heartbreaking. You may say their action brought only danger to them and people they cared for without much effect. You can't be more wrong. Even the smallest stone can turn the course of avalanche.
4.5/5
June 8, 2017
Θα μπορούσαμε να δημιουργούμε καλύτερους πολίτες, αν σε ένα εκπαιδευτικό σύστημα αντί για εξετάσεις είχαμε εργασίες με υποχρεωτική ανάγνωση τέτοιων συγκλονιστικών βιβλίων.
September 19, 2023
Hans Fallada has written an astonishing but ultimately tragic novel of German resistance to Nazism and the ever formidable Third Reich inferno, and I was stunned to learn it took something like 60 years for it's first English publication, and was penned in less than a month. Also Fallada could have escaped Germany; as a man whose books had been banned by the Nazis, and who had spent time in prison and psychiatric institutions as a result of a drug addiction, he should have got out. But if his inability to tear himself away from his homeland took a fearsome personal toll, it also enabled him to convey with chilling precision the texture of life under fascism, the way that fear enters into every transaction and poisons every relationship. Alone in Berlin is a testament to the darkest days the 20th century had to offer, from beginning to end the book in drenched in fear, it grips hold, tight, and makes it perfectly clear, this is how it was, this was actually happening. But for a husband and wife living through WW2 in Berlin they refuse to be intimidated by a despicable regime, and after losing their son in battle, set out discreetly to make their own personal feelings well known to a greater audience, whilst creating wrath within the Gestapo.
Otto and Anna Quangel are a hard working couple, laborious, unsociable, thrifty to the point of stinginess, and originally not hostile to the National Socialists. existing in a cold, shabby and colourless city. That changes when their beloved son, Ottochen, is killed while fighting in France. Otto, a foreman in a furniture factory that soon will be turned over to making coffins, is provoked into resistance. He spends his Sundays writing anonymous postcards attacking Hitler, before dropping them in the stairwells of city buildings. "Mother Don't give to the Winter Relief Fund! - Work as slowly as you can! - Put sand in the machines! - Every stroke of work not done will shorten the war!". This silent mission of defiance will lead a furious SS To put inspector Escherich on the case, with the added pressure of getting immediate results. Unfortunately for him It doesn't happen, always turning up a blind ally, with no traces leading to the suspect known as 'Hobgoblin'. The postcard campaign would march on and on, Otto would grow in both strength and confidence, before a spot of bad luck sends the walls crashing down around them. Finally witnessing the brutal penal code of Nazi Germany.
But the Quangels only make up part of the story, the novel reaches out far deeper than just it's main theme. There are traces of unruly life scattered everywhere. Brawling, delirium tremens, clinics and drying-out establishments, country idylls, thieves, whores, blackmail, drugs, Nazi veterans in a haze of drink, struggling ordinary folk trying to put food on the table. Vivid is the world of sub-proletarian swindling that exploits and is exploited by the Nazis. It is remarkable that Fallada, just months before his death, could compose a long novel that, after an overcrowded beginning, advances so confidently to its conclusion. The Quangels neighbours all have considerable time spent on them during the first third, helping to paint a picture of just what life was like under such evil rule. In fact there are huge chunks of the novel where Anna and Otto disappear completely, switching attention to the inner workings of the Gestapo and the fearful people who happen to have a run-ins with them. Many would by chance find one of the postcards, and be immediately struck with foreboding and dread for handling them.
I have not always taken to huge expansive novels in the past, Alone in Berlin has put my faith back in them. It was superbly written (translation by Michael Hofmann, top marks) never boring, seemed to fly by in a flash, and deserves all the praise it can get. The fact it was also exhaustingly draining on my soul, harrowing and intensely sad, doesn't stop it being up there with the best I have ever read. Even with the chaos of war around, standing face to face with the horror show of fascist Nazism, for some at least, courage and integrity can still exist, and never be broken. Through all the darkness that proceeds it, the novel still manages to end with a flickering light of hope. And Christ, does it ever need it.
April 11, 2023
A great novel about the resistance by an ordinary, working class, and barely literate couple against Nazism, that's basically the fictionalised true story of Otto and Elise Hampel, whose incredible story should be as known as the White Rose movement's since they were doing practically the same thing: subversive distribution of anti-Nazi leaflets. Or cards, in the case of the Quangels, as the Hampels are called here.
I was a bit uncomfortable with the classist undertone you can detect if you pay enough attention, because Otto and Anna Quangel, like Otto and Elise Hampel, are poor, have a modest job in a manual trade (carpentry), and didn't get a refined education, which is the reason the anti-Nazi cards they distributed aren't as wordy or rousing or philosophical as the Scholls' leaflets, who were from a higher class and very intellectual. The Hampels' cards even had spelling errors! But is that enough to sneer at them and look down one's nose at them? I don't think so. If all the difference between them and the White Rose is the presence of pretty words instead of moral equivalency of their actions, then there's a serious need to reconsider one's assessment of right and wrong. I'm glad that Hans Fallada got over his initial prejudice and decided to honour the Hampels for their courage, but still, the discomfort of this classism left a sour aftertaste for me, though not enough to hinder my enjoyment of this novel. Very recommended!
I was a bit uncomfortable with the classist undertone you can detect if you pay enough attention, because Otto and Anna Quangel, like Otto and Elise Hampel, are poor, have a modest job in a manual trade (carpentry), and didn't get a refined education, which is the reason the anti-Nazi cards they distributed aren't as wordy or rousing or philosophical as the Scholls' leaflets, who were from a higher class and very intellectual. The Hampels' cards even had spelling errors! But is that enough to sneer at them and look down one's nose at them? I don't think so. If all the difference between them and the White Rose is the presence of pretty words instead of moral equivalency of their actions, then there's a serious need to reconsider one's assessment of right and wrong. I'm glad that Hans Fallada got over his initial prejudice and decided to honour the Hampels for their courage, but still, the discomfort of this classism left a sour aftertaste for me, though not enough to hinder my enjoyment of this novel. Very recommended!
November 5, 2016
«Μητέρα, ο Φύρερ σκότωσε τον γιο μου…»
Βερολίνο 1940. Αρχές του Β´παγκοσμίου πολέμου. Το χιτλερικό καθεστώς στο απώτερο μεγαλείο του. Η ναζιστική αθλιότητα και η τρομοκρατία του Γ´ράιχ παραλύουν και ματώνουν την ανθρωπότητα.
Εστιάζουμε στους Γερμανούς πολίτες την εποχή εκείνη.
Συγκεκριμένα σε μια πολυκατοικία και τους ενοίκους της σε μια λαϊκή γειτονιά του Βερολίνου. Οι ένοικοι αντιπροσωπεύουν όλες τις πολιτικές και κοινωνικές τάσεις.
Ο συνταξιούχος,αδέκαστος δικαστής Φρόμ, με γνώμονα των πράξεων του την αφέντρα του,τη δικαιοσύνη.
Ο χαμερπής και δειλός χαφιές Μπορκχάουζεν με πολλά παιδιά αμφιλεγόμενης πατρότητας και γυναίκα πόρνη. Δεν ενδιαφέρεται για τίποτε άλλο πέρα απο το το τομάρι του και το κέρδος.
Παρέα του ένας θλιβερός απατεώνας εθισμένος στο τζόγο και τις καταχρήσεις που έχει ξεχάσει παιδιά και γυναίκα προσπαθώντας να επιβιώσει με κάθε παρασιτικό τρόπο και να γλιτώσει τη στράτευση.
Αυτοί οι δυο προσπαθούν να ληστέψουν την ηλικιωμένη Εβραία κυρία Ρόζενταλ η οποία προπολεμικά είχε μια επικερδή επιχείρηση με το σύζυγο της.
Τώρα ο σύζυγος είναι εξαφανισμένος σε στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης και η ίδια τρομοκρατημένη.
Στην ίδια πολυκατοικία συναντάμε τους Περζίκε. Μια φιλοναζιστική,φασιστική οικογένεια με πολλές διασυνδέσεις στη Γκεστάπο και το εθνικοσοσιαλιστικό κίνημα του Χίτλερ.
Και φυσικά οι πρωταγωνιστές της ιστορίας μας. Το ζευγάρι των ηλικιωμένων Κβάνγκελ. Ο Ότο και η Άννα. Χάνουν το μοναχοπαίδι τους στον πόλεμο και αποφασίζουν να αγωνιστούν κατά του ναζιστικού κράτους.
Ήταν φιλήσυχοι και έντιμοι άνθρωποι. Θα μπορούσαμε να πούμε ουδέτεροι,εσωστρεφείς και ακοινώνητοι.
Η μεταστροφή τους σε γενναίους αγωνιστές με πάθος και τόλμη είναι συγκλονιστική.
Η αλόγιστη προσπάθεια αντίστασης του ζευγαριού είναι εξ αρχής απέλπιδη και καταδικασμένη.
Γράφουν κάρτες κατά του πολέμου και του Χίτλερ και τις αφήνουν σε κεντρικά σημεία και κτίρια με πολύ κόσμο.
Όμως οι άνθρωποι είναι ανέτιμοι για αντίσταση και τρομοκρατημένοι. Οι περισσότεροι τρέμουν και αδιαφορούν για τις εκατόμβες νεκρών σε όλο τον κόσμο σιωπώντας και θαυμάζοντας με δέος τον παρανοϊκό μακελάρη που τους εξουσιάζει.
Άλλοι γίνονται καταδότες και συνεργάτες των ναζιστών. Άλλοι υποδουλώνονται απο τρόμο, άλλοι εθελοντικά. Οι μισοί παρακολουθούν τους άλλους μισούς για να τους ενοχοποιήσουν. Και όλοι φοβούνται όλους.
Είναι ένας εφιάλτης που βιώνουν οικογένειες,γειτονιές,κοινωνίες,πόλεις,έθνη.
Επομένως ο τρόπος αντίστασης των Κβάνγκελ μόνο πανικό σπέρνει. Μετά απο δυο χρόνια απαράμιλλης αντίστασης και ασταμάτητου αγώνα το ζευγάρι έχει διανείμει εκατοντάδες κάρτες και γράμματα. Τα περισσότερα όμως έχουν καταλήξει στα γραφεία της Γκεστάπο
Ελάχιστα δεν παραδόθηκαν στις αρχές,όμως δεν μάθαμε ποτέ αν άγγιξαν την ψυχή και το μυαλό κάποιων.
Βέβαια, η Γκεστάπο, τα Ες Ες, και Ες Α,ως μηχανισμοί αναστολής αναστατώνονται απο αυτές τις «κάρτες» και παλεύουν να συλλάβουν τους προδότες του αισχρού τους καθεστώτος.
Όσο αποτυγχάνουν τόσο γελοιοποιούνται και ταπεινώνονται.
Αρχίζουν πόλεμο ιεραρχικών και εξουσιαστικών δομών προσπαθώντας με ατέλειωτες ανακρίσεις, υποθετικές δολοπλοκίες, φυλακίσεις θεωρητικά ενόχων και εγκλήματα να ανακαλύψουν τον «Φαντομά» που γράφει κάρτες.
Μέσα απο αυτή την αγωνιώδη για τον αναγνώστη καταδίωξη με όλες τις σκέψεις, τις πράξεις, τις αποφάσεις βήμα-βήμα και τις προσπάθειες των διωκτών, εχουμε και το δικό τους σκιαγράφημα -ιδιαίτερα επιτυχές και εύστοχο- αλλά και την κορύφωση της λαχτάρας του αναγνώστη να γλιτώσουν οι δικοί μας αντί-ήρωες-αγωνιστές απο το παραστράτημα και τον έσχατο κίνδυνο του λάθους και της σύλληψης.
«.. λίγο ή πολύ, κανείς δεν μπορεί να ρισκάρει τίποτα περισσότερο από την ίδια του τη ζωή. Κάθε άνθρωπος είχε διαφορετικές ικανότητες και διαφορετικό χαρακτήρα- το σημαντικό είναι να αντιστέκεσαι»
Το συγκλονιστικότερο μέρος της αφήγησης είναι μετά τη σύλληψη τους η παραμονή και η μετάλλαξη και ωρίμανση τους μέσα στη φυλακή.
Τόσο ο Ότο όσο και η Άννα μέσα στα κελιά και την απομόνωση μεταλλάσσονται. Απελευθερώνονται. Προσδοκούν ό,τι δεν έκαναν σε όλη τους τη ζωή. Φιλοσοφούν. Ελπίζουν. Αντιστέκονται. Ονειρεύονται. Συνειδητοποιούν.
Απλό,λιτό και αριστουργηματικό ανάγνωσμα. Χωρίς τραγικούς μελοδραματισμούς. Χωρίς δακρύβρεχτες και αιματοβαμμένες περιγραφές. Χωρίς πομπώδεις σκιαγραφήσεις ηρώων και αγωνιστών. Χωρίς πολλά χελιδόνια, μόνο με μια Άνοιξη.
«Μητέρα, ο Φύρερ σκότωσε τον γιο μου…»
Η πρώτη κάρτα των Κβάνγκελ ενάντια στο χιτλερικό καθεστώς.
Καλή ανάγνωση.
Αγωνιστικούς ασπασμούς.
Βερολίνο 1940. Αρχές του Β´παγκοσμίου πολέμου. Το χιτλερικό καθεστώς στο απώτερο μεγαλείο του. Η ναζιστική αθλιότητα και η τρομοκρατία του Γ´ράιχ παραλύουν και ματώνουν την ανθρωπότητα.
Εστιάζουμε στους Γερμανούς πολίτες την εποχή εκείνη.
Συγκεκριμένα σε μια πολυκατοικία και τους ενοίκους της σε μια λαϊκή γειτονιά του Βερολίνου. Οι ένοικοι αντιπροσωπεύουν όλες τις πολιτικές και κοινωνικές τάσεις.
Ο συνταξιούχος,αδέκαστος δικαστής Φρόμ, με γνώμονα των πράξεων του την αφέντρα του,τη δικαιοσύνη.
Ο χαμερπής και δειλός χαφιές Μπορκχάουζεν με πολλά παιδιά αμφιλεγόμενης πατρότητας και γυναίκα πόρνη. Δεν ενδιαφέρεται για τίποτε άλλο πέρα απο το το τομάρι του και το κέρδος.
Παρέα του ένας θλιβερός απατεώνας εθισμένος στο τζόγο και τις καταχρήσεις που έχει ξεχάσει παιδιά και γυναίκα προσπαθώντας να επιβιώσει με κάθε παρασιτικό τρόπο και να γλιτώσει τη στράτευση.
Αυτοί οι δυο προσπαθούν να ληστέψουν την ηλικιωμένη Εβραία κυρία Ρόζενταλ η οποία προπολεμικά είχε μια επικερδή επιχείρηση με το σύζυγο της.
Τώρα ο σύζυγος είναι εξαφανισμένος σε στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης και η ίδια τρομοκρατημένη.
Στην ίδια πολυκατοικία συναντάμε τους Περζίκε. Μια φιλοναζιστική,φασιστική οικογένεια με πολλές διασυνδέσεις στη Γκεστάπο και το εθνικοσοσιαλιστικό κίνημα του Χίτλερ.
Και φυσικά οι πρωταγωνιστές της ιστορίας μας. Το ζευγάρι των ηλικιωμένων Κβάνγκελ. Ο Ότο και η Άννα. Χάνουν το μοναχοπαίδι τους στον πόλεμο και αποφασίζουν να αγωνιστούν κατά του ναζιστικού κράτους.
Ήταν φιλήσυχοι και έντιμοι άνθρωποι. Θα μπορούσαμε να πούμε ουδέτεροι,εσωστρεφείς και ακοινώνητοι.
Η μεταστροφή τους σε γενναίους αγωνιστές με πάθος και τόλμη είναι συγκλονιστική.
Η αλόγιστη προσπάθεια αντίστασης του ζευγαριού είναι εξ αρχής απέλπιδη και καταδικασμένη.
Γράφουν κάρτες κατά του πολέμου και του Χίτλερ και τις αφήνουν σε κεντρικά σημεία και κτίρια με πολύ κόσμο.
Όμως οι άνθρωποι είναι ανέτιμοι για αντίσταση και τρομοκρατημένοι. Οι περισσότεροι τρέμουν και αδιαφορούν για τις εκατόμβες νεκρών σε όλο τον κόσμο σιωπώντας και θαυμάζοντας με δέος τον παρανοϊκό μακελάρη που τους εξουσιάζει.
Άλλοι γίνονται καταδότες και συνεργάτες των ναζιστών. Άλλοι υποδουλώνονται απο τρόμο, άλλοι εθελοντικά. Οι μισοί παρακολουθούν τους άλλους μισούς για να τους ενοχοποιήσουν. Και όλοι φοβούνται όλους.
Είναι ένας εφιάλτης που βιώνουν οικογένειες,γειτονιές,κοινωνίες,πόλεις,έθνη.
Επομένως ο τρόπος αντίστασης των Κβάνγκελ μόνο πανικό σπέρνει. Μετά απο δυο χρόνια απαράμιλλης αντίστασης και ασταμάτητου αγώνα το ζευγάρι έχει διανείμει εκατοντάδες κάρτες και γράμματα. Τα περισσότερα όμως έχουν καταλήξει στα γραφεία της Γκεστάπο
Ελάχιστα δεν παραδόθηκαν στις αρχές,όμως δεν μάθαμε ποτέ αν άγγιξαν την ψυχή και το μυαλό κάποιων.
Βέβαια, η Γκεστάπο, τα Ες Ες, και Ες Α,ως μηχανισμοί αναστολής αναστατώνονται απο αυτές τις «κάρτες» και παλεύουν να συλλάβουν τους προδότες του αισχρού τους καθεστώτος.
Όσο αποτυγχάνουν τόσο γελοιοποιούνται και ταπεινώνονται.
Αρχίζουν πόλεμο ιεραρχικών και εξουσιαστικών δομών προσπαθώντας με ατέλειωτες ανακρίσεις, υποθετικές δολοπλοκίες, φυλακίσεις θεωρητικά ενόχων και εγκλήματα να ανακαλύψουν τον «Φαντομά» που γράφει κάρτες.
Μέσα απο αυτή την αγωνιώδη για τον αναγνώστη καταδίωξη με όλες τις σκέψεις, τις πράξεις, τις αποφάσεις βήμα-βήμα και τις προσπάθειες των διωκτών, εχουμε και το δικό τους σκιαγράφημα -ιδιαίτερα επιτυχές και εύστοχο- αλλά και την κορύφωση της λαχτάρας του αναγνώστη να γλιτώσουν οι δικοί μας αντί-ήρωες-αγωνιστές απο το παραστράτημα και τον έσχατο κίνδυνο του λάθους και της σύλληψης.
«.. λίγο ή πολύ, κανείς δεν μπορεί να ρισκάρει τίποτα περισσότερο από την ίδια του τη ζωή. Κάθε άνθρωπος είχε διαφορετικές ικανότητες και διαφορετικό χαρακτήρα- το σημαντικό είναι να αντιστέκεσαι»
Το συγκλονιστικότερο μέρος της αφήγησης είναι μετά τη σύλληψη τους η παραμονή και η μετάλλαξη και ωρίμανση τους μέσα στη φυλακή.
Τόσο ο Ότο όσο και η Άννα μέσα στα κελιά και την απομόνωση μεταλλάσσονται. Απελευθερώνονται. Προσδοκούν ό,τι δεν έκαναν σε όλη τους τη ζωή. Φιλοσοφούν. Ελπίζουν. Αντιστέκονται. Ονειρεύονται. Συνειδητοποιούν.
Απλό,λιτό και αριστουργηματικό ανάγνωσμα. Χωρίς τραγικούς μελοδραματισμούς. Χωρίς δακρύβρεχτες και αιματοβαμμένες περιγραφές. Χωρίς πομπώδεις σκιαγραφήσεις ηρώων και αγωνιστών. Χωρίς πολλά χελιδόνια, μόνο με μια Άνοιξη.
«Μητέρα, ο Φύρερ σκότωσε τον γιο μου…»
Η πρώτη κάρτα των Κβάνγκελ ενάντια στο χιτλερικό καθεστώς.
Καλή ανάγνωση.
Αγωνιστικούς ασπασμούς.
March 7, 2016
"Then he picked up the pen and said softly, but clearly, "The first sentence of our first card will read: Mother! The Führer has murdered my son."....At that instant she grasped that this very first sentence was Otto's absolute and irrevocable declaration of war, and also what that meant: war between, on the one side, the two of them, poor, small, insignificant workers who could be extinguished for just a word or two, and on the other, the Führer, the Party, the whole apparatus in all its power and glory, with three-fourths or even four-fifths of the German people behind it. And the two of them in this little room in Jablonski Strasse.”
First and foremost this is an absolutely captivating novel. As exciting in its choreography of brilliantly sustained dramatic tension as the best thriller. What it lacks in artistry is made up for by its streamlined vitality and the pulsing urgency of its narrative. There’s something Dickensian about this energy, just as there’s something Dickensian about its characters, all of whom are exaggerated, even caricatured but who nevertheless are always large and vivid with humanity. The Nazis too are powerfully caricatured. At one point a Nazi character says, “I don’t care about emotions. I’d rather have a proper ham sandwich than all the emotion in the world.” This statement is very much in keeping with Nazi priorities within the parameters of the novel where not only the banality of evil is brilliantly dramatised but also the banality of good.
Alone in Berlin is based on a true story. Otto and Anna Quangel in the novel are based on Otto and Elise Hampel who, to begin with, are not by any means hostile to the National Socialists. This changes when Elise’s brother is killed early in the war. The Hampels now begin leaving hundreds of postcards all over Berlin calling for civil disobedience. In the novel it is the death of Otto and Anna’s son that sparks the change of stance towards the Nazis. Otto, a foreman in a furniture factory that soon will be turned over to making coffins, is provoked into resistance. He spends his Sundays writing anonymous postcards against the regime and dropping them in the stairwells of city buildings. "Mother Don't give to the Winter Relief Fund! - Work as slowly as you can! - Put sand in the machines! - Every stroke of work not done will shorten the war!"
The overriding and unanswerable question about the Nazis remains how did it happen? How did an entire nation allow themselves to be swept up in a tsunami of racial hatred and vengeance? We’re usually told there was nothing one individual could do to oppose this orchestrated regime of terror. The brilliant achievement of this novel is to show how two simple working class people did oppose the Nazis, but, from every practical point of view, in an utterly futile manner. The postcards they wrote – lacking any intellectual sophistication and often containing grammatical errors and misspellings - were almost all immediately handed in to the Gestapo. They terrified anyone who had the bad luck to stumble across one of them. They did no political or military damage whatsoever. This husband and wife were risking their lives for, what in practical terms, was an utterly futile commitment to a series of all but useless gestures. Anna herself questions the “smallness” of the gesture but Otto points out that, if caught, they will pay with their lives and no one can sacrifice more than her own life. Fallada’s great triumph is to show us that their actions, in the sphere of ethics, were far from futile. They acted in accordance with conscience, to preserve their moral integrity even though they knew that to preserve their self-respect would mean losing their lives. Otto’s moment of triumph comes at his (sham) trial when he stands up to the infamous real life Nazi judge most famously portrayed in the film Sophie Scholl. Although Otto doesn’t believe in God what he does is as much a religious as a political act. He is acting as though his every gesture is being monitored by a moral overseer.
February 28, 2021
The author Hans Fallada, with native name Rudolf Wilhelm Friedrich Ditzen, is born on July 21st 1893 in Greifswald and he died on Feb 5th 1947 in Berlin. Hans Fallada manages with his book “Every Man Dies Alone” a great story during the time of the Nazi regime. The novel deals with the authentic case of the couple Otto and Elise Hampel, who were fated to die and to be executed for “disintegration of the military force” and “preparation for high treason”. The current events in this story are well researched and it is indeed based on true events of the Quangel family, whose Gestapo file is the basis for this novel. This book is consequently touching and very atmospheric written and impresses me with its moving story. And considering that Fallada wrote the story only two years after the end of the gruesome chapter of German history, you can read the story even more astonishing. With that analytic mind of the writer, his distance and the emotional depth at the same time, he dissected the society. Consequently this book is an absolutely timeless masterpiece for me.
April 13, 2021
This striking heart-wrenching novel blended well with my mood of summertime melancholy. The story is based on real-life events, written inspired by a Gestapo file describing acts of resistance of a laboring old German couple, on the grater scale two insignificant individuals, without exceptional skills, intelligence, ideals - by writing postcards that were dispatched throughout Berlin. Their efforts were sadly futile since most of the postcards ended in hands of the Gestapo or were quickly destroyed due to the fear they installed. They were not great heroes, idealistic or extraordinary in any manner, just ordinary working-class people personally affected by Hilter's policy - their only son died during the invasion of France. After the tragic event on the outside they don't change - but on the inside, they are at war with nazism. Their change shows that resistance is not always immediate, as their tragedy facilitates rebellion. It is easy to feel resignation or even devotion even to the vile regime as long it doesn't affect you personally. The death of the son sparks a doubt in Quangle's heart that is ever-growing - and in time they become the figures of remarkable courage.
“Then he picked up the pen and said softly, but clearly, "The first sentence of our first card will read: Mother! The Führer has murdered my son."....At that instant she grasped that this very first sentence was Otto's absolute and irrevocable declaration of war, and also what that meant: war between, on the one side, the two of them, poor, small, insignificant workers who could be extinguished for just a word or two, and on the other, the Führer, the Party, the whole apparatus in all its power and glory, with three-fourths or even four-fifths of the German people behind it. And the two of them in this little room in Jablonski Strasse.”
The psychological change of characters during the fight, and later arrest and execution is both heart-breaking and astonishing to watch. The atmosphere of the book reminded me of 1984, it has a dystopian feel while at the same time is even more frightening due to the fact it is not a dystopia, but history. Every time I read about Third Reich I'm almost in the state of disbelief that horror of that magnitude existed on this earth. This book shows the suffering of Germans under nazism and their substantial and heroic resistance. The dreadful destiny of participants in resistance seems even more tragic because their efforts were unsuccessful, in the sense that the regime was brought down by foreign armies, not internal rebellion. Does that make all their effort completely futile and absurd? Did the life they sacrificed meant nothing? This kind of discussion of futility and absurdity of human effort to stand up against evil and suffering reminded me of the Plague, even though the plague is the uncontrollable force of death generated in the external world, but nazism is a controllable force that originated in the internal realm of human destructiveness, which makes it even more frightening and unjust. Both of these questions are the central points of the novel - substantially all subversive material produced by Quangels was handed to Nazi authorities. That brings even greater burden and suffering onto them - they exposed themselves and their loved ones to torture and execution, and for what? One could say their actions had no utility at all. In the eyes of the world, they lost their life only to lose the battle they could never win to begin with. What are two old people in contrast to the reigning all-powerful machinery of nazism? Even though their victory was not historical, the author shows their ethical and metaphysical victory over the surrounding evil. The ethical victory is due to the fact they made a decision to fight and preserved their standpoint even in the face of great suffering. The metaphysical victory is due to the fact they found their meaning in acts that can seem meaningless to the outside world, but nevertheless reflected the conscience of the nation. The victory is personalized in the doctor, with whom Otto is in the cell awaiting trial for death punishment. Even though Otto is not religious not he has any great satisfaction in art and the subtle joy of life, an encounter with the doctor brings him a completely new perspective on a life full of ecstasy of spirit. The conversation between Otto and the doctor was my favorite part of the book.
“Well, it will have helped us to feel that we behaved decently where, who will be saved for the righteous few among them, as where, who will be saved for the righteous few among them, as it says in the Bible. Of course, Quangel, it would have been a hundred times better if we'd had someone who could have told us, such and such is what you have to do; our plan is this and this. But if there had been such a man in Germany, then Hitler would never have come to power in 1933. As it was, we all acted alone, we were caught alone, and every one of us will have to die alone. But that doesn't mean that we are alone, Quangel, or that our deaths will be in vain. Nothing in this world is done in vain, and since we are fighting for justice against brutality, we are bound to prevail in the end.”
The unbreakable spirit of Otto Quangel in the horror of Gestapo prison is most striking, and in itself hope inducing. Reading about the courage and internal liberation of the characters while they were physically imprisoned can have a transformative effect on the reader. Doing the right thing in life is often the synonym for doing the harder thing but having integrity in times when goodness is lost, means living your life as an act of rebellion. There are realms of human freedom and locus of control and personal power that cannot be destroyed, not by tyranny, not by oppression, not by torture, not even by death.
“Would you rather live for unjust cause than die for a just one? There is no choice-not for you, nor for me either. It's because we are as we are that we have to go this way.”
“Then he picked up the pen and said softly, but clearly, "The first sentence of our first card will read: Mother! The Führer has murdered my son."....At that instant she grasped that this very first sentence was Otto's absolute and irrevocable declaration of war, and also what that meant: war between, on the one side, the two of them, poor, small, insignificant workers who could be extinguished for just a word or two, and on the other, the Führer, the Party, the whole apparatus in all its power and glory, with three-fourths or even four-fifths of the German people behind it. And the two of them in this little room in Jablonski Strasse.”
The psychological change of characters during the fight, and later arrest and execution is both heart-breaking and astonishing to watch. The atmosphere of the book reminded me of 1984, it has a dystopian feel while at the same time is even more frightening due to the fact it is not a dystopia, but history. Every time I read about Third Reich I'm almost in the state of disbelief that horror of that magnitude existed on this earth. This book shows the suffering of Germans under nazism and their substantial and heroic resistance. The dreadful destiny of participants in resistance seems even more tragic because their efforts were unsuccessful, in the sense that the regime was brought down by foreign armies, not internal rebellion. Does that make all their effort completely futile and absurd? Did the life they sacrificed meant nothing? This kind of discussion of futility and absurdity of human effort to stand up against evil and suffering reminded me of the Plague, even though the plague is the uncontrollable force of death generated in the external world, but nazism is a controllable force that originated in the internal realm of human destructiveness, which makes it even more frightening and unjust. Both of these questions are the central points of the novel - substantially all subversive material produced by Quangels was handed to Nazi authorities. That brings even greater burden and suffering onto them - they exposed themselves and their loved ones to torture and execution, and for what? One could say their actions had no utility at all. In the eyes of the world, they lost their life only to lose the battle they could never win to begin with. What are two old people in contrast to the reigning all-powerful machinery of nazism? Even though their victory was not historical, the author shows their ethical and metaphysical victory over the surrounding evil. The ethical victory is due to the fact they made a decision to fight and preserved their standpoint even in the face of great suffering. The metaphysical victory is due to the fact they found their meaning in acts that can seem meaningless to the outside world, but nevertheless reflected the conscience of the nation. The victory is personalized in the doctor, with whom Otto is in the cell awaiting trial for death punishment. Even though Otto is not religious not he has any great satisfaction in art and the subtle joy of life, an encounter with the doctor brings him a completely new perspective on a life full of ecstasy of spirit. The conversation between Otto and the doctor was my favorite part of the book.
“Well, it will have helped us to feel that we behaved decently where, who will be saved for the righteous few among them, as where, who will be saved for the righteous few among them, as it says in the Bible. Of course, Quangel, it would have been a hundred times better if we'd had someone who could have told us, such and such is what you have to do; our plan is this and this. But if there had been such a man in Germany, then Hitler would never have come to power in 1933. As it was, we all acted alone, we were caught alone, and every one of us will have to die alone. But that doesn't mean that we are alone, Quangel, or that our deaths will be in vain. Nothing in this world is done in vain, and since we are fighting for justice against brutality, we are bound to prevail in the end.”
The unbreakable spirit of Otto Quangel in the horror of Gestapo prison is most striking, and in itself hope inducing. Reading about the courage and internal liberation of the characters while they were physically imprisoned can have a transformative effect on the reader. Doing the right thing in life is often the synonym for doing the harder thing but having integrity in times when goodness is lost, means living your life as an act of rebellion. There are realms of human freedom and locus of control and personal power that cannot be destroyed, not by tyranny, not by oppression, not by torture, not even by death.
“Would you rather live for unjust cause than die for a just one? There is no choice-not for you, nor for me either. It's because we are as we are that we have to go this way.”
January 21, 2022
Είναι, χωρίς αμφιβολία, το καλύτερο βιβλίο που έχω διαβάσει...
Και εδώ η κουβέντα μας με τον αγαπημένο μου φίλο Μιχάλη, σχετικά με το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο αλλά και γενικότερα περί του Φάλλαντα, για το κανάλι του Ex Libris στο YouTube..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp0ah...
Και εδώ η κουβέντα μας με τον αγαπημένο μου φίλο Μιχάλη, σχετικά με το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο αλλά και γενικότερα περί του Φάλλαντα, για το κανάλι του Ex Libris στο YouTube..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp0ah...
March 16, 2025
Hans Fallada's Alone in Berlin (aka Every Man Dies Alone) was a tantalizing yet tragic tale of resistance and moral fortitude in WWII Germany under fascist Nazi rule, based on a true story. Despite the narrative's relatively unsurprising progression (with only a few plot twists), I found myself utterly engrossed - so much so that I read the last half of the book in less than two days. Indeed I preferred to sacrifice my sleep to finish this absolutely gripping novel.
What I enjoyed most about Alone in Berlin, apart from the fact that it is set in my favorite European city (which I know all too well - from Prenzlauer Berg to Hellersdorf), was the rich development of the characters by Fallada. He masterfully describes the essence of human nature. From the volatile Emil Borkhausen to the Gestapo detective Inspector Escherich to the main protagonist Otto Quangel, he skillfully captures each character's personality in a way that you can vividly picture them right before your eyes. It is clear from the narrative that Fallada has done his research meticulously, as the historical detail is impeccable.
Perhaps my only minor critique of this masterpiece, is that towards the end it felt a bit drawn out. Fallada possibly could have brought the story to a conclusion earlier, with no loss of impact, yet, he chose to extend it (to 590 pages). In spite of this, I honestly can only highly recommend Alone in Berlin to anyone looking for a thrilling read, especially if you are into crime mysteries and dramas.
Also worthy of note:
1. Hans Fallada's depiction of Berlin is quite remarkable. All of the transit stations, streets and place names really exist in modern-day Berlin.
2. While the author did use artistic licence in telling this tale, the story is based on real-life events which is quite impressive. The moral strength and determination of the main characters Otto and Anna Quangel is heartwrenching.
What I enjoyed most about Alone in Berlin, apart from the fact that it is set in my favorite European city (which I know all too well - from Prenzlauer Berg to Hellersdorf), was the rich development of the characters by Fallada. He masterfully describes the essence of human nature. From the volatile Emil Borkhausen to the Gestapo detective Inspector Escherich to the main protagonist Otto Quangel, he skillfully captures each character's personality in a way that you can vividly picture them right before your eyes. It is clear from the narrative that Fallada has done his research meticulously, as the historical detail is impeccable.
Perhaps my only minor critique of this masterpiece, is that towards the end it felt a bit drawn out. Fallada possibly could have brought the story to a conclusion earlier, with no loss of impact, yet, he chose to extend it (to 590 pages). In spite of this, I honestly can only highly recommend Alone in Berlin to anyone looking for a thrilling read, especially if you are into crime mysteries and dramas.
Also worthy of note:
1. Hans Fallada's depiction of Berlin is quite remarkable. All of the transit stations, streets and place names really exist in modern-day Berlin.
2. While the author did use artistic licence in telling this tale, the story is based on real-life events which is quite impressive. The moral strength and determination of the main characters Otto and Anna Quangel is heartwrenching.
June 9, 2026
Σας έχει τύχει ποτέ να ολοκληρώσετε ένα βιβλίο και να νιώσετε μια αίσθηση ευλογίας; Ευλογία που γνωρίζετε ανάγνωση. Ευλογία που αγαπάτε τα βιβλία. Ευλογία που στα χέρια σας έτυχε «αυτό» το βιβλίο. Με το Μόνος στο Βερολίνο ένιωσα ακριβώς αυτό.
Τελείωσα την ανάγνωση και ένιωσα τυχερός. Ήθελα να το μοιραστώ με όλους όσους γνωρίζω. Ήθελα να πείσω τους πάντες να το διαβάσουν, ακόμα και εκείνους που το μόνο πράγμα που διάβασαν πρόσφατα ήταν η λίστα του σούπερ μάρκετ. Ήθελα να το διαβάσω ακόμη και σε όσους δεν ξέρουν να διαβάζουν. Γιατί τέτοια βιβλία πρέπει να τα διαβάζει η πλειοψηφία του πληθυσμού. Για να αποκτήσουμε ανοσία στην κακία, τη μισανθρωπία και το μίσος. Τέτοια βιβλία είναι μνημεία ανθρωπιάς, αξιοπρέπειας και αντίστασης. Και τέτοια βιβλία δεν βαθμολογούνται με λιγότερα από πέντε αστέρια.
Ο Φάλαντα, με την άμεση και λιτή γραφή του, περιγράφει τον τρόμο που βίωναν οι Γερμανοί κατά τη διάρκεια του Β΄ Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου. Γιατί ακόμη και εκεί, στην καρδιά του ναζιστικού καθεστώτος, υπήρχαν άνθρωποι που απεχθάνονταν τον ναζισμό, αλλά αδυνατούσαν να αντιδράσουν ανοιχτά. Χαφιέδες παραμόνευαν σε κάθε στενό, σε κάθε πολυκατοικία, πίσω από κάθε πόρτα και κάθε κλειδαρότρυπα. Έτοιμοι να καταδώσουν τον γείτονα, τον φίλο ή ακόμη και τον συγγενή τους, προσδοκώντας κάποιο όφελος.
Μέσα σε αυτό το ασφυκτικό περιβάλλον, το ζευγάρι της ιστορίας αποφασίζει να προβεί στην πιο απλή, αλλά και πιο γενναία πράξη αντίστασης, να γράφει μικρά αντιναζιστικά μηνύματα σε καρτ-ποστάλ και να τα αφήνει σε διάφορα σημεία της πόλης, ελπίζοντας πως κάποιος θα τα διαβάσει και θα σκεφτεί διαφορετικά. Ακόμη και αυτή η φαινομενικά ασήμαντη πράξη ήταν εξαιρετικά επικίνδυνη. Η Γκεστάπο εξαπολύει ένα πραγματικό ανθρωποκυνηγητό για να εντοπίσει τους «προδότες» που τολμούν να αμφισβητήσουν το καθεστώς.
Ένα συγκλονιστικό βιβλίο για το θάρρος των απλών ανθρώπων. Για εκείνους που, όταν όλοι σιωπούσαν, αποφάσισαν να κάνουν το σωστό γνωρίζοντας το κόστος.
Από τα καλύτερα βιβλία που έχω διαβάσει στη ζωή μου και ένα που θα κατέτασσα χωρίς δεύτερη σκέψη στα δέκα κορυφαία της βιβλιοθήκης μου.
Τελείωσα την ανάγνωση και ένιωσα τυχερός. Ήθελα να το μοιραστώ με όλους όσους γνωρίζω. Ήθελα να πείσω τους πάντες να το διαβάσουν, ακόμα και εκείνους που το μόνο πράγμα που διάβασαν πρόσφατα ήταν η λίστα του σούπερ μάρκετ. Ήθελα να το διαβάσω ακόμη και σε όσους δεν ξέρουν να διαβάζουν. Γιατί τέτοια βιβλία πρέπει να τα διαβάζει η πλειοψηφία του πληθυσμού. Για να αποκτήσουμε ανοσία στην κακία, τη μισανθρωπία και το μίσος. Τέτοια βιβλία είναι μνημεία ανθρωπιάς, αξιοπρέπειας και αντίστασης. Και τέτοια βιβλία δεν βαθμολογούνται με λιγότερα από πέντε αστέρια.
Ο Φάλαντα, με την άμεση και λιτή γραφή του, περιγράφει τον τρόμο που βίωναν οι Γερμανοί κατά τη διάρκεια του Β΄ Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου. Γιατί ακόμη και εκεί, στην καρδιά του ναζιστικού καθεστώτος, υπήρχαν άνθρωποι που απεχθάνονταν τον ναζισμό, αλλά αδυνατούσαν να αντιδράσουν ανοιχτά. Χαφιέδες παραμόνευαν σε κάθε στενό, σε κάθε πολυκατοικία, πίσω από κάθε πόρτα και κάθε κλειδαρότρυπα. Έτοιμοι να καταδώσουν τον γείτονα, τον φίλο ή ακόμη και τον συγγενή τους, προσδοκώντας κάποιο όφελος.
Μέσα σε αυτό το ασφυκτικό περιβάλλον, το ζευγάρι της ιστορίας αποφασίζει να προβεί στην πιο απλή, αλλά και πιο γενναία πράξη αντίστασης, να γράφει μικρά αντιναζιστικά μηνύματα σε καρτ-ποστάλ και να τα αφήνει σε διάφορα σημεία της πόλης, ελπίζοντας πως κάποιος θα τα διαβάσει και θα σκεφτεί διαφορετικά. Ακόμη και αυτή η φαινομενικά ασήμαντη πράξη ήταν εξαιρετικά επικίνδυνη. Η Γκεστάπο εξαπολύει ένα πραγματικό ανθρωποκυνηγητό για να εντοπίσει τους «προδότες» που τολμούν να αμφισβητήσουν το καθεστώς.
Ένα συγκλονιστικό βιβλίο για το θάρρος των απλών ανθρώπων. Για εκείνους που, όταν όλοι σιωπούσαν, αποφάσισαν να κάνουν το σωστό γνωρίζοντας το κόστος.
Από τα καλύτερα βιβλία που έχω διαβάσει στη ζωή μου και ένα που θα κατέτασσα χωρίς δεύτερη σκέψη στα δέκα κορυφαία της βιβλιοθήκης μου.
October 3, 2023
Some books make you work for it. They're not easy, they're difficult, they're sprawling and slow and undecided. Until they're not. Until you feel the gigantic heart beating at its nervous center, its unabashed humanity and intelligence.
It took me 250 pages to fully get into this one, and suddenly it took a turn and I was hooked like never before by its vital urgency. The characters were full-fleshed, fully realized, flawed and magnificent at the same time. The novel rushed towards its inevitable conclusion with grace, the characters rushed towards their inescapable fate with a lucidity that leaves us in awe and teaches us a thing or two about the meaning of courage.
The author wrote this novel in 24 days and never lived to see its publication. According to the amazing bonus documents at the end of the paperback edition, Hans Fallada based his novel on a true story and was wondering whether the real acts of resistance of Otto and Elise Hampel had had any meaning.
Their lives, the ordinariness, the smallness, the awkwardness of their resistance have more meaning than they will ever know.
Because it is absolutely essential for us, for all the generations that come after World War Two, to know that there was decency and good in some Germans in the face of evil.
An unforgettable book.
It took me 250 pages to fully get into this one, and suddenly it took a turn and I was hooked like never before by its vital urgency. The characters were full-fleshed, fully realized, flawed and magnificent at the same time. The novel rushed towards its inevitable conclusion with grace, the characters rushed towards their inescapable fate with a lucidity that leaves us in awe and teaches us a thing or two about the meaning of courage.
The author wrote this novel in 24 days and never lived to see its publication. According to the amazing bonus documents at the end of the paperback edition, Hans Fallada based his novel on a true story and was wondering whether the real acts of resistance of Otto and Elise Hampel had had any meaning.
Their lives, the ordinariness, the smallness, the awkwardness of their resistance have more meaning than they will ever know.
Because it is absolutely essential for us, for all the generations that come after World War Two, to know that there was decency and good in some Germans in the face of evil.
An unforgettable book.
January 8, 2010
after losing their son to the war, berlin residents otta and anna quangel launch a mini-revolt against the reich and fuhrer in the form of postcards around the city which speak subversive messages directly to the people. read in the age of twitter and viral videos, this seems, at once, awfully quaint and particularly profound. there was a time, i gather, when words mattered; when there didn't exist a barrage of partisan wingnuts flooding the zeitgeist with nonsense. but lemme skip the cranky old-man get-off-my-yard thing...
the portrait of two old people launching a mini-revolution interests me far more than dudes with guns and bombs and shit. so it pains me to slap this with two stars. but, wow. has there ever been a book more in need of an editor? it's plodding and lumbering and filled with so much unnecessary bullshit it makes the reader feel like a kid forced to plow through four servings of steamed broccoli to get to that half-portion of chocolate pudding. it reads as if fallada drew up a rigid outline and just wrote out the shit. um, part of writing is knowing what to leave out -- the 'leaving out' ups the mystery quotient. y'ever hear the phrase, 'get into a scene at the last possible moment and get out at the earliest possible moment?' -- goose the reader, hans. smack her around. you don't need to tell us everything. skip the walk to the apartment, just land us right there and force your reader to make sense of it as it happens. and if you whisk us out of a scene before it ends... you leave us wondering. remember when don quixote raises his sword to hack away at some guy and cervantes just ends the chapter with the sword in the air? genius, man, genius.
and coincidences? just stay away.
fallada has a character who pisses off a nurse and so to stick it to him she rats him out as the card dropper. the gestapo quickly realize the guy couldn't possibly be the card-dropper but, so as to prove to their superiors that they're following leads, they tail the guy. we, the reader, know that the guy's foreman at work is otto quangel, the actual card dropper. ugh. it wasn't necessary, hans. you didn't need to do this. there are better ways to draw connections, to make things come together, to have all lines diverge on a common point. and there's lots of this kinda shit going on. too much of it.
so... i made it 250 pgs deep. halfway. and dropped the book in frustration. and then i read that fallada wrote the book in 24 days. makes sense. given a few more months and a good editor this could've resembled the masterpiece they said it was.
the portrait of two old people launching a mini-revolution interests me far more than dudes with guns and bombs and shit. so it pains me to slap this with two stars. but, wow. has there ever been a book more in need of an editor? it's plodding and lumbering and filled with so much unnecessary bullshit it makes the reader feel like a kid forced to plow through four servings of steamed broccoli to get to that half-portion of chocolate pudding. it reads as if fallada drew up a rigid outline and just wrote out the shit. um, part of writing is knowing what to leave out -- the 'leaving out' ups the mystery quotient. y'ever hear the phrase, 'get into a scene at the last possible moment and get out at the earliest possible moment?' -- goose the reader, hans. smack her around. you don't need to tell us everything. skip the walk to the apartment, just land us right there and force your reader to make sense of it as it happens. and if you whisk us out of a scene before it ends... you leave us wondering. remember when don quixote raises his sword to hack away at some guy and cervantes just ends the chapter with the sword in the air? genius, man, genius.
and coincidences? just stay away.
fallada has a character who pisses off a nurse and so to stick it to him she rats him out as the card dropper. the gestapo quickly realize the guy couldn't possibly be the card-dropper but, so as to prove to their superiors that they're following leads, they tail the guy. we, the reader, know that the guy's foreman at work is otto quangel, the actual card dropper. ugh. it wasn't necessary, hans. you didn't need to do this. there are better ways to draw connections, to make things come together, to have all lines diverge on a common point. and there's lots of this kinda shit going on. too much of it.
so... i made it 250 pgs deep. halfway. and dropped the book in frustration. and then i read that fallada wrote the book in 24 days. makes sense. given a few more months and a good editor this could've resembled the masterpiece they said it was.
March 24, 2018
Τι μεγάλη ειρωνεία. Τελείωσα το βιβλίο κάπου στις 11 το βράδυ με όλα εκείνα τα χαρούμενα συναισθήματα που μπορεί να έχει ένας αναγνώστης που μόλις έχει τελειώσει ένα υπέροχο βιβλίο. Δυο ώρες αργότερα ανέβαινε στο διαδίκτυο η είδηση του θανάτου ενός από τους πιο αγαπημένους μου εν ζωή συγγραφέως του Philip Kerr. Όλη η πορεία του αγαπημένου μας ήρωα Μπέρνι Γκούντερ ξεκίνησε και αυτή από το Βερολίνο. Τι ειρωνεία της τύχης από τη μια στην ίδια πόλη είχες να υποκλιθείς στο μεγαλείο του Χανς Φαλάντα και στον πραγματικά μαεστρικό τρόπο να περάσει ένα βαθύ και ηχηρό μήνυμα για όλους εκείνους που επιμένουν να κρατούν τους λαούς φυλακισμένους στο σκοτάδι, στο μίσος στο αίμα στοιχείο χάρη στο οποίο το βιβλίο θα είναι πάντα επίκαιρο και από την άλλη έπρεπε να πεις αντίο στον πιο αγαπημένο σου λογοτεχνικό αστυνομικό ήρωα τον Μπέρνι Γκούντερ οι περιπέτειες του οποίου ξεκίνησαν στο Βερολίνο. Αν πρέπει να συνδέσω αυτά τα δύο μαζί θα χρησιμοποιούσα μια ατάκα του Μπέρνι αν θυμάμαι καλά στη Γυναίκα από το Ζάγκρεμπ: « Δεν είμαι Ναζί είμαι Γερμανος, δεν είναι το ίδιο πράγμα». Κάτι τέτοιο νομίζω ήθελε να πει και ο Fallada με το βιβλίο του.
Θα ήθελα να σας μιλήσω πιο πολύ γι αυτό το βιβλίο απλά να μου επετρέψετε να το κάνω μια άλλη στιγμή. Το μόνο που έχω να σας πω ότι αν διάβαζαν όλοι βιβλία όπως το Μόνος στο Βερολίνο θα μασταν όλοι πολύ καλύτεροι άνθρωποι. Ένα βιβλίο που το θυμάσαι για καιρό μετά αφού το διαβάσεις.
Θα ήθελα να σας μιλήσω πιο πολύ γι αυτό το βιβλίο απλά να μου επετρέψετε να το κάνω μια άλλη στιγμή. Το μόνο που έχω να σας πω ότι αν διάβαζαν όλοι βιβλία όπως το Μόνος στο Βερολίνο θα μασταν όλοι πολύ καλύτεροι άνθρωποι. Ένα βιβλίο που το θυμάσαι για καιρό μετά αφού το διαβάσεις.
September 20, 2011
I should express thanks to Gudrun Burwitz, for if it was not for her ruthless news, I would not have found a brilliant book that stands for every belief which Ms. Burwitz expels from her very survival. Couple weeks ago, a news article describing Burwitz as the new “Nazi grandmother” made me explore further for its validity. Ms. Burwitz who at the ripe age of 81, still strives hard to support and nurture the most modern breed of Nazis ,keeping alive the malicious work and memory of her father Heinrich Himmler, the chief authority behind the Gestapo operations. “The princess of Nazism ", as one of the historian terms Gudrun, is a despicable bitch loathing the essence of humanity through her narrowed National Socialist mindset. I would not identify her as a cultured human being, let alone a decent citizen of a wonderful country. However, she would have been felicitated for her abhorrence during the Third Reich. In 1940’s Gudrun Burwitz would have been a decent German; the ideal daughter of Deutschland. Not, Otto Quangel, though. He was a traitor, a criminal who committed treason against the Fuhrer. Otto Quangel was the ‘Hogoblin’, whose righteous words were feared by anyone who touched or read them.
Otto and Anna Quangel was a working class couple. Like many other couples they were decent Germans. They obeyed their Fuhrer, you see. Their only son was serving in the army defending Hitler’s gruesome idea of legality of human race. They helplessly saw their neighbors being caught and shipped to concentration camps, while they silently sipped their watery coffee in sheer silence. They had to be tough in life. That was the common justification of every brutality the Gestapo police committed. Then one fine day, the death news of their only son arrived and Anna in a bursts of sorrow shrieked, “you and your Fuhrer!”. For Otto, a man of few words, Anna’s words weighed more than the misery of losing his child. The agony of guilt swelled up Otto’s moralistic integrity overwhelming his internal ethics. Otto proposed an obscure form of anti-Nazi warfare. He would write postcards with slogans against the ongoing atrocities.
“Mother! The Fuhrer has murdered my son! Mother! The Fuhrer will murder your sons too; he will not stop till he has brought sorrow to every home.”
Otto’s heroic resistance to the Nazi Regime magnified only through his personal tragedy. Did the death of his son made him courageous as now he had nothing to lose? Would Otto walk the mutinous path had his son arrived safely home?
Hans Fallada who suffered through his own personal war as Rudolf Ditzen, brings the laudable efforts of Elise and Otto Hampel (1931), a real life couple who wrote anonymous postcards and leaflets to educate people about the ongoing atrocities ,informing to not buying Nazi papers and resist from participating in the war. The writing is trouble-free and the plot predictable; nevertheless, throughout the fictional portrayals of the Quangels, Fallada beautifully enlightens the misery of ordinary Germans who struggled from their own moral battles. Like, Eva Kungel who curses the fact of her birthing children who would eventually end up becoming monsters. The investigation of the Hobgoblin case and the defenselessness of Inspector Escherich expose the disintegration of humanness in a society where the nobleness of a feeble endeavor to capture terror was misplaced.
Otto Quangel was the burning conscience of a guilt –ridden nation. He and Anna were among the few whom were “good corns” sown in the fields of weeds. Fallada signs off the book saying, “But we don’t want to end this book with death; dedicated as it is to life, life always triumphs over humiliation and tears, over misery and death”.
Otto and Anna’s death was inevitable and their efforts although ineffectual were not insignificant. The Quangels did the unattainable and unfortunately their voices were lost among timid tones and pigheaded establishment, contrasting Wael Ghonim the cyber hero whose efforts instigated a revolution finally overthrowing Hosni Mubarak from supremacy.
Otto and Anna Quangel was a working class couple. Like many other couples they were decent Germans. They obeyed their Fuhrer, you see. Their only son was serving in the army defending Hitler’s gruesome idea of legality of human race. They helplessly saw their neighbors being caught and shipped to concentration camps, while they silently sipped their watery coffee in sheer silence. They had to be tough in life. That was the common justification of every brutality the Gestapo police committed. Then one fine day, the death news of their only son arrived and Anna in a bursts of sorrow shrieked, “you and your Fuhrer!”. For Otto, a man of few words, Anna’s words weighed more than the misery of losing his child. The agony of guilt swelled up Otto’s moralistic integrity overwhelming his internal ethics. Otto proposed an obscure form of anti-Nazi warfare. He would write postcards with slogans against the ongoing atrocities.
“Mother! The Fuhrer has murdered my son! Mother! The Fuhrer will murder your sons too; he will not stop till he has brought sorrow to every home.”
Otto’s heroic resistance to the Nazi Regime magnified only through his personal tragedy. Did the death of his son made him courageous as now he had nothing to lose? Would Otto walk the mutinous path had his son arrived safely home?
Hans Fallada who suffered through his own personal war as Rudolf Ditzen, brings the laudable efforts of Elise and Otto Hampel (1931), a real life couple who wrote anonymous postcards and leaflets to educate people about the ongoing atrocities ,informing to not buying Nazi papers and resist from participating in the war. The writing is trouble-free and the plot predictable; nevertheless, throughout the fictional portrayals of the Quangels, Fallada beautifully enlightens the misery of ordinary Germans who struggled from their own moral battles. Like, Eva Kungel who curses the fact of her birthing children who would eventually end up becoming monsters. The investigation of the Hobgoblin case and the defenselessness of Inspector Escherich expose the disintegration of humanness in a society where the nobleness of a feeble endeavor to capture terror was misplaced.
Otto Quangel was the burning conscience of a guilt –ridden nation. He and Anna were among the few whom were “good corns” sown in the fields of weeds. Fallada signs off the book saying, “But we don’t want to end this book with death; dedicated as it is to life, life always triumphs over humiliation and tears, over misery and death”.
Otto and Anna’s death was inevitable and their efforts although ineffectual were not insignificant. The Quangels did the unattainable and unfortunately their voices were lost among timid tones and pigheaded establishment, contrasting Wael Ghonim the cyber hero whose efforts instigated a revolution finally overthrowing Hosni Mubarak from supremacy.
July 1, 2017
Bettie's Books
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vvwq0
Re-visit 2015 via R4x:Primo Levi's declaration that Alone in Berlin is "the greatest book ever written about German resistance to the Nazis" is bold and unequivocal. English readers have had to wait 60 years to explore the 1947 novel in which Otto Quangel, a factory foreman (Ron Cook) and his wife Anna (Margot Leicester) believe themselves morally obliged to take on the full might of the Nazis.
When their son is killed "for Fuhrer and Fatherland", the Quangels begin to write anonymous postcards, denouncing the war and the regime, and leave them on the stairwells of public buildings in Berlin. Over two years, the cards become their life. Trapped through a trivial mistake, by their nemesis, Inspector Escherich of the Gestapo (Tim McInnerny) they are put on trial for their lives, but find a strange freedom in a mocking defiance and then in a terrible silence.
Alone in Berlin is a grim but heroic story told with laconic determination by a man who lived through the war in Berlin. It is about the quiet moral triumph of a seemingly inconsequential couple - it points to a courage which lay in the hearts of most true Germans, if only angst and overwhelming fear hadn't been allowed to gain the upper hand.
Cast:
Otto Quangel ..... Ron Cook
Anna Quangel ..... Margot Leicester
Escherich ..... Tim McInnerny
Trudel Bauman ..... Jasmine Hyde
Eva Kluge ..... Christine Kavanagh
Enno Kluge ..... Ian Bartholomew
Emil Borkhausen ..... Richard McCabe
Frau Rosenthal ..... Joanna Munroe
Inspector Rusch ..... John McAndrew
Judge Fromm ..... Andrew Sachs
Inspector Zott ..... Nickolas Grace
Inspector Prall ..... Sam Dale
Director: Eoin O'Callaghan.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vvwq0Re-visit 2015 via R4x:Primo Levi's declaration that Alone in Berlin is "the greatest book ever written about German resistance to the Nazis" is bold and unequivocal. English readers have had to wait 60 years to explore the 1947 novel in which Otto Quangel, a factory foreman (Ron Cook) and his wife Anna (Margot Leicester) believe themselves morally obliged to take on the full might of the Nazis.
When their son is killed "for Fuhrer and Fatherland", the Quangels begin to write anonymous postcards, denouncing the war and the regime, and leave them on the stairwells of public buildings in Berlin. Over two years, the cards become their life. Trapped through a trivial mistake, by their nemesis, Inspector Escherich of the Gestapo (Tim McInnerny) they are put on trial for their lives, but find a strange freedom in a mocking defiance and then in a terrible silence.
Alone in Berlin is a grim but heroic story told with laconic determination by a man who lived through the war in Berlin. It is about the quiet moral triumph of a seemingly inconsequential couple - it points to a courage which lay in the hearts of most true Germans, if only angst and overwhelming fear hadn't been allowed to gain the upper hand.
Cast:
Otto Quangel ..... Ron Cook
Anna Quangel ..... Margot Leicester
Escherich ..... Tim McInnerny
Trudel Bauman ..... Jasmine Hyde
Eva Kluge ..... Christine Kavanagh
Enno Kluge ..... Ian Bartholomew
Emil Borkhausen ..... Richard McCabe
Frau Rosenthal ..... Joanna Munroe
Inspector Rusch ..... John McAndrew
Judge Fromm ..... Andrew Sachs
Inspector Zott ..... Nickolas Grace
Inspector Prall ..... Sam Dale
Director: Eoin O'Callaghan.
February 6, 2018
I value this novel for good psychological portrayal of ordinary German citizens who desperately tried to remain sane during years of insanity. Their silent struggle, both tragic and heroic, is supported by mutual devotion and love, which is all that is ultimately left. This is my favourite of Fallada's novels.
June 7, 2026
Things that when they first had happened had struck them as barely censurable, such as the suppression of all other political parties, or things that they had condemned as merely excessive in degree or too vigorously carried out, like the persecution of the Jews - such things, now that the Quangels had become enemies of the Fuhrer, came to have a completely different weight and importance.
What makes this book interesting to me is the compromised sympathy we might have for the protagonists who, essentially, suffer from political buyer's remorse: they voted for Hitler, they didn't heed the warning signs of dictatorship such as the proscription of other political parties, and they considered the persecution of Jews acceptable, merely 'excessive in degree or too vigorously carried out'. It's only when their soldier son is killed on the frontline that the Quangels, responding to their personal loss, turn against Hitler, the Nazis and Germany's war - it's a solipsistic response and rooted in self-interest/self-pain rather than either human compassion for others or ideological or humanistic principles.
Nevertheless, this book puts the Quangels on 'our' side, however disturbing their initial actions and thoughts might have been - and I understand some German editions made Anna even more of a confirmed Nazi than is the case in this English edition. In the ultimate opposition to heroic resistance fighters, they know their late struggle against fascism-in-power is futile, microscopic, that their end is almost inevitable - but even knowing that their lives are at stake, they make these tiny gestures against a system which is clearly going to engulf and destroy them. And it's this angle which won me over.
However, this book was still a struggle for me because of its rawness and clumsiness in terms of craft: the writing (in English translation) tends to the plain and flat; and the story is bloated to an extreme so that we're nearly a quarter of the way through before the first postcard is even written. The structure is almost picaresque in the way it throws a whole range of other characters at us who, in their cartoonish one-dimensionality, detract from the Quangels' core story: the local postwoman, her rogueish husband and his petty criminal sidekick who are treated with a kind of knockabout humour, various police, SS and Gestapo agents, prisoners and cell-mates, the dead son's fiancée and her husband... I kept getting literary flashbacks from texts like Berlin Alexanderplatz, Crime and Punishment, Les Misérables and I ended up skimming/speed-reading through some of the 600+ pages in my Penguin edition.
But the ending is tense, and it's always useful to have a book which is written close to the actual historical events it is portraying: in this case published in 1947. I am shaking my head in amazement at puff quotes that claim this has a 'thriller writer's pace' (The Times) - it really doesn't or that it is a 'suspense-driven novel' (Alan Furst) - it's really not. Despite some characters and scenes being archetypes and almost cartoonlike in their representation, what Fallada offers is a panorama of a time and place that is unromantic, unheroic and yet gives a dignity to the Quangels, 'small' and unimportant people whose actions changed nothing but who made a futile stand against totalitarianism even if it cost them everything.
November 27, 2018
Τι αριστούργημα! Μετά το "Και Τώρα Ανθρωπάκο" ένα σπουδαίο επίσης βιβλίο, το "Μόνος στο Βερολίνο" είναι το απαύγασμα του συγγραφέα. Ο Φαλάντα δικαίως θα πρέπει να θεωρείται ο συγγραφέας της Γερμανικής αστικής τάξης της ναζιστικής εποχής. Με το δικό του απαράμιλλο σκιαγραφεί τους χαρακτήρες όπου μέσα από την διαφορετικότητα τους, καταγράφεται η ιστορία της εποχής αυτής. Το ξεκίνημα του βιβλίου σε...γρονθοκοπεί. Ο μοναχογιός των ηρώων σκοτώνεται στον πόλεμο και οι ίδιοι αδυνατούν να θρηνήσουν την γιό τους. Ο πατέρας πρέπει να συνεχίσει την εργασία του στο εργοστάσιο η δε μάνα θα πρέπει να πνίξει την λύπη της αλλά και την οργή της, στις συμβατικότητες της ναζιστικής κοινωνίας. "Κολλάει" πάνω σου η θλίψη βιώνοντας όλους τους χαρακτήρες που εμπλέκονται δίπλα στο ζευγάρι των άτυχων ηλικιωμένων γονέων. Απορροφάσαι από το κλίμα της περιόδου γυρνώντας από σελίδα σε σελίδα για να βιώσεις την εξέλιξη της δραματικής αυτής ιστορίας.
ΝΑ ΤΟ ΔΙΑΒΑΣΤΕ
ΝΑ ΤΟ ΔΙΑΒΑΣΤΕ
August 2, 2017
Ma cosa si era messo in mente? Un semplice operaio che lotta contro il Führer? È come se una zanzara volesse combattere contro un elefante
Lo scrittore tedesco Rudolf Ditzen, noto come Hans Fallada, tossicodipendente, alcolizzato, finito più volte in galera e in manicomio, scrisse nel 1946 in soli 24 giorni le 700 pagine del romanzo, basandosi sui fascicoli provenienti dalla Gestapo sulla vera storia dei coniugi Otto ed Elise Hampel (Quangel nel libro), lui operaio e lei casalinga, che decisero di opporsi al nazismo semplicemente lasciando per le vie di Berlino cartoline che invitavano i tedeschi a ribellarsi al nazismo.
Un atto che sembra semplice e banale ai nostri occhi, ma che a quel tempo portava senza indugi alla pena capitale.
Cosa facevano gli abitanti di Berlino quando trovavano casualmente le cartoline scritte e lasciate faticosamente dai Quangel? Le consegnavano immediatamente, terrorizzati, alla Gestapo, vanificandone di fatto l’effetto. E infatti il momento più drammatico per Otto, una volta catturato, non fu quello delle percosse e delle torture, quanto quello in cui capì che quasi tutte le cartoline prodotte erano state inutili.
La lettura del romanzo è stata per me certamente tra le più coinvolgenti ed interessanti in assoluto. Sottolineerei alcuni punti che emergono dalla lettura:
La paura, i delatori, la solitudine. Quello che si evince dal romanzo è che tutti in Germania avevano paura. Una paura totale. Una paura che faceva mancare il respiro, che attanagliava quando ci si rendeva conto che poteva succedere davvero di tutto. Una paura permanente, perché nulla poteva assicurare di non ritrovarsi, in qualunque momento, sbattuti in una prigione con le ossa rotte. Una paura che invadeva tutti, perfino i nazisti, perché il vento poteva cambiare repentinamente.
In agguato c'erano il carcere, la tortura, la deportazione.
La gente sapeva di poter essere arrestata per un qualsiasi motivo: “tutti hanno qualcosa da nascondere, basta tirarlo fuori” era il credo della Gestapo. E quel “tirarlo fuori” nascondeva torture di ogni tipo, ovviamente. La vita umana non valeva praticamente nulla.
Il regime era oppressivo tanto da rendere quasi impossibile l'opposizione. Solo l’unione tra gli individui avrebbe forse potuto fare la differenza, eppure tutti avevano troppa paura anche solo per leggere fino alla fine le cartoline dei Quangel. La paura aveva creato un popolo di rassegnati delatori, vigliacchi pronti a tutto pur di farsi belli agli occhi dei superiori, a loro volta terrorizzati da possibili delazioni e indiscrezioni che li riguardassero. I delatori erano ovunque e si doveva stare attenti a parlare e anche a non parlare, perché anche tacere poteva essere indice di mancanza di fedeltà al regime.
Intorno alle figure dei coniugi Quangel c'erano anche molti altri personaggi. Persone normali, parenti, brave persone, prostitute, ubriaconi, scommettitori, commissari, militari. Tutti inevitabilmente soli, perché nessuno poteva fidarsi a condividere i propri pensieri. Quasi tutti questi personaggi morirono, anche quelli innocenti. Morirono in assoluta solitudine, senza conforto, senza giustificazione, senza comprendere a fondo le ragioni della propria morte, senza poter condividere con nessuno i propri pensieri.
"Perché tu devi sapere che allora saremo molto soli nelle nostre celle, senza poterci mai scambiare una parola, noi che per più di vent'anni non abbiamo mai trascorso una giornata lontani uno dall'altra. Ma ognuno di noi saprà che l'altro non cede, che ci possiamo fidare l'uno dell'altra nella morte come ci siamo fidati tutta la vita. Dovremo morire anche da soli, Anna!"
La resistenza tedesca. Dal libro si comprende che la maggioranza dei tedeschi era d'accordo col regime nazista. Ognuno tirava avanti come poteva, allineandosi all’ideologia imperante. "Ognuno muore solo" racconta la ribellione di pochissimi uomini, poveracci che hanno una propria dignità, che sono consci di rischiare la vita per principi morali che li porteranno alla morte. Uomini che cercano di comportarsi “bene” per non disprezzarsi, per avere rispetto di sé stessi.
“Sarebbe stato naturalmente mille volte meglio se avessimo avuto un uomo che ci avesse detto: dovete agire così e così', questo o quello è il nostro piano. Ma se ci fosse stato un uomo simile in Germania, non avremmo mai avuto un 1933. Così abbiamo dovuto agire ognuno per conto suo, e siamo stati presi uno per uno, e ognuno di noi morrà solo. Ma non per questo siamo soli, Quangel, non per questo moriamo inutilmente. A questo mondo nulla accade inutilmente, e poiché combattiamo per la giustizia contro la forza bruta, saremo noi i vincitori, alla fine."
La resistenza tedesca probabilmente non fu efficace a causa del regime di sospetto instaurato nel Reich, dalla crudeltà della Gestapo, della magistratura completamente asservita al potere dominante, ma forse anche alle caratteristiche del popolo tedesco, che vedeva in Hitler l’uomo che avrebbe restituito alla Germania il predominio, dopo l’onta della sconfitta subita nella prima guerra mondiale.
La crudeltà dei nazisti. Fallada descrive la crudeltà delle SS, dei commissari nazisti, della Gestapo, delle guardie, in un modo che fa accapponare la pelle. Non vuole scandalizzare, ma solo far capire che la cattiveria, la sopraffazione, la prepotenza, l'arroganza, la stupidità, erano normali in quel periodo in Germania.
Il nazismo non viene visto ed analizzato nelle sue cariche più importanti, che erano ovviamente inavvicinabili per la gente comune; esso viene descritto attraverso le figure emblematiche dei commissari e degli ufficiali della Gestapo che cercano di risolvere il caso delle cartoline e alcuni membri della gioventu hitleriana, spietati, duri, rozzi, efficaci e sbrigativi.
Il libro. "Ognuno muore solo" è un romanzo terribile, che tratta temi importanti come il comportamento che si può e si vuole tenere quando le condizioni della vita divengono moralmente inaccettabili. Che si traduce nella scelta tra la paura della morte e la disperazione della vita. La narrazione della fine dei coniugi Quangel, con la descrizione degli ultimi attimi di vita, dei loro terrori e dei loro segreti è tanto meravigliosa, dal punto di vista letterario, quanto terribile e drammatica dal punto di vista umano.
E' un romanzo trascinante che si legge benissimo, nonostante i temi dolorosi, non tanto per sapere come va a finire, quanto perché le vicende psicologiche dei personaggi sono coinvolgenti al massimo.
Fallada usa un linguaggio istintivo, emotivo, semplicissimo e lineare, quasi banale, quasi ingenuo; un linguaggio che però è perfettamente funzionale alla narrazione. Il paragone dei personaggi del romanzo con uccelli, topi e volpi è semplicemente geniale.
Forse è grazie al sacrificio di quelle due brave persone, ai due coniugi Quengel, se oggi possiamo capire un pochino di più la Germania nazista; le cartoline non saranno servite a ribaltare il regime nazista, ma forse (chissà, spero...) saranno servite a impedire il ripetersi di situazioni come quelle raccontate.
May 10, 2018
In this dark thriller, set in Berlin during World War II (1940-43), a working class couple, Otto and Anna Quangel, decide to protest and resist the Nazi regime after they learned that her only son was killed in action. Otto Quangel starts writing postcards with insults against Hitler, the Nazis, and the war and delivers them (unobserved) in office buildings in the hope that as many people as possible will read them and rethink, and thus perhaps bring about a speedy end to the dictatorship – an approach, as it turns out, doomed to failure. It doesn’t take long before the Gestapo comes to know about this “crime of high treason” and start investigating and the noose is slowly tightening on the Quangels. The main storyline (there are quite a few others) is supposedly based on the real case of Otto and Elise Hampel who also wrote and distributed postcards and where executed in 1943.
It took me quite a while before I became comfortable with this 700 page novel by Hans Fallada (my first one since I don’t know how long). The prose seemed unsophistіcated and disjointed at first and the characters not especially likeable (including the Quangels). But Fallada is a master when it comes to tightening the screw and a great storyteller. The overall mood in the novel is getting darker and darker, the desperation of many of the characters almost tangible. The only other novel I read in which the lives of ordinary people under a dictatorship is depicted in such an intensity would be Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Those lives are determined by fear and hopelessness until the decision to resist. There are indeed some similarities between Otto Quangel and Winston Smith.
While pondering what to tell about this book I chanced to find an article from The Guardian, titled “Hans Fallada’s Berlin - in pictures”, that shows some actual postcards written by Otto Hampel, like this one:
(“A German / German people wake up! / We must free ourselves from the Hitlery”)
or this one:
(“Hitler has no wife / the butcher no sow / The baker no dough! / That is the third Reich / Hitler’s violence before right / brings us German people no peace! / Down with Hitler’s gang”)
This small text has three spelling and one grammatical mistake (“hatt” instead of “hat”, “Teich” instead of “Teig”, “Dass” instead of “Das”, “deutsches” instead of “deutschem”) and I wonder if this is by design, of whether Otto Hampel just couldn’t do better. I tend to think the latter. This man, it is said, struggled to write and in the novel the fictional Otto Quangel needs a whole Sunday to write just two of those postcards. It brings tears to my eyes when I read of such a simple man and how he rebels against the rule with such simple means. It seems like a fight between David and Goliath but with David having no slingshot available. It’s a wonder it took the Gestapo so long to apprehend the so called “hobgoblin” (the internal name used for the postcard writer). But I guess even the means of the Gestapo were limited back then. It’s true that there were many people in Germany ready or even eager to denunciate their neighbors or co-workers, even family members, but keeping a low profile could help escaping the powers-that-be for a while. Today things would be much different. Nowadays the Nazis could easily fill the prisons overnight with dissidents. The data is readily available and only needs to be evaluated thanks to big-data analysis tools. But, of course, such a tyranny can not exist anymore in a civilized country, so it’s rather pointless to speculate about it.
There is much violence presented in this book. Psychological and physical violence during interrogations by the Gestapo, in the torture cellars of the SS, in prisons and during trials at the so-called Volksgerichtshof (People’s Court). The suspects, prisoners, and defendants are all humiliated, beaten, and deprived of their dignity - but are they dehumanized, as one so often hears? I don’t think so. Dehumanized are the wielders of power, the policemen, the SS thugs and prison guards, the prosecutors and judges. Resistance against those non-humans, even if doomed to failure, wasn’t (and won’t be) futile but indeed mandatory if only to keep those gangsters occupied for a while. That’s one lesson to learn from Hans Fallada’s highly recommended book.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
It took me quite a while before I became comfortable with this 700 page novel by Hans Fallada (my first one since I don’t know how long). The prose seemed unsophistіcated and disjointed at first and the characters not especially likeable (including the Quangels). But Fallada is a master when it comes to tightening the screw and a great storyteller. The overall mood in the novel is getting darker and darker, the desperation of many of the characters almost tangible. The only other novel I read in which the lives of ordinary people under a dictatorship is depicted in such an intensity would be Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Those lives are determined by fear and hopelessness until the decision to resist. There are indeed some similarities between Otto Quangel and Winston Smith.
While pondering what to tell about this book I chanced to find an article from The Guardian, titled “Hans Fallada’s Berlin - in pictures”, that shows some actual postcards written by Otto Hampel, like this one:
(“A German / German people wake up! / We must free ourselves from the Hitlery”)
or this one:
(“Hitler has no wife / the butcher no sow / The baker no dough! / That is the third Reich / Hitler’s violence before right / brings us German people no peace! / Down with Hitler’s gang”)
This small text has three spelling and one grammatical mistake (“hatt” instead of “hat”, “Teich” instead of “Teig”, “Dass” instead of “Das”, “deutsches” instead of “deutschem”) and I wonder if this is by design, of whether Otto Hampel just couldn’t do better. I tend to think the latter. This man, it is said, struggled to write and in the novel the fictional Otto Quangel needs a whole Sunday to write just two of those postcards. It brings tears to my eyes when I read of such a simple man and how he rebels against the rule with such simple means. It seems like a fight between David and Goliath but with David having no slingshot available. It’s a wonder it took the Gestapo so long to apprehend the so called “hobgoblin” (the internal name used for the postcard writer). But I guess even the means of the Gestapo were limited back then. It’s true that there were many people in Germany ready or even eager to denunciate their neighbors or co-workers, even family members, but keeping a low profile could help escaping the powers-that-be for a while. Today things would be much different. Nowadays the Nazis could easily fill the prisons overnight with dissidents. The data is readily available and only needs to be evaluated thanks to big-data analysis tools. But, of course, such a tyranny can not exist anymore in a civilized country, so it’s rather pointless to speculate about it.
There is much violence presented in this book. Psychological and physical violence during interrogations by the Gestapo, in the torture cellars of the SS, in prisons and during trials at the so-called Volksgerichtshof (People’s Court). The suspects, prisoners, and defendants are all humiliated, beaten, and deprived of their dignity - but are they dehumanized, as one so often hears? I don’t think so. Dehumanized are the wielders of power, the policemen, the SS thugs and prison guards, the prosecutors and judges. Resistance against those non-humans, even if doomed to failure, wasn’t (and won’t be) futile but indeed mandatory if only to keep those gangsters occupied for a while. That’s one lesson to learn from Hans Fallada’s highly recommended book.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
February 7, 2025
Όταν το κράτος είναι συντεταγμένο έγκλημα, οι παράφρονες εγκληματίες είναι στην εξουσία και η δικαιοσύνη γίνεται παρωδία, τι μπορεί να κάνει ένας άνθρωπος μόνος του, ένας άνθρωπος κρυμμένος μέσα στην καρδιά του κτήνους, ενώ γύρω του μαίνεται πόλεμος;
Λίγα.
Μικροί και μοναχικοί θύλακες αντίστασης στην εγκληματική παράνοια του ναζισμού της περιόδου του Β'ΠΠ διεξάγουν το δικό τους αγώνα, ισχνό, αδύναμο, μάταιο ίσως, αλλά αν μη τι άλλο, δεν αφήνονται να παρασυρθούν από την πλημμυρίδα της ναζιστικής επέλασης, ορθώνουν το μικρό τους ανάστημα, μηχανεύονται τρόπους να πλήξουν στο βαθμό του δυνατού το θηρίο της ναζιστικής αποκάλυψης και το πληρώνουν πικρά.
Ωστόσο, το βιβλίο είναι αισιόδοξο.
Πέρα από το προφανές μήνυμα (ότι κανείς δεν μπορεί να τα καταφέρει μόνος του απέναντι στο μαινόμενο αλλοπρόσαλλο λεβιάθαν του ολοκληρωτισμού), δείχνει ότι ο άνθρωπος είναι ικανός ακόμα και κάτω από τις πιο αντίξοες συνθήκες να διατηρήσει την αξιοπρέπειά του, να κρατήσει τις πεποιθήσεις του και να δράσει. Ό,τι κι αν προκύψει μετά. Και απευθύνει ένα έμμεσο αλλά δριμμύ "κατηγορώ" σε όσους βολεύτηκαν και εγκλιματίστηκαν τον καιρό της παραφροσύνης, σε όσους για τη δική τους άνεση και ασφάλεια έριξαν τον πήχυ της ανθρώπινης υπόστασης στον χαμηλότερο κοινό παρονομαστή.
Η ιστορία κινείται γύρω από το ζεύγος Κβάνγκελ, που μετά το θάνατο του γιου τους στο μέτωπο στις αρχές κιόλας του πολέμου, αποφασίζουν μόνοι αυτοί να αναμετρηθούν με το Χίτλερ, διανέμοντας προκυρήξεις σε όλη την πόλη, προκυρήξεις χειρόγραφες, καλλιγραφημένες, που εκθέτουν τα κακώς κείμενα και προσπαθούν (μάταια;) να ευαισθητοποιήσουν και να κινητοποιήσουν τους βερλονιζέζους.
Σύντομα γίνονται στόχος ενός δαιμόνιου επιθεωρητή, αλλά επί μακρόν διαφύγουν τη σύλληψη, ενώ ο καιρός προχωράει και ο πόλεμος συνεχίζεται.
Ωστόσο, η καλή τύχη δε μπορεί να διαρκέσει για πάντα και ερχόμενος ο καθένας αντιμέτωπος με τις συνέπειές της δράσης του, δείχνει από τι μέταλλο είναι φτιαγμένος.
Οι Κβάνγκελ, πλαισιώνονται από μια σειρά δευτερευόντων χαρακτήρων (οι περισσότεροι είναι γείτονες στην πολοικατοικία τους) των οποία τα δράματα παρακολουθούμε και παίρνουμε μια γερή γεύση της καθημερινότητας στη ναζιστική γερμανία, γερή και πικρή γεύση.
Βαθιά ανθρωπιστής και κατά βάθος αισιόδοξος, ο Φάλαντα, δε διστάζει να ρίξει στο στόμα του λύκου και να "κάψει" τους πρωταγωνιστές του, δε διστάζει καν να τους αποδώσει ακόμη και στοιχεία ματαιότητας στον αγώνα τους, ίσως γιατί, φίλε/φίλη που διαβάζεις αυτή την κριτική, οι Κβάνγκελ υπήρξαν, όχι με την αφαιρετική έννοια του "πάντα υπάρχει ένας Κβάνγκελ που αντιστέκεται", αλλά γιατί η ιστορία βασίζεται σε πραγματικούς χαρακτήρες και γεγονότα κι αυτό είναι το πιο αισιόδοξο στοιχείο του βιβλίου. Ότι υπήρξαν πραγματικά συμπατριώτες του που δεν αφέθηκαν και προσπάθησαν.
Χωρίς αναστολές, χωρίς φόβο και με μετριασμένο πάθος, ο Φάλαντα δε διστάζει να εκθέσει τα πάντα στο μάτι του αναγνώστη. Το φόβο, το χαφιεδισμό, την αδικία, την παράνοια, την επιβράβευση της μισανθρωπίας και την πάταξη της καλοσύνης, το γιο που στρέφεται εναντίον του πατέρα και το αντίθετο, τις δίκες παρωδίες που εξευτελίζουν κάθε έννοια δικαίου, τις πρακτικές των διωτικών αρχών που δε διστάζουν να στραφούν ακόμα και εναντίον των ίδιων τους των "σκυλιών" όταν αυτά δεν αποδίδουν τα αναμενόμενα, τις συνθήκες κράτησης, τη διάχυτη κακία και μικρότητα που ξεκινάει από την κορυφή και διαποτίζει όλα τα κοινωνικά στρώματα, σε μια καθαρτήρια εξιστόρηση.
Με το βλέμμα στο μέλλον, όπως φαίνεται από το τελευταίο κομμάτι του βιβλίου, ο Φάλαντα χαιρετίζει μια ελπίδα που ήδη αχνοφαινόταν στον ορίζοντα, "σώζει το παιδί", ή ακόμη καλύτερα, βάζει το παιδί να σώζει το ίδιο τον εαυτό του, αναζητώντας ίσως μια νέα γενιά, μια νέα Γερμανία που αποποιείται το παρελθόν της και είναι έτοιμη να γυρίσει την πλάτη σε 12 χρόνια φρίκης, τρόμου, θανάτου και απαξίωσης κάθε ανθρώπινου ιδανικού.
Υποθέτω, καλό θα ήταν να διδάσκεται στα σχολεία και δεν εννοώ μόνο τα γερμανικά...
Υ.Γ. Είναι εντυπωσιακό ότι υπάρχουν ακόμη ανεγκέφαλοι (δυσλειτουργικοί μικρόφαλλοι;) που έχουν ονειρώξεις επαναφοράς τέτοιων καθεστώτων και υμνούν τους ιθύνοντές τους. Στο ντουλάπι της ιστορίας και στα τσακίδια οι απανταχού "εθνικιστές-δήθεν-πατριώτες" επίδοξοι μιμητές τους. Μια φορά είναι αρκετή για όλη την ανθρωπότητα.
Λίγα.
Μικροί και μοναχικοί θύλακες αντίστασης στην εγκληματική παράνοια του ναζισμού της περιόδου του Β'ΠΠ διεξάγουν το δικό τους αγώνα, ισχνό, αδύναμο, μάταιο ίσως, αλλά αν μη τι άλλο, δεν αφήνονται να παρασυρθούν από την πλημμυρίδα της ναζιστικής επέλασης, ορθώνουν το μικρό τους ανάστημα, μηχανεύονται τρόπους να πλήξουν στο βαθμό του δυνατού το θηρίο της ναζιστικής αποκάλυψης και το πληρώνουν πικρά.
Ωστόσο, το βιβλίο είναι αισιόδοξο.
Πέρα από το προφανές μήνυμα (ότι κανείς δεν μπορεί να τα καταφέρει μόνος του απέναντι στο μαινόμενο αλλοπρόσαλλο λεβιάθαν του ολοκληρωτισμού), δείχνει ότι ο άνθρωπος είναι ικανός ακόμα και κάτω από τις πιο αντίξοες συνθήκες να διατηρήσει την αξιοπρέπειά του, να κρατήσει τις πεποιθήσεις του και να δράσει. Ό,τι κι αν προκύψει μετά. Και απευθύνει ένα έμμεσο αλλά δριμμύ "κατηγορώ" σε όσους βολεύτηκαν και εγκλιματίστηκαν τον καιρό της παραφροσύνης, σε όσους για τη δική τους άνεση και ασφάλεια έριξαν τον πήχυ της ανθρώπινης υπόστασης στον χαμηλότερο κοινό παρονομαστή.
Η ιστορία κινείται γύρω από το ζεύγος Κβάνγκελ, που μετά το θάνατο του γιου τους στο μέτωπο στις αρχές κιόλας του πολέμου, αποφασίζουν μόνοι αυτοί να αναμετρηθούν με το Χίτλερ, διανέμοντας προκυρήξεις σε όλη την πόλη, προκυρήξεις χειρόγραφες, καλλιγραφημένες, που εκθέτουν τα κακώς κείμενα και προσπαθούν (μάταια;) να ευαισθητοποιήσουν και να κινητοποιήσουν τους βερλονιζέζους.
Σύντομα γίνονται στόχος ενός δαιμόνιου επιθεωρητή, αλλά επί μακρόν διαφύγουν τη σύλληψη, ενώ ο καιρός προχωράει και ο πόλεμος συνεχίζεται.
Ωστόσο, η καλή τύχη δε μπορεί να διαρκέσει για πάντα και ερχόμενος ο καθένας αντιμέτωπος με τις συνέπειές της δράσης του, δείχνει από τι μέταλλο είναι φτιαγμένος.
Οι Κβάνγκελ, πλαισιώνονται από μια σειρά δευτερευόντων χαρακτήρων (οι περισσότεροι είναι γείτονες στην πολοικατοικία τους) των οποία τα δράματα παρακολουθούμε και παίρνουμε μια γερή γεύση της καθημερινότητας στη ναζιστική γερμανία, γερή και πικρή γεύση.
Βαθιά ανθρωπιστής και κατά βάθος αισιόδοξος, ο Φάλαντα, δε διστάζει να ρίξει στο στόμα του λύκου και να "κάψει" τους πρωταγωνιστές του, δε διστάζει καν να τους αποδώσει ακόμη και στοιχεία ματαιότητας στον αγώνα τους, ίσως γιατί, φίλε/φίλη που διαβάζεις αυτή την κριτική, οι Κβάνγκελ υπήρξαν, όχι με την αφαιρετική έννοια του "πάντα υπάρχει ένας Κβάνγκελ που αντιστέκεται", αλλά γιατί η ιστορία βασίζεται σε πραγματικούς χαρακτήρες και γεγονότα κι αυτό είναι το πιο αισιόδοξο στοιχείο του βιβλίου. Ότι υπήρξαν πραγματικά συμπατριώτες του που δεν αφέθηκαν και προσπάθησαν.
Χωρίς αναστολές, χωρίς φόβο και με μετριασμένο πάθος, ο Φάλαντα δε διστάζει να εκθέσει τα πάντα στο μάτι του αναγνώστη. Το φόβο, το χαφιεδισμό, την αδικία, την παράνοια, την επιβράβευση της μισανθρωπίας και την πάταξη της καλοσύνης, το γιο που στρέφεται εναντίον του πατέρα και το αντίθετο, τις δίκες παρωδίες που εξευτελίζουν κάθε έννοια δικαίου, τις πρακτικές των διωτικών αρχών που δε διστάζουν να στραφούν ακόμα και εναντίον των ίδιων τους των "σκυλιών" όταν αυτά δεν αποδίδουν τα αναμενόμενα, τις συνθήκες κράτησης, τη διάχυτη κακία και μικρότητα που ξεκινάει από την κορυφή και διαποτίζει όλα τα κοινωνικά στρώματα, σε μια καθαρτήρια εξιστόρηση.
Με το βλέμμα στο μέλλον, όπως φαίνεται από το τελευταίο κομμάτι του βιβλίου, ο Φάλαντα χαιρετίζει μια ελπίδα που ήδη αχνοφαινόταν στον ορίζοντα, "σώζει το παιδί", ή ακόμη καλύτερα, βάζει το παιδί να σώζει το ίδιο τον εαυτό του, αναζητώντας ίσως μια νέα γενιά, μια νέα Γερμανία που αποποιείται το παρελθόν της και είναι έτοιμη να γυρίσει την πλάτη σε 12 χρόνια φρίκης, τρόμου, θανάτου και απαξίωσης κάθε ανθρώπινου ιδανικού.
Υποθέτω, καλό θα ήταν να διδάσκεται στα σχολεία και δεν εννοώ μόνο τα γερμανικά...
Υ.Γ. Είναι εντυπωσιακό ότι υπάρχουν ακόμη ανεγκέφαλοι (δυσλειτουργικοί μικρόφαλλοι;) που έχουν ονειρώξεις επαναφοράς τέτοιων καθεστώτων και υμνούν τους ιθύνοντές τους. Στο ντουλάπι της ιστορίας και στα τσακίδια οι απανταχού "εθνικιστές-δήθεν-πατριώτες" επίδοξοι μιμητές τους. Μια φορά είναι αρκετή για όλη την ανθρωπότητα.
May 25, 2025
Based on a true story, a couple take simple but very risky action to show their discontent of Hitler and what he has Germans doing.
Starting in 1940, around the time of the invasion of France, Otto and Anna Quangel make their decision. What follows is how this couple make their decisions and shows how their actions affect them and others.
There are many reviews on GR, and so I'll leave my comments as brief as this. I recommend Alone in Berlin to those with an interest in WWII Nazi Germany or those who would learn about characters in extreme situations and how they act, think, and feel.
Originally published in German in 1947, my copy is an English language Penguin Classics edition, printed in 2009. 569 pages, with an Afterword by Geoff Wilkes and a summary of the real story using the Gestapo files on Otto and Elsie Hampel.
Translated ably by Michael Hofman.
Starting in 1940, around the time of the invasion of France, Otto and Anna Quangel make their decision. What follows is how this couple make their decisions and shows how their actions affect them and others.
There are many reviews on GR, and so I'll leave my comments as brief as this. I recommend Alone in Berlin to those with an interest in WWII Nazi Germany or those who would learn about characters in extreme situations and how they act, think, and feel.
Originally published in German in 1947, my copy is an English language Penguin Classics edition, printed in 2009. 569 pages, with an Afterword by Geoff Wilkes and a summary of the real story using the Gestapo files on Otto and Elsie Hampel.
Translated ably by Michael Hofman.
February 18, 2018
Agghiacciante. Allucinante.
E' un romanzo.
Ma è stato scritto quasi "in diretta" (è uscito nel 1947).
Quindi qualcuno che si opponeva c'era.
Quindi era possibile opporsi.
Quindi era possibile essere contro e non accettare acriticamente tutto quello che imponeva il regime nazista, per paura.
Quindi è ancora più orribile quello che è successo.
(lo so che questo discorso è da anime candide, e non tiene conto di tutte le variabile dell'hic et nunc. ma rimane il fatto che opporsi era possibile)
E' un romanzo.
Ma è stato scritto quasi "in diretta" (è uscito nel 1947).
Quindi qualcuno che si opponeva c'era.
Quindi era possibile opporsi.
Quindi era possibile essere contro e non accettare acriticamente tutto quello che imponeva il regime nazista, per paura.
Quindi è ancora più orribile quello che è successo.
(lo so che questo discorso è da anime candide, e non tiene conto di tutte le variabile dell'hic et nunc. ma rimane il fatto che opporsi era possibile)
August 11, 2017
Θα συμφωνήσω απολύτως με μία κριτική που διάβασα εδώ μέσα. Αυτά τα βιβλία θα έπρεπε να διδάσκονται στο σχολείο. Ανάγνωσμα για γερά στομάχια......
May 17, 2026
٨٥٠ صفحة من السرد السلس الذي يغمرك بالأحداث، يكتنفك بأجواءه، ويفعمك بشتى أنواع العواطف
تصوّر هذه الرواية المجتمع الألماني بكل أطيافه في ذروة سطوة النازية. هناك الانتهازي، المظلوم، المتماهي، الغاضب الصامت والمقاوم في الخفاء.
يطرح النص أسئلة عن المسؤولية الفردية حين يغدو المجتمع برمّته مسعوراً، وما إذا كان فعل الفرد قد يحدث فرقاً، خاصةً إذا كان الثمن لتلك المقاومة البسيطة هو حياته.
هناك فصول مؤلمة جداً، ليست فقط تلك التي تجري أحداثها في السجن. فقد كانت البلاد كلها سجناً من نوع خاص، تكمم فبه الأفواه، وتراقب فبه التحركات، وتخوّن فيه النوايا. هذا ويميز السرد عدم تركيزها على معاناة اليهود، مثل أغلب الروايات التي توثق تلك الحقبة، بل على كافة شرائح الشعب. أما أفضل ما في الرواية هو التصوير البديع لعلاقة الزوجين المسنين: أوتو وآنا، والتغيرات الواقعية التي مرا بها منذ بدء الرواية وحتى نهايتها.
أما آخر فصل في الرواية فله نكهة خاصة، أترك الحديث عنه لتتذوقها بنفسك، يا صديقي، إن كنت تنوي قراءتها.
تصوّر هذه الرواية المجتمع الألماني بكل أطيافه في ذروة سطوة النازية. هناك الانتهازي، المظلوم، المتماهي، الغاضب الصامت والمقاوم في الخفاء.
يطرح النص أسئلة عن المسؤولية الفردية حين يغدو المجتمع برمّته مسعوراً، وما إذا كان فعل الفرد قد يحدث فرقاً، خاصةً إذا كان الثمن لتلك المقاومة البسيطة هو حياته.
هناك فصول مؤلمة جداً، ليست فقط تلك التي تجري أحداثها في السجن. فقد كانت البلاد كلها سجناً من نوع خاص، تكمم فبه الأفواه، وتراقب فبه التحركات، وتخوّن فيه النوايا. هذا ويميز السرد عدم تركيزها على معاناة اليهود، مثل أغلب الروايات التي توثق تلك الحقبة، بل على كافة شرائح الشعب. أما أفضل ما في الرواية هو التصوير البديع لعلاقة الزوجين المسنين: أوتو وآنا، والتغيرات الواقعية التي مرا بها منذ بدء الرواية وحتى نهايتها.
أما آخر فصل في الرواية فله نكهة خاصة، أترك الحديث عنه لتتذوقها بنفسك، يا صديقي، إن كنت تنوي قراءتها.
October 2, 2023
کتاب در مورد پیرمردی به نام اوتو و همسرش است که فرزندشان را در جنگ از دست دادهاند. آنها ساکن برلین هستند، حالا آنها علیه قاتلان کارت پستال مینویسند و به این ترتیب فصل جدیدی از زندگیشان آغاز میشود. فصلی از آغاز مبارزه در زمان هیتلر. زوجی که آغازگر یک شورش کوچک علی پیشوا هستند... داستان نمایانگر اوضاع برلین است، در طول جنگ جهانی دوم، سالهای ۱۹۴۰ تا ۱۹۴۳...
مبارزه در کنار سوگواری قطعا برای از دست دادن فرزند برای پدر و مادر واقعا کار سختی است، که به وضوح در بین خطوط کتاب حس میشه.
کتاب داستان یک انتقام است، اما انتقامی شیرین....
اما قرار نیست این کتاب با مرگ تمام شود، این کتاب به زندگی تقدیم شده است، زندگی شکستناپذیری که همیشه از نو بر ننگ و اشک، بر سیهروزی و مرگ پیروز میشود.
مبارزه در کنار سوگواری قطعا برای از دست دادن فرزند برای پدر و مادر واقعا کار سختی است، که به وضوح در بین خطوط کتاب حس میشه.
کتاب داستان یک انتقام است، اما انتقامی شیرین....
اما قرار نیست این کتاب با مرگ تمام شود، این کتاب به زندگی تقدیم شده است، زندگی شکستناپذیری که همیشه از نو بر ننگ و اشک، بر سیهروزی و مرگ پیروز میشود.
January 1, 2018
Berlin, 1940. While Hitler celebrates conquering France, a working class German couple – Otto and Anna Quangel – mourn the passing of their son, Ottochen, who fell in the fighting. Bitterly upset at the Fuhrer, they begin a quiet campaign of civil disobedience against his Third Reich, dropping hand-made postcards with anti-Nazi slogans printed on them across Berlin. The treasonous postcards are soon noticed and the Gestapo quickly take up the hunt for the culprits – but how long can the Quangels evade capture?
German writer Hans Fallada’s novel Alone in Berlin (published in America under the title Every Man Dies Alone) was written in just 24 days in 1946. Fallada (real name Rudolf Ditzen) passed away from heart failure, after decades of drug and alcohol abuse, mere months after completing it, and never saw its publication in 1947. Despite doing well in both East and West Germany in the ensuing years, the book wasn’t published in English until 2009 when it became a surprise bestseller. And it’s easy to see why – Alone in Berlin is an excellent novel!
After the war, Fallada was given the Gestapo file on Otto and Elise Hampel and used their brave, but doomed, campaign of low-key opposition as the basis for his novel. Names are changed here and there, as are the way the characters meet their fates, and Fallada uses the novelist’s prerogative to dramatize his narrative, but the main characters are based on real people from the defiant Quangels to the tenacious and formidable Gestapo Inspector Escherich right down to the utterly despicable Nazi Judge Feisler towards the end.
It is a very long read at nearly 600 pages and it takes a while to get going, so, if you’re going to give it a shot, be patient with it. I can also understand people’s criticisms about the narrative containing too many tangents. Fallada gives a lot of chapters to a couple of inessential side characters, deadbeats Enno Kluge and Emil Borkhausen, whose stories are only very tenuously connected to the Quangels’. It would definitely be a more streamlined novel had they been eschewed entirely. The same could be said of the story of the disgusting Nazi family, the Persickes, and their black-hearted SS son Baldur.
Then again, if you just want the bare facts, go read the Wikipedia entry on the Hampels instead. Like any writer worth his salt, Fallada is more concerned with the art of fiction writing like creating atmosphere, characters, as well as a real feeling and understanding of this insane time to better understand the people involved and their actions. How else to grasp the overblown reaction to the Quangels’ small, almost quaint, postcards, upon which were written simplistic things along the lines of “Hitler is a liar!”, than to experience the fearful and oppressive atmosphere of life than through a sampling of its society? Also, the myriad stories were largely entertaining and I was rarely bored with anything I was reading, regardless of relevance to the primary plotline.
More importantly the wider cast serves as a reminder that there were many German people who secretly hated and resisted Hitler and his war and that the Nazis were not representative of the country as a whole – as a Brit, I get the impression that all Germans from this time get unfairly tarred with the same brush. Those not in concentration camps could still easily become victims and prisoners themselves thanks to horribly corrupt and brutal institutions like the Gestapo making their everyday lives hell.
All of which sounds like a thoroughly depressing read, no? It is and it isn’t. Because, though Fallada treats the subject matter with the utmost respect - not to mention the incidence of characters committing suicide, getting murdered, suffering miscarriages, and being executed! - it’s never overwhelmingly grim, melodramatic or sentimental so it doesn’t wear you down emotionally too much. Quite often it weirdly reads like a thriller and, after the initial slow start, it really picks up steam the deeper into it you go; as odd as it sounds given all that, I found it a very enjoyable read.
Fallada was undeniably a talented writer and, though his character portraits of certain characters – particularly the Nazis – were one-dimensional, he importantly gives the main ones necessary nuance to stand out. Gestapo Inspector Escherich is an especially memorable and imposing figure whose own fate came as a shock - he strongly reminded me of Christoph Waltz’s Hans Landa from Inglourious Basterds.
It has some fat to it that might do with some selective editing as some passages (the interrogation scenes) are a bit dull and slow but on the whole Alone in Berlin is a compelling and exciting novel that paints a vivid and startling image of life in wartime Germany at the very heart of the Third Reich. As well as cementing his own literary legacy with this book, Fallada ensured the courageous sacrifices of Otto and Elise Hampel live on through the years to be discovered by new generations of readers - a powerful story that deserves to be remembered. Alone in Berlin is a remarkable novel I’m glad to have read.
German writer Hans Fallada’s novel Alone in Berlin (published in America under the title Every Man Dies Alone) was written in just 24 days in 1946. Fallada (real name Rudolf Ditzen) passed away from heart failure, after decades of drug and alcohol abuse, mere months after completing it, and never saw its publication in 1947. Despite doing well in both East and West Germany in the ensuing years, the book wasn’t published in English until 2009 when it became a surprise bestseller. And it’s easy to see why – Alone in Berlin is an excellent novel!
After the war, Fallada was given the Gestapo file on Otto and Elise Hampel and used their brave, but doomed, campaign of low-key opposition as the basis for his novel. Names are changed here and there, as are the way the characters meet their fates, and Fallada uses the novelist’s prerogative to dramatize his narrative, but the main characters are based on real people from the defiant Quangels to the tenacious and formidable Gestapo Inspector Escherich right down to the utterly despicable Nazi Judge Feisler towards the end.
It is a very long read at nearly 600 pages and it takes a while to get going, so, if you’re going to give it a shot, be patient with it. I can also understand people’s criticisms about the narrative containing too many tangents. Fallada gives a lot of chapters to a couple of inessential side characters, deadbeats Enno Kluge and Emil Borkhausen, whose stories are only very tenuously connected to the Quangels’. It would definitely be a more streamlined novel had they been eschewed entirely. The same could be said of the story of the disgusting Nazi family, the Persickes, and their black-hearted SS son Baldur.
Then again, if you just want the bare facts, go read the Wikipedia entry on the Hampels instead. Like any writer worth his salt, Fallada is more concerned with the art of fiction writing like creating atmosphere, characters, as well as a real feeling and understanding of this insane time to better understand the people involved and their actions. How else to grasp the overblown reaction to the Quangels’ small, almost quaint, postcards, upon which were written simplistic things along the lines of “Hitler is a liar!”, than to experience the fearful and oppressive atmosphere of life than through a sampling of its society? Also, the myriad stories were largely entertaining and I was rarely bored with anything I was reading, regardless of relevance to the primary plotline.
More importantly the wider cast serves as a reminder that there were many German people who secretly hated and resisted Hitler and his war and that the Nazis were not representative of the country as a whole – as a Brit, I get the impression that all Germans from this time get unfairly tarred with the same brush. Those not in concentration camps could still easily become victims and prisoners themselves thanks to horribly corrupt and brutal institutions like the Gestapo making their everyday lives hell.
All of which sounds like a thoroughly depressing read, no? It is and it isn’t. Because, though Fallada treats the subject matter with the utmost respect - not to mention the incidence of characters committing suicide, getting murdered, suffering miscarriages, and being executed! - it’s never overwhelmingly grim, melodramatic or sentimental so it doesn’t wear you down emotionally too much. Quite often it weirdly reads like a thriller and, after the initial slow start, it really picks up steam the deeper into it you go; as odd as it sounds given all that, I found it a very enjoyable read.
Fallada was undeniably a talented writer and, though his character portraits of certain characters – particularly the Nazis – were one-dimensional, he importantly gives the main ones necessary nuance to stand out. Gestapo Inspector Escherich is an especially memorable and imposing figure whose own fate came as a shock - he strongly reminded me of Christoph Waltz’s Hans Landa from Inglourious Basterds.
It has some fat to it that might do with some selective editing as some passages (the interrogation scenes) are a bit dull and slow but on the whole Alone in Berlin is a compelling and exciting novel that paints a vivid and startling image of life in wartime Germany at the very heart of the Third Reich. As well as cementing his own literary legacy with this book, Fallada ensured the courageous sacrifices of Otto and Elise Hampel live on through the years to be discovered by new generations of readers - a powerful story that deserves to be remembered. Alone in Berlin is a remarkable novel I’m glad to have read.
January 18, 2023
"Suddenly sober, he says, 'Perhaps there are already many thinking as we do. Thousands of men must have fallen. Maybe there are already writers like us. But that doesn't matter, Anna! What do we care? It's we who must do it!'"
This novel, written in 1946, just before Fallada’s death is based on a true story. Elise and Otto Hampel were a working class couple in Berlin. Early in the war Elise’s brother was killed in action. They began a silent protest against the Nazis and the war: by writing postcards. For over two years they secretly distributed hundreds of postcards, on which they wrote criticisms of the regime. They put them in all sorts of places and for two years they baffled the Berlin Police. The case was eventually handed over to the Gestapo, who assumed they were dealing with a group of people. They were eventually caught and executed (by beheading) in March 1943.
Fallada takes this story and turns it into this novel. He adds a number of secondary characters. The main characters are Anna and Otto Quangel. They live in an apartment block and we follow the lives of the residents as well. Fallada also follows the police/Gestapo investigation as well. It is the Quangel’s son Otto who dies in action in the novel and triggers the postcard writing. It’s a long novel, almost 600 pages, and despite what Penguin say, it’s not a thriller.
Fallada wrote this over a period of two months, he was dying at the time. He had been addicted to alcohol and morphine and spent a significant amount of time in psychiatric institutions. His relationship to the authorities was always ambivalent.
“Then he [Otto] picked up the pen, and said softly but clearly, ‘The first sentence of our first card will read: ‘Mother! The Führer has murdered my son.’’
Once again, she [Anna] shivered. There was something so bleak, so gloomy, so determined in the words Otto had just spoken. At that instant she grasped that this very first sentence was Otto’s absolute and irrevocable declaration of war, and also what that meant: war between, on the one side, the two of them, poor, small, insignificant workers who could be extinguished for just a word or two, and on the other, the Führer, the Party, the whole apparatus in all its power and glory, with three-fourths or even four-fifths of the German people behind it. And the two of them in this little room in Jablonski Strasse!”
This is bleak, with a few shafts of light and portrays a futile, yet principled resistance against a totalitarian regime. It’s a story still relevant. It’s probably a bit too long, but it’s a great study of human reaction to an oppressive regime.
“Well, it will have helped us to feel that we behaved decently till the end. […] Of course, Quangel, it would have been a hundred times better if we’d had someone who could have told us, such and such is what you have to do; our plan is this and this. But if there had been such a man in Germany, then Hitler would never have come to power in 1933. As it was, we all acted alone, we were caught alone, and every one of us will have to die alone. But that doesn’t mean that we ARE alone, or that our deaths will be in vain. Nothing in this world is done in vain, and since we are fighting for justice against brutality, we are bound to prevail in the end.”
This novel, written in 1946, just before Fallada’s death is based on a true story. Elise and Otto Hampel were a working class couple in Berlin. Early in the war Elise’s brother was killed in action. They began a silent protest against the Nazis and the war: by writing postcards. For over two years they secretly distributed hundreds of postcards, on which they wrote criticisms of the regime. They put them in all sorts of places and for two years they baffled the Berlin Police. The case was eventually handed over to the Gestapo, who assumed they were dealing with a group of people. They were eventually caught and executed (by beheading) in March 1943.
Fallada takes this story and turns it into this novel. He adds a number of secondary characters. The main characters are Anna and Otto Quangel. They live in an apartment block and we follow the lives of the residents as well. Fallada also follows the police/Gestapo investigation as well. It is the Quangel’s son Otto who dies in action in the novel and triggers the postcard writing. It’s a long novel, almost 600 pages, and despite what Penguin say, it’s not a thriller.
Fallada wrote this over a period of two months, he was dying at the time. He had been addicted to alcohol and morphine and spent a significant amount of time in psychiatric institutions. His relationship to the authorities was always ambivalent.
“Then he [Otto] picked up the pen, and said softly but clearly, ‘The first sentence of our first card will read: ‘Mother! The Führer has murdered my son.’’
Once again, she [Anna] shivered. There was something so bleak, so gloomy, so determined in the words Otto had just spoken. At that instant she grasped that this very first sentence was Otto’s absolute and irrevocable declaration of war, and also what that meant: war between, on the one side, the two of them, poor, small, insignificant workers who could be extinguished for just a word or two, and on the other, the Führer, the Party, the whole apparatus in all its power and glory, with three-fourths or even four-fifths of the German people behind it. And the two of them in this little room in Jablonski Strasse!”
This is bleak, with a few shafts of light and portrays a futile, yet principled resistance against a totalitarian regime. It’s a story still relevant. It’s probably a bit too long, but it’s a great study of human reaction to an oppressive regime.
“Well, it will have helped us to feel that we behaved decently till the end. […] Of course, Quangel, it would have been a hundred times better if we’d had someone who could have told us, such and such is what you have to do; our plan is this and this. But if there had been such a man in Germany, then Hitler would never have come to power in 1933. As it was, we all acted alone, we were caught alone, and every one of us will have to die alone. But that doesn’t mean that we ARE alone, or that our deaths will be in vain. Nothing in this world is done in vain, and since we are fighting for justice against brutality, we are bound to prevail in the end.”
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