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Motherland
Motherland is inspired by stories from the author’s father and his German childhood, and letters between her grandparents that were hidden in an attic wall for fifty years. It is the author’s attempt to reckon with the paradox of her father—a product of her grandparents’ fiercely protective love and their status as Mitläufer, Germans who “went along” with Nazism, first reaping its benefits and later its consequences.
This page-turning novel focuses on the Kappus family: Frank is a reconstructive surgeon who lost his beloved wife in childbirth and two months later married a young woman who must look after the baby and his two grieving sons when he is drafted into medical military service. Alone in the house, Liesl must attempt to keep the children fed with dwindling food supplies, safe from the constant Allied air attacks, and protected against the swell of desperate refugees flooding their town. When one child begins to mentally unravel, Liesl must discover the source of the boy’s infirmity or lose him forever to Hadamar, the infamous hospital for “unfit” children. The novel bears witness to the shame and courage of Third Reich families during the devastating last days of the war, as each family member’s fateful choices lead them deeper into questions of complicity and innocence, to the novel’s heartbreaking and unforgettable conclusion.
This page-turning novel focuses on the Kappus family: Frank is a reconstructive surgeon who lost his beloved wife in childbirth and two months later married a young woman who must look after the baby and his two grieving sons when he is drafted into medical military service. Alone in the house, Liesl must attempt to keep the children fed with dwindling food supplies, safe from the constant Allied air attacks, and protected against the swell of desperate refugees flooding their town. When one child begins to mentally unravel, Liesl must discover the source of the boy’s infirmity or lose him forever to Hadamar, the infamous hospital for “unfit” children. The novel bears witness to the shame and courage of Third Reich families during the devastating last days of the war, as each family member’s fateful choices lead them deeper into questions of complicity and innocence, to the novel’s heartbreaking and unforgettable conclusion.
382 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 14, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 334 reviews
January 13, 2024
3.5 stars: An interesting historical fiction work of WWII. Maria Hummel manages to write a novel of which is compassionate towards the German people during Nazi Germany’s reign. Influenced by letters her Grandmother wrote to her Grandfather in 1945, Hummel creatively writes of a fictional family and their struggles towards the end of WWII. War is hell, and no one “wins” during a war. Hummel manages to humanize the regular folk during a hideous time in their lives. While it’s easy for all of us to sit in judgment in our comfy homes on our comfy couches, most of us, thankfully, do not understand the trauma that basic citizens were under when their country went to war, for reasons that they didn’t always understand. I was one who sat in judgment and distain, not understanding how a basic human could allow such atrocities to happen “in front of their very eyes”. I am grateful to the writers who are able to shed another light to a disgusting time. Hummel allows readers to see the grey. It’s so easy to be judgmental in black and white. I am grateful to those authors who give us the opportunity to see grey.
August 9, 2014
This is a stunningly important book, highly recommended for anyone who is willing to consider the infinite complexities of World War II. As a daughter of a survivor of Buchenwald, I was expecting to feel disturbed and challenged by this novel --- but I want to say that Maria Hummel deserves vast credit for her thoroughly-researched and profoundly compassionate view of the "side-lined" players in a horrible drama. It's beautifully written and deeply humane.
February 14, 2014
Set in Germany in the winter of 1944/1945, Motherland is a well written and profoundly sad story inspired by the author’s father and grandparents.
I read a lot of non-fiction and historical fiction about Europe in the 1930’s and 1940’s as I am fascinated by what happened and why it happened. I am interested the stories of German citizens during this time period. It is easy to judge them in hindsight, but I am curious about their thoughts, actions and reactions as the Nazis rise to and take power. I appreciate the author’s efforts to eliminate hindsight from her writing so she could truly explore her characters’ situation and fears.
I gave this book four stars, but I warn you, it is a difficult read because the author does an incredible job of transporting you to the Kappus home that hard winter. I identified with Liesl as she struggled to keep her three step sons fed, warm and safe. As she worried about her husband, a doctor at a hospital, and her fear that he would desert to come home at her request. I was so transported to the small town of Hannesburg that at times I just had to put the book down because I wanted to sob from feeling overwhelmed and defeated. Those negative emotions are the results of great writing.
I read a lot of non-fiction and historical fiction about Europe in the 1930’s and 1940’s as I am fascinated by what happened and why it happened. I am interested the stories of German citizens during this time period. It is easy to judge them in hindsight, but I am curious about their thoughts, actions and reactions as the Nazis rise to and take power. I appreciate the author’s efforts to eliminate hindsight from her writing so she could truly explore her characters’ situation and fears.
I gave this book four stars, but I warn you, it is a difficult read because the author does an incredible job of transporting you to the Kappus home that hard winter. I identified with Liesl as she struggled to keep her three step sons fed, warm and safe. As she worried about her husband, a doctor at a hospital, and her fear that he would desert to come home at her request. I was so transported to the small town of Hannesburg that at times I just had to put the book down because I wanted to sob from feeling overwhelmed and defeated. Those negative emotions are the results of great writing.
October 6, 2013
This compelling and very moving book focuses on the Kappus family. Frank is a reconstructive surgeon called away on military duty, leaving his young second wife Liesl at home with his 3 small children from his first marriage. Almost overwhelmed at times by the struggle to survive in wartime with its shortages, the constant air raids and being forced to share her house with some less than congenial refugees, Liesl does what it takes to keep her family together and safe. Her biggest challenge is the middle child, whose psychological state is not only a concern on a personal level but also because of the Nazi regime’s attitude to the damaged and disabled. This results in the very real fear that the child may be taken from her and placed in Hadamar, a home for the handicapped and where his fate would almost certainly be horrific.
This is very much a behind-the-scenes story of what it was like for ordinary Germans coping with wartime conditions, how torn apart ordinary families were and the conflicts they had to face about the regime and their country, and their complicity or otherwise in what was going on. It’s a very human story, and Liesl is unforgettable as not only a very real character but also as a symbol of motherhood and sacrifice. Disaster seems to be just around the corner the whole way through the novel, making for an unsettling and tense read, and one that lingers long after reaching the last page.
My thanks to Netgalley for sending me a copy.
This is very much a behind-the-scenes story of what it was like for ordinary Germans coping with wartime conditions, how torn apart ordinary families were and the conflicts they had to face about the regime and their country, and their complicity or otherwise in what was going on. It’s a very human story, and Liesl is unforgettable as not only a very real character but also as a symbol of motherhood and sacrifice. Disaster seems to be just around the corner the whole way through the novel, making for an unsettling and tense read, and one that lingers long after reaching the last page.
My thanks to Netgalley for sending me a copy.
June 10, 2014
I find it often happens that I read 2 or 3 books in a row that are similar in some way. I read a lot so it might just be coincidence, but I wonder if there's something I'm subconsciously trying to learn more about when that happens. Anyway, I've just read 2 books in a row about the effect of war on families, Wake, and now Motherland. Both books focus primarily on war's impact on women and thus (unsurprisingly) deliver an anti-war message. The titles of both books have multiple meanings. Motherland, of course, refers to the country of your birth, which is significant in war. But I took an additional meaning from the title. Liesl marries a widowed surgeon right before he is drafted into the German Army to repair war-damaged soldiers. So she is left to care for his 3 sons, whom she must learn to know, come into conflict with, and begin to fiercely love. She is new to the world of mothering ('mother-land') and learns it under the harrowing conditions in Germany in early 1945 as both the Americans and the Russians close in. The author also makes a contrast between motherland and fatherland as the national "parent" as the mighty Third Reich Fatherland falters and the German people must fall back on caring for each other in a more motherly way.
Another similarity between this book and Wake was that both books contain a character who is damaged by war and wanders off in a way. I couldn't help but make the connection to the current controversy over poor Bowe Bergdahl.
This is one of the things I love the most about reading: making connections, both between different books, and with other people who have read the same things I've read - and now with readers of my own newly-published novel The Saint's Mistress.
Another similarity between this book and Wake was that both books contain a character who is damaged by war and wanders off in a way. I couldn't help but make the connection to the current controversy over poor Bowe Bergdahl.
This is one of the things I love the most about reading: making connections, both between different books, and with other people who have read the same things I've read - and now with readers of my own newly-published novel The Saint's Mistress.
April 22, 2015
The premise of this piece of WWII historical fiction inspired me to read this book. The author’s grandfather was a reconstructive surgeon in Germany who lost his wife in childbirth and remarried a young woman soon thereafter. When he was drafted into military service he had to leave his three young sons with his new wife. Letters passed back and forth. These letters were secreted in an attic wall for fifty years before they were found and returned to the family. Author Maria Hummel is the granddaughter of this German surgeon...so she tells this story in novel form from a German perspective and it is based on actual happenings that the author’s father and grandparents experienced. This intrigued me.
However, for me this book has several drawbacks.
First, it was work to read this book. The author definitely set a dark wartime mood but I felt there were many awkward, unclear sentences and passages....somewhat bumpy writing. There was one sentence that was completely garbled and oddly punctuated which somehow escaped the editor. The desire to unravel the medical mystery in the story and curiosity about the family’s outcome were the only reasons to keep reading.
Second, I do NOT think the author really treated her story with an accurate rendering of what her German characters knew about what was really going on in their own country regarding the murder of Jews and other undesirables. The word “Jew" was barely mentioned in this book. I think author Hummel understandably wanted to paint her grandparents with a non-judgmental eye, but it only made them look pathetically ignorant of what was going on nearly under their nose. The mother in this story had worked at a spa patronized by Nazi officials in high command before she married the doctor (the author’s grandfather) who visited there. She didn’t overhear anything of what was going on? At one point the neighbor who lives in the villa just yards away and has ties high in the Nazi Party moves a large shipment of crates into his house....no curiosity about these unusual goings-on? (Hint: Think ‘paintings’....)The doctor (her grandfather) worked at a hospital very close to Buchenwald and did not know what was going on? The staff never talked amongst themselves? I did not buy this pretense at ignorance and I was sorry that the author felt she had to paint them as such duped citizens of Nazi Germany.
Her goal, I guess, was to tell the story of her grandparents’ particular struggle during this dark season of wartime, but I fear that it greatly pales alongside what was happening to other grandparents who happened to be of Semitic heritage. I’m not sure whether there is a ‘good’ or redemptive way to write this very personal story, given the complicity of most German citizens in one of history's most destructive rampages.
However, for me this book has several drawbacks.
First, it was work to read this book. The author definitely set a dark wartime mood but I felt there were many awkward, unclear sentences and passages....somewhat bumpy writing. There was one sentence that was completely garbled and oddly punctuated which somehow escaped the editor. The desire to unravel the medical mystery in the story and curiosity about the family’s outcome were the only reasons to keep reading.
Second, I do NOT think the author really treated her story with an accurate rendering of what her German characters knew about what was really going on in their own country regarding the murder of Jews and other undesirables. The word “Jew" was barely mentioned in this book. I think author Hummel understandably wanted to paint her grandparents with a non-judgmental eye, but it only made them look pathetically ignorant of what was going on nearly under their nose. The mother in this story had worked at a spa patronized by Nazi officials in high command before she married the doctor (the author’s grandfather) who visited there. She didn’t overhear anything of what was going on? At one point the neighbor who lives in the villa just yards away and has ties high in the Nazi Party moves a large shipment of crates into his house....no curiosity about these unusual goings-on? (Hint: Think ‘paintings’....)The doctor (her grandfather) worked at a hospital very close to Buchenwald and did not know what was going on? The staff never talked amongst themselves? I did not buy this pretense at ignorance and I was sorry that the author felt she had to paint them as such duped citizens of Nazi Germany.
Her goal, I guess, was to tell the story of her grandparents’ particular struggle during this dark season of wartime, but I fear that it greatly pales alongside what was happening to other grandparents who happened to be of Semitic heritage. I’m not sure whether there is a ‘good’ or redemptive way to write this very personal story, given the complicity of most German citizens in one of history's most destructive rampages.
February 10, 2014
It easier to understand the world if one thinks in black and white. Shades of gray are more challenging. Inspired by the true story of her paternal grandparents, author Maria Hummel tells the story of one German family trying stay alive and intact during the final days of Hitler's Nazi regime.
Hummel's author notes share that what began with a question of complicity turned into a story of family. She faced the challenge of writing a Holocaust story without Jews.
During war people struggle. That struggle can take many forms. It is in our humanness that we sometimes fail but family and love can make it all worthwhile.
Hummel's author notes share that what began with a question of complicity turned into a story of family. She faced the challenge of writing a Holocaust story without Jews.
During war people struggle. That struggle can take many forms. It is in our humanness that we sometimes fail but family and love can make it all worthwhile.
January 14, 2014
I just finished Motherland and can't stop thinking about it. What an emotional, haunting, brillent novel. I am haunted by the family that the novel followed and my thoughts linger on what happened to them after the novel ends.
When you start Motherland give it a few chapters and you will soon become part of the struggles of the characters and will feel the danger and struggles they go through.
Must be a top novel of 2014!
When you start Motherland give it a few chapters and you will soon become part of the struggles of the characters and will feel the danger and struggles they go through.
Must be a top novel of 2014!
September 7, 2016
This was an excellent story about an "ordinary" German family (aka non political) living under Nazi rule, subject matter that fascinates me. It was based upon the stories and letters of the author's father and paternal grandparents. It is not only extremely readable and entertaining, but it is very well written, authentic and factual. It was hard to put down.
I am speculating that the book title is "Motherland" because of the fact that the women basically ran the households (and everything else) during the war while the men were off fighting. In this particular story, a young woman married a newly widowed surgeon with three children. The surgeon almost immediately got drafted and left her to raise his children and run the household, no easy task with food shortages and shortages of every other kind. I often wonder how the women ever managed it.
I highly recommend this to fans of good WW 2 historical fiction or to anyone who simply enjoys a really good story.
I am speculating that the book title is "Motherland" because of the fact that the women basically ran the households (and everything else) during the war while the men were off fighting. In this particular story, a young woman married a newly widowed surgeon with three children. The surgeon almost immediately got drafted and left her to raise his children and run the household, no easy task with food shortages and shortages of every other kind. I often wonder how the women ever managed it.
I highly recommend this to fans of good WW 2 historical fiction or to anyone who simply enjoys a really good story.
February 19, 2014
I loved this book. Even though it is about Germany during WWII, it is not about concentration camps but rather a German woman just trying to keep her family safe during the end of the war. Any mother could put herself in her shoes and appreciate the extent she will go to for her family. Very descriptive and well written, I highly recommend.
September 27, 2014
In 1980 a couple living in Germany renovating their home found letters in the wall, hidden by a German hospital worker who had deserted his post as a radiologist and was making his way back to his wife and children in the final days of WW2. The letters belonged to the author's grandfather.
These events are the basis of the novel "Motherland". Maria Hummel does a great job of telling the story in an impartial way (I used to think, "HOW could the German citizens NOT know what was happening?" now I think I understand why...), while, at the same time providing the reader with such genuine-ness in characters that they are caught up in the story and can't help reading to find out what happens!
"She couldn't name the day it started to change - maybe the afternoon she'd met Frank, or maybe eavesdropping on the Hadamar doctor, or maybe when the quiet, gentle piano player disappeared because he was rumored to have Jewish blood. Maybe it was the first air ride siren, or the tenth....
... at some point after 1940, after Paris fell and London was burning, a new kind of etiquette swept through them all like a chilly wind. Suddenly trust and good faith were out of fashion, and it was more seemly to be careful about what you said and to whom you said it. Imperceptibly, Liesl's anxiety deepened, worsened as the Wehrmacht began to lose instead of win, as more citizens were drafted to military projects in the east, and gaunt, dull-eyed gangs of political prisoners fixed the streets...
A wrong word might get you a bad assignment. Liesl found her eyes shifting from side to side as she spoke, checking to see who was listening."
The author has done a great job of writing about the lives of ordinary German citizens and involving the reader in the sad events of the latter end of WW2. Not a pretty story, but one of hardship, survival, family love and sacrifice, and one that will make the reader think and consider how life might have been for thousands of German citizens who did not support Hitler's regime in wartime but had to live with the ramifications of those in power.
"You know what I do?" said Frau Winter as Liesl poured the milk, wincing as the glass burned her fingertips. It was too hot.
From the rooms above she heard Jurgen begin to cry.
"No," Liesl snapped. She topped off the bottle with cold milk from the icebox. Was it still too hot? She couldn't tell.
"I think they are running around and around because they are looking for their father," said Frau Winter. "And they can't find him anywhere."
Their father. She tested the milk with her finger. She couldn't tell.
The baby's cry shook her skull.
"And so I tell them that Fuhrer is their father. The Fuhrer is watching them," Frau Winter said from behind her. "Because maybe they aren't scared of me. But they are always scared of him."
These events are the basis of the novel "Motherland". Maria Hummel does a great job of telling the story in an impartial way (I used to think, "HOW could the German citizens NOT know what was happening?" now I think I understand why...), while, at the same time providing the reader with such genuine-ness in characters that they are caught up in the story and can't help reading to find out what happens!
"She couldn't name the day it started to change - maybe the afternoon she'd met Frank, or maybe eavesdropping on the Hadamar doctor, or maybe when the quiet, gentle piano player disappeared because he was rumored to have Jewish blood. Maybe it was the first air ride siren, or the tenth....
... at some point after 1940, after Paris fell and London was burning, a new kind of etiquette swept through them all like a chilly wind. Suddenly trust and good faith were out of fashion, and it was more seemly to be careful about what you said and to whom you said it. Imperceptibly, Liesl's anxiety deepened, worsened as the Wehrmacht began to lose instead of win, as more citizens were drafted to military projects in the east, and gaunt, dull-eyed gangs of political prisoners fixed the streets...
A wrong word might get you a bad assignment. Liesl found her eyes shifting from side to side as she spoke, checking to see who was listening."
The author has done a great job of writing about the lives of ordinary German citizens and involving the reader in the sad events of the latter end of WW2. Not a pretty story, but one of hardship, survival, family love and sacrifice, and one that will make the reader think and consider how life might have been for thousands of German citizens who did not support Hitler's regime in wartime but had to live with the ramifications of those in power.
"You know what I do?" said Frau Winter as Liesl poured the milk, wincing as the glass burned her fingertips. It was too hot.
From the rooms above she heard Jurgen begin to cry.
"No," Liesl snapped. She topped off the bottle with cold milk from the icebox. Was it still too hot? She couldn't tell.
"I think they are running around and around because they are looking for their father," said Frau Winter. "And they can't find him anywhere."
Their father. She tested the milk with her finger. She couldn't tell.
The baby's cry shook her skull.
"And so I tell them that Fuhrer is their father. The Fuhrer is watching them," Frau Winter said from behind her. "Because maybe they aren't scared of me. But they are always scared of him."
October 14, 2014
While I didn't think this was a particularly literary book, I did think it was an important one because it showed a different picture of the average German family's experience during WWII. Some reviewers have criticized the author for not squarely dealing with the issue of culpability. Apparently it's inconceivable to them that the German people could have been completely in the dark about what was happening to the Jews. The author herself in the afterword explains that she was trying to avoid portraying the average German as either collaborator or resistor. This book offers what is probably a more realistic depiction of ordinary lives lived in extraordinary times.
I thought it illustrated the dilemma that ordinary citizens find themselves in when their nation goes to war (especially when it started the war). It made me think about how I react to less than flattering aspects of my government's actions and policies, whether it's waterboarding at Guantanamo Bay or refusing to address social ills like poverty and racism. I deplore them, but feel powerless to do anything about them. Government has the power to steamroll over individual liberties and civil rights and there's very little the average citizen can do to curtail that power. Non-Germans like to think that they wouldn't have been complacent about what was being done to the Jews during WWII, but what would or could they have done about it?
The main character in this book, Liesl, is struggling to keep her family's head above water and the author does a good job of showing how all-encompassing that struggle was. She didn't have the time or the wherewithal to join the resistance, for instance. She was responsible for three young children while her husband was away. Food was scarce, air raids were common, refugees were pouring into the town and people's homes, and you always had to be careful that you weren't attracting the attention of the Nazi Party. Liesl admits that she didn't pay that much attention to what was happening to the Jews--but that was partly because there was so little that she could do about it.
We all have our blind spots when it comes to social ills: we don't want to see what's going on around us because we feel powerless to do anything about it. Homelessness, poverty, racism, climate change--who among us feels that he or she has the power to change any of these things? We may denounce them and shake our heads about them, but how much can we actually do?
That's why I felt that the book deserved four stars. It makes the reader ask the question: what would I have done differently under the same circumstances? There is no happy ending to this story, no neat resolution--and that in itself should tell us something.
I thought it illustrated the dilemma that ordinary citizens find themselves in when their nation goes to war (especially when it started the war). It made me think about how I react to less than flattering aspects of my government's actions and policies, whether it's waterboarding at Guantanamo Bay or refusing to address social ills like poverty and racism. I deplore them, but feel powerless to do anything about them. Government has the power to steamroll over individual liberties and civil rights and there's very little the average citizen can do to curtail that power. Non-Germans like to think that they wouldn't have been complacent about what was being done to the Jews during WWII, but what would or could they have done about it?
The main character in this book, Liesl, is struggling to keep her family's head above water and the author does a good job of showing how all-encompassing that struggle was. She didn't have the time or the wherewithal to join the resistance, for instance. She was responsible for three young children while her husband was away. Food was scarce, air raids were common, refugees were pouring into the town and people's homes, and you always had to be careful that you weren't attracting the attention of the Nazi Party. Liesl admits that she didn't pay that much attention to what was happening to the Jews--but that was partly because there was so little that she could do about it.
We all have our blind spots when it comes to social ills: we don't want to see what's going on around us because we feel powerless to do anything about it. Homelessness, poverty, racism, climate change--who among us feels that he or she has the power to change any of these things? We may denounce them and shake our heads about them, but how much can we actually do?
That's why I felt that the book deserved four stars. It makes the reader ask the question: what would I have done differently under the same circumstances? There is no happy ending to this story, no neat resolution--and that in itself should tell us something.
October 17, 2014
Over the years, I have read many historical novels, and some nonfiction, which take place during WWII. Many were about Jewish experiences during the Holocaust, others about Nazi-occupied countries or areas throughout Europe. Motherland is the first novel I've read from the perspective of non-Jewish Germans living in the heart of Nazi Germany. For me, this was a bit like reading a childhood favourite as an adult where nothing is as I remembered it. The author herself puts it best in her acknowledgements: "Hindsight is always a delicate issue in historical novels. The author and the reader often have a distilled set of facts about an era that the characters do not possess. Perhaps no era is more traveled and judged by readers than WWII, and so we collectively assume that all books about Germans in the 1940s will be books about complicity or resistance to their government's murderous practises. In fact, most books are. The narrative we get is the one we expect." Refreshingly, Hummel presents us with quite the opposite in Motherland.
Hummel's acknowledgements also offer another layer of depth to the novel - the fact that her story was inspired by her own family's history, and specifically, by her grandparents' letters to each other during the last few years of the war.
Though the first half of the novel alternates between the separate lives of a newly married husband (Frank) and wife (Liesl) - one stationed at a hospital as a surgical resident, the other at home trying to care for her grieving stepchildren - the second half is mainly about Liesl and the children. At its heart, the novel is about what people are willing to do to save their family members, a kind of German Cold Mountain. This is what made Motherland such a page-turner. There's not much wartime fighting or enemy combat, it's simply about the struggle of the people left behind - and what they must do to survive.
The most interesting aspect of the book for me was the discussion around the treatment of children with intellectual or cognitive disabilities. About what the state was also doing to fellow Germans, even fellow Aryans, who were deemed "unfit to live."
Overall, this was a deeply compelling and poignant novel told from a unique perspective. While it was sometimes a difficult read emotionally, I found myself staying up late to find out what would happen next. I would recommend Motherland to historical novel junkies and lovers of literary dramas in a heartbeat.
Hummel's acknowledgements also offer another layer of depth to the novel - the fact that her story was inspired by her own family's history, and specifically, by her grandparents' letters to each other during the last few years of the war.
Though the first half of the novel alternates between the separate lives of a newly married husband (Frank) and wife (Liesl) - one stationed at a hospital as a surgical resident, the other at home trying to care for her grieving stepchildren - the second half is mainly about Liesl and the children. At its heart, the novel is about what people are willing to do to save their family members, a kind of German Cold Mountain. This is what made Motherland such a page-turner. There's not much wartime fighting or enemy combat, it's simply about the struggle of the people left behind - and what they must do to survive.
The most interesting aspect of the book for me was the discussion around the treatment of children with intellectual or cognitive disabilities. About what the state was also doing to fellow Germans, even fellow Aryans, who were deemed "unfit to live."
Overall, this was a deeply compelling and poignant novel told from a unique perspective. While it was sometimes a difficult read emotionally, I found myself staying up late to find out what would happen next. I would recommend Motherland to historical novel junkies and lovers of literary dramas in a heartbeat.
May 29, 2015
Intriguing concept --examining the life of a family and of women in Germany during the end of WW2. But it didn't feel well executed. I felt no attachment to any of the characters as the author was somehow too detached from them. And there was a Jodi Piccoult style ridiculous twist near the end which totally turned me off. I would not recommend this.
January 25, 2014
Somehow, I read this not realizing that it was based on the author's family. Very powerful and yet sad too. I kept waiting for Superman to swoop in and save the day, but he never came.
December 1, 2020
A World War II story set partly during the four months from December 1944 to March 1945 and alternating between Weimar, Germany, where surgeon Frank Kappus has been called to serve his country and Hannesburg, Germany where Liesl, Frank's wife and stepmother to his three sons, strives to keep the family together amid growing food shortages, an increasing number of attacks from Allied planes, and an increasing presence of Nazi Party officials.
The opening scene—Liesl's neighbor has dug a tunnel connecting his cellar to theirs—immediately plunges readers into the family's precarious existence as ten-year-old Hans casually explains the purpose of the tunnel to Liesl: “It’s for our safety. People can get trapped. It happened in Kassel and Darmstadt. If we neighbors adjoin our cellars, then we have a better chance of survival. Everyone knows that.”
The second part of the story shows the after-effects of the war on the people of Germany: the lack of food, the rubble, the unexploded bombs, the fall of the Third Reich, the ultimate interrogations by the Americans, and most notably, an attitude of disbelief as noted in this question posed to Liesl: "You never had conversations about your country and what it was doing to the Jews?"
Hummel's novel was inspired by her father's German childhood, is based loosely on letters her grandmother wrote her grandfather during the war, and goes well beyond the often-asked Holocaust-related questions of "what did they know and when did they know it?".
The opening scene—Liesl's neighbor has dug a tunnel connecting his cellar to theirs—immediately plunges readers into the family's precarious existence as ten-year-old Hans casually explains the purpose of the tunnel to Liesl: “It’s for our safety. People can get trapped. It happened in Kassel and Darmstadt. If we neighbors adjoin our cellars, then we have a better chance of survival. Everyone knows that.”
The second part of the story shows the after-effects of the war on the people of Germany: the lack of food, the rubble, the unexploded bombs, the fall of the Third Reich, the ultimate interrogations by the Americans, and most notably, an attitude of disbelief as noted in this question posed to Liesl: "You never had conversations about your country and what it was doing to the Jews?"
Hummel's novel was inspired by her father's German childhood, is based loosely on letters her grandmother wrote her grandfather during the war, and goes well beyond the often-asked Holocaust-related questions of "what did they know and when did they know it?".
August 22, 2018
This novel tells a World War II story from the perspective of non-Jewish Germans living in the heart of Nazi Germany. It certainly asks the question what did ordinary Germans know, I am not so sure that the author makes the case that they really knew as little as she seems to say. If you leave out that quibble (which I feel is a pretty big one), it is a very engrossing story of a family during war. Lisel is the second wife of Frank (his first died in childbirth), and while he is working as a doctor near the front, she struggles to raise his three young sons. The story alternates between Frank and Lisel, and I found Lisel's story much more compelling. It is a very fascinating story, and apparently based on some letters belonging to the author's grandfather, but I was not so convinced that this family (especially Frank) knew as little as he claimed he did.
July 13, 2019
This is a story told from the perspective of a family in Germany during the end of WW2 and is based on the author’s grandparents actual experience. You feel for this family caught up in a desperate situation with limited food and the husband being sent away to work as a surgeon. The author does a great job giving you a sense of of the time. place and the characters.
September 6, 2023
I was hoping for insight into the psyche of regular Germans during WWII. There wasn’t much of that. The characters were shallow and bland, and I had no connection to them. They were also shockingly badly informed (to an unbelievable degree). This just felt like a slow, depressing slog.
November 1, 2018
A terrific piece of historical fiction! I like it so much, I'm going to order a hard copy for my local library. Read it!
October 27, 2023
3.5. Quite rare reading about living inside Germany during WWII
November 16, 2024
They knew. They didn’t care until the war was lost and the they said they knew nothing. A better writer would have faced that truth.
February 13, 2014
Motherland examines the life of one German family during World War II. Frank Kappus is a reconstructive surgeon who lost his wife in childbirth and married Liesl who must look after his baby and two older sons when he is drafted into medical military service. She tries to keep the children fed with dwindling food supplies and keep them safe from constant Allied air attacks.
Hummel does an excellent job of letting the reader see into the apartment house that must be shared with other families, of the constant threat of air raid attacks, and the never ending search for food to feed the two older boys and procure milk for the baby. In one scene, the two boys, Hans and Ani, help dig a tunnel between the basement in their house and the one next door to be used as a source of escape.
When Ami begins to unravel, Liesl must discover the source of the boy's infirmity or lose him to Hadamar, the infamous institution for "unfit" children.
The novel valiantly shows the shame and courage of Third Reich families during the devastating last days of the war. The novel was inspired by stories from Maria Hummel's father and his German childhood and letters between her grandparents that were hidden in an attic for fifty years.
The author tries to illustrate the pride Germans felt at the beginning of the Third Reich and the horrifying end when the truth comes out about the horrors inflicted on millions of people. By selecting one family to represent the average German, she allows the reader to understand the hardships and agony of war on a personal level.
Hummel does an excellent job of letting the reader see into the apartment house that must be shared with other families, of the constant threat of air raid attacks, and the never ending search for food to feed the two older boys and procure milk for the baby. In one scene, the two boys, Hans and Ani, help dig a tunnel between the basement in their house and the one next door to be used as a source of escape.
When Ami begins to unravel, Liesl must discover the source of the boy's infirmity or lose him to Hadamar, the infamous institution for "unfit" children.
The novel valiantly shows the shame and courage of Third Reich families during the devastating last days of the war. The novel was inspired by stories from Maria Hummel's father and his German childhood and letters between her grandparents that were hidden in an attic for fifty years.
The author tries to illustrate the pride Germans felt at the beginning of the Third Reich and the horrifying end when the truth comes out about the horrors inflicted on millions of people. By selecting one family to represent the average German, she allows the reader to understand the hardships and agony of war on a personal level.
June 16, 2019
In the early 60’s, Dr. Milgram designed an experiment to try to understand how far someone would obey authority even if it violated their moral compass, trying to comprehend the mindset of the Nazis who willingly led innocent Jews to their deaths at the concentration camps. Author Maria Hummel undertakes a similar exploration in her novel “Motherland”, only this insight is closer to Euripides’ “Women of Troy”. She chronicles a family’s experiences in Germany weeks before the Americans arrive who were never on the front line of the war until the end, who may not have known the extremity of the atrocities committed, but who support the German cause nonetheless. It is about those who are the wrong side of history and are left behind to keep their communities afloat, their families fed and sheltered, and their hope alive. It is hard to feel sympathy for them because of the horrors committed by the Nazi regime and therein lies the moral conundrum when reading this book. And like Milgram it makes us all question our blind obedience to authority and how far we would support this authority even if it forces us to compromise our moral compass. It’s not an easy read because we do not feel too sorry for the families as they endure the hardships created by the war. It is not a feel good work. It does illustrate that war is pure hell for everyone, including those who are innocent and unknowing in its wake.
October 4, 2018
3.5 stars.
A heart-breaking and harrowing story about life in a small German city near the end of World War II.
For a period in history full of stories, this one might be worth the time. As the author notes in the acknowledgements, writing about Nazi Germany is challenging because of our own bright historical bias. We can't help but read the appalling reality of what we know back into the past.
As Hummel points out, writing this story meant letting go of the question "what did they know?" and instead asking "what did they love? What did they fear? What did they hope?" Which is why the story is powerful. It attempts to take these characters seriously on their own terms. They are people who hunger and fear and love. A baby learns to walk. Children grieve their losses. A doctor wants a successful career. A mother tries to keep everyone alive. And all the while they are people who both support and suffer under an ideology of death that looms on the edge of every scene.
In our own age of vague confessions of complicity, this story shows us -painfully- how it works and what complicity actually looks like. And perhaps, for those with eyes to see, just how hard it is to get free....
A powerful exploration of the ways that war (even one that is justified?) tends toward retribution and it's incredible human cost.
A heart-breaking and harrowing story about life in a small German city near the end of World War II.
For a period in history full of stories, this one might be worth the time. As the author notes in the acknowledgements, writing about Nazi Germany is challenging because of our own bright historical bias. We can't help but read the appalling reality of what we know back into the past.
As Hummel points out, writing this story meant letting go of the question "what did they know?" and instead asking "what did they love? What did they fear? What did they hope?" Which is why the story is powerful. It attempts to take these characters seriously on their own terms. They are people who hunger and fear and love. A baby learns to walk. Children grieve their losses. A doctor wants a successful career. A mother tries to keep everyone alive. And all the while they are people who both support and suffer under an ideology of death that looms on the edge of every scene.
In our own age of vague confessions of complicity, this story shows us -painfully- how it works and what complicity actually looks like. And perhaps, for those with eyes to see, just how hard it is to get free....
A powerful exploration of the ways that war (even one that is justified?) tends toward retribution and it's incredible human cost.
August 6, 2016
Maria Hummel has done an amazing job of putting us inside the experiences, heart and soul of a young German woman who in very brief weeks marries a widower and becomes Mother to three motherless young boys in the last few months of World War II. This is a story of motherhood and the strength of women, who had to save their children, heal their men and bring them back to dignity, clear the rubble and dust from their homes and generally deal with extremely difficult living. The title itself is a contradictory play on Hitler's use of "fatherland." The fact that Hummel used real family stories of her grandparents and some of their letters make this fiction story more meaningful, and I applaud her ability to fictionalize the vague outline of the story into real characters and moments. Hummel had to choose to make them true to the ordinariness of their lives, not making them into statements about Nazis or the horrors of that regime. Yet little Ani's mysterious illness brings a sharp focus on the evil that permeated the culture with fear, even for those who lived relatively "safe" lives.
July 21, 2021
While I was very interested in reading about this German family at the tail end of World War II, I was disappointed that it took more than 120 pages for anything to happen in this book. I think the book did a good job showing that not everyone knew about Hitler's actions until it was over, but it just took far too long for a story to develop. Once something happened, I did start to care and my heart went out to this family. But it wasn't enough to make me wholeheartedly recommend the book to others.
August 10, 2016
Won in Goodreads giveaway.
A very good story involving a family living in Germany during the end of WW2. The main character is a woman named Liesl who married a man with 3 kids. The father is sent away to Berlin and she has to care for them in his absence while the middle aged child suffers from a strange sickness. The book is not really about battles or anything. It is mostly a story of struggle and survival. A interesting read from the German perspective.
A very good story involving a family living in Germany during the end of WW2. The main character is a woman named Liesl who married a man with 3 kids. The father is sent away to Berlin and she has to care for them in his absence while the middle aged child suffers from a strange sickness. The book is not really about battles or anything. It is mostly a story of struggle and survival. A interesting read from the German perspective.
December 13, 2021
Although I categorized this book as political, it probably is not. I, however, had a difficult time reading this. Not only was the plot and the plight of the characters dark and depressing, I struggle to understand how good people could have persecuted their neighbors in order to follow party loyalty (Nazism). I stopped reading as I began drawing parallels to today's political climate. Too scary for pleasure reading...
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