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The Draughtsman
Speak out for the fate of millions or turn a blind eye? We all have choices.
‘Absolutely exceptional. So beautifully written, with precision and wisdom and real emotional acuity … A remarkable achievement’ STEPHEN KELMAN, author of Pigeon English
1944, Germany. Ernst Beck’s new job marks an end to months of unemployment. Working for Erfurt’s most prestigious engineering firm, Topf & Sons, means he can finally make a contribution to the war effort, provide for his beautiful wife, Etta, and make his parents proud. But there is a price.
Ernst is assigned to the firm’s smallest team – the Special Ovens Department. Reporting directly to Berlin his role is to annotate plans for new crematoria that are deliberately designed to burn day and night. Their destination: the concentration camps. Topf’s new client: the SS.
As the true nature of his work dawns on him, Ernst has a terrible choice to make: turning a blind eye will keep him and Etta safe, but that’s little comfort if staying silent amounts to collusion in the death of thousands.
This bold and uncompromising work of literary fiction shines a light on the complex contradictions of human nature and examines how deeply complicit we can become in the face of fear.
‘Absolutely exceptional. So beautifully written, with precision and wisdom and real emotional acuity … A remarkable achievement’ STEPHEN KELMAN, author of Pigeon English
1944, Germany. Ernst Beck’s new job marks an end to months of unemployment. Working for Erfurt’s most prestigious engineering firm, Topf & Sons, means he can finally make a contribution to the war effort, provide for his beautiful wife, Etta, and make his parents proud. But there is a price.
Ernst is assigned to the firm’s smallest team – the Special Ovens Department. Reporting directly to Berlin his role is to annotate plans for new crematoria that are deliberately designed to burn day and night. Their destination: the concentration camps. Topf’s new client: the SS.
As the true nature of his work dawns on him, Ernst has a terrible choice to make: turning a blind eye will keep him and Etta safe, but that’s little comfort if staying silent amounts to collusion in the death of thousands.
This bold and uncompromising work of literary fiction shines a light on the complex contradictions of human nature and examines how deeply complicit we can become in the face of fear.
400 pages, Paperback
First published September 8, 2016
10 people are currently reading
650 people want to read
About the author
Robert Lautner
8 books36 followersRobert Lautner was born in Middlesex in 1970. Before becoming a writer he owned his own comic-book store, worked as a wine merchant, photographic consultant and recruitment consultant. He now lives on the Pembrokeshire coast in a wooden cabin with his wife and children.
Robert Lautner is the pen name of the author, Mark Keating. His latest work is Quint, a JAWS novel, writing as Robert Lautner.
Robert Lautner is the pen name of the author, Mark Keating. His latest work is Quint, a JAWS novel, writing as Robert Lautner.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
March 20, 2017
Ernst Beck is a young man, recently married to Etta. He cannot believe that his beautiful new wife, Etta, whose parents are much wealthier than his own, has chosen him. It is 1944 and the couple live in Erfun, a small German town, which almost feels as though it has escaped the war. Ernst missed conscription while at University and the fighting seems somewhere far distant. In fact, Ernst’s only real problem is that he does have not have a job, and has been unemployed for months, despite training to become a skilled draughtsman.
Then, suddenly, it seems as though his life is taking an upward turn. Ernst finds work at a prestigious engineering firm, which means that Etta can give up her waitressing job and they can pay their outstanding rent. Ernst is a somewhat shy and tentative young man, whose father has drummed into him that he should not push himself forward. So, when he meets the assertive, Hans Klein, Director of Operations, of the ‘Special Ovens’ department, he does not question the fact that so many furnaces and incinerators are required by the SS. Before he realises it, Ernst is visiting camps he was only aware of as frightening names – Buchenwald, Auschwitz. Meanwhile, Etta is not as thrilled at his finding work as he had hoped.
This is a beautifully written novel about a normal young man in wartime, who finds himself in extraordinary circumstances. Like so many at that time, he was just hoping he could get through the war intact. However, when he is unable to ignore the reality of what part he is playing in events, he has to make some very difficult choices. I really enjoyed this book. It is not particularly a new subject – there have been other novels about people caught up in the machinery of the holocaust, but I really enjoyed the characters and found this a moving read, which was very well written.
Then, suddenly, it seems as though his life is taking an upward turn. Ernst finds work at a prestigious engineering firm, which means that Etta can give up her waitressing job and they can pay their outstanding rent. Ernst is a somewhat shy and tentative young man, whose father has drummed into him that he should not push himself forward. So, when he meets the assertive, Hans Klein, Director of Operations, of the ‘Special Ovens’ department, he does not question the fact that so many furnaces and incinerators are required by the SS. Before he realises it, Ernst is visiting camps he was only aware of as frightening names – Buchenwald, Auschwitz. Meanwhile, Etta is not as thrilled at his finding work as he had hoped.
This is a beautifully written novel about a normal young man in wartime, who finds himself in extraordinary circumstances. Like so many at that time, he was just hoping he could get through the war intact. However, when he is unable to ignore the reality of what part he is playing in events, he has to make some very difficult choices. I really enjoyed this book. It is not particularly a new subject – there have been other novels about people caught up in the machinery of the holocaust, but I really enjoyed the characters and found this a moving read, which was very well written.
October 22, 2017
This book is a 3.5 stars rounded up.
Foreward: I studied history, specializing in the Holocaust, in school so this may get very fact based and very long.
This is a book I would have LOVED to have my University Holocaust Lit professor read. My professor, on the first day of class, flat out say that we didn't use the 'N word' in his class (he meant Nazi) and that if we wanted to refer to them, we had to call them what they really were, which was Germans. From that moment on I took nothing he said seriously and learned to spit feed him the answers he was looking for, rather than what I thought. To him, all German's were nazi's and all Germans were to blame for the Holocaust. I think that this book is something that would have been very eye opening for him because this book proves that not all Germans were to blame for the Holocaust.
In this we follow Ernst Beck and his wife Etta. Ernst needs to provide for his family and gets work at a factory called Topf and Sons. His job is to take designs and transcribe them into something that someone who doesn't know designs can read. Their factory gets contracts from the SS and are the factory that supplied the SS with the ovens they used in the camps. At one point Ernst receives a design for a very terrible oven, one that would have been very horrible had it ever hit production, and he has to decide whether he is going to sit by and let himself be a part of this, or whether he is going to do something about it.
First thing, I love that this is loosely historically accurate. This factory really existed. The oven that is designed that would have been catastrophic (more so than what the Holocaust already was) was actually something someone designed. The rest is mostly fiction, but the author seemed to want to point out that the excuse "just doing our jobs" did not have to be the norm for everyone, and that there was always a way to do something. There were people "just doing their jobs" that could have made a big impact had they not done their job. I like that this is what the author seemed to want to portray (in some form) but I think that the presentation was not all there. The job Ernst Beck is doing was not actually that important. He himself was not building or designing the ovens, just transcribing and copying them. Without him, things would still have progressed. I think the real character that portrays this, and portrays it well, is his boss, Hans Klein. He was such an unlikeable character, but every moment I felt something was off about him. He is the character that really shows that there is a point where people need to step up and say something just stop doing what everyone tells them to do.
I felt this book was a little long. I enjoyed reading it, but it was slow. There were things that could have been cut, could have been shortened, and the book still would have packed the punch it did. The writing was good, albeit a little weird. The author seems to have a huge hatred of commas. Any sentence with a comma. Had a period instead. It was very. Very. Annoying at first but it grew on me and I stopped noticing.
I'm going to come full circle now and talk about my favourite part of the book, and that was the fact that it shows the impact that this had on every day Germans during the war. I am always going to be of the belief that not every German knew about the camps, and if they did they didn't know what was going on there. Most Germans in this book, even the ones in the factory providing the SS with the ovens, assume that most people in the camps were dying from disease. I feel like that is a pretty good representation of the kind of things that normal every day Germans would have assumed, whether out of ignorance or out of denial. This book shows the impact on the food, on money, on families. Women all over with no husbands, starving children in the streets with parents bombed to death. No access to goods. War is hard on all sides, but sometimes more so for the citizens in the losing nations, and I think that's shown pretty well in this.
I don't want to yammer on for 10,000 words so I will end this here. I do recommend it, I really do, but it's not your typical WWII book. It's not about the Holocaust and the camps, it's not about the actual war, it really felt like a pretty typical literary setting. I wouldn't read this expecting the same things you generally get from a WWII historical fiction book, but I do think it's definitely worth a read.
Foreward: I studied history, specializing in the Holocaust, in school so this may get very fact based and very long.
This is a book I would have LOVED to have my University Holocaust Lit professor read. My professor, on the first day of class, flat out say that we didn't use the 'N word' in his class (he meant Nazi) and that if we wanted to refer to them, we had to call them what they really were, which was Germans. From that moment on I took nothing he said seriously and learned to spit feed him the answers he was looking for, rather than what I thought. To him, all German's were nazi's and all Germans were to blame for the Holocaust. I think that this book is something that would have been very eye opening for him because this book proves that not all Germans were to blame for the Holocaust.
In this we follow Ernst Beck and his wife Etta. Ernst needs to provide for his family and gets work at a factory called Topf and Sons. His job is to take designs and transcribe them into something that someone who doesn't know designs can read. Their factory gets contracts from the SS and are the factory that supplied the SS with the ovens they used in the camps. At one point Ernst receives a design for a very terrible oven, one that would have been very horrible had it ever hit production, and he has to decide whether he is going to sit by and let himself be a part of this, or whether he is going to do something about it.
First thing, I love that this is loosely historically accurate. This factory really existed. The oven that is designed that would have been catastrophic (more so than what the Holocaust already was) was actually something someone designed. The rest is mostly fiction, but the author seemed to want to point out that the excuse "just doing our jobs" did not have to be the norm for everyone, and that there was always a way to do something. There were people "just doing their jobs" that could have made a big impact had they not done their job. I like that this is what the author seemed to want to portray (in some form) but I think that the presentation was not all there. The job Ernst Beck is doing was not actually that important. He himself was not building or designing the ovens, just transcribing and copying them. Without him, things would still have progressed. I think the real character that portrays this, and portrays it well, is his boss, Hans Klein. He was such an unlikeable character, but every moment I felt something was off about him. He is the character that really shows that there is a point where people need to step up and say something just stop doing what everyone tells them to do.
I felt this book was a little long. I enjoyed reading it, but it was slow. There were things that could have been cut, could have been shortened, and the book still would have packed the punch it did. The writing was good, albeit a little weird. The author seems to have a huge hatred of commas. Any sentence with a comma. Had a period instead. It was very. Very. Annoying at first but it grew on me and I stopped noticing.
I'm going to come full circle now and talk about my favourite part of the book, and that was the fact that it shows the impact that this had on every day Germans during the war. I am always going to be of the belief that not every German knew about the camps, and if they did they didn't know what was going on there. Most Germans in this book, even the ones in the factory providing the SS with the ovens, assume that most people in the camps were dying from disease. I feel like that is a pretty good representation of the kind of things that normal every day Germans would have assumed, whether out of ignorance or out of denial. This book shows the impact on the food, on money, on families. Women all over with no husbands, starving children in the streets with parents bombed to death. No access to goods. War is hard on all sides, but sometimes more so for the citizens in the losing nations, and I think that's shown pretty well in this.
I don't want to yammer on for 10,000 words so I will end this here. I do recommend it, I really do, but it's not your typical WWII book. It's not about the Holocaust and the camps, it's not about the actual war, it really felt like a pretty typical literary setting. I wouldn't read this expecting the same things you generally get from a WWII historical fiction book, but I do think it's definitely worth a read.
March 21, 2017
As some people may have gauged by now, I really relish books set during World War II and this book is no exception. I often hear the words 'beautifully tragic' bandied around but this is what I feel this book is all about.
It is Germany, 1944. Ernst has been unemployed for a long time when a job offer arises that seems too good to be true. It entails a new life of prosperity, including a house Ernst could have only dreamed of owning. A new life for him and his wife, Etta. A draughstman, ordered to annotate plans for ovens. Seems innocent enough and Ernst certainly does not seem to understand the bigger picture. These aren't just ovens, though. They are crematoria. Crematoria for concentration camps. Ernst works for the SS.
The discourse that surrounds whether the SS really did turn a blind eye or were merely acting on orders is something I find incredibly interesting and I was delighted to find references to Milgram's (1974) Obedience to Authority experiment. If Ernst turns a blind eye from the truth, he and Etta will be safe. Staying silent results in the death of thousands.
How far would a person go in the face of fear of death?
'A war is the vanishing of tiny things. A thimble for a pail. That is how they kill us. The people in the maps'.
An astonishing read. Beautifully written and tragically important. I would highly recommend this book.
'That is history. The loudest shout to the mad comes from the gutter'.
It is Germany, 1944. Ernst has been unemployed for a long time when a job offer arises that seems too good to be true. It entails a new life of prosperity, including a house Ernst could have only dreamed of owning. A new life for him and his wife, Etta. A draughstman, ordered to annotate plans for ovens. Seems innocent enough and Ernst certainly does not seem to understand the bigger picture. These aren't just ovens, though. They are crematoria. Crematoria for concentration camps. Ernst works for the SS.
The discourse that surrounds whether the SS really did turn a blind eye or were merely acting on orders is something I find incredibly interesting and I was delighted to find references to Milgram's (1974) Obedience to Authority experiment. If Ernst turns a blind eye from the truth, he and Etta will be safe. Staying silent results in the death of thousands.
How far would a person go in the face of fear of death?
'A war is the vanishing of tiny things. A thimble for a pail. That is how they kill us. The people in the maps'.
An astonishing read. Beautifully written and tragically important. I would highly recommend this book.
'That is history. The loudest shout to the mad comes from the gutter'.
January 2, 2025
Ernst’s story demonstrates how easily someone can become complicit in evil. The offer of a well-paid job with a highly respected and successful company means the possibility of leaving behind the hand-to-mouth existence of himself and his wife, Etta. There’s even a rent free house that comes with the job, containing more rooms than he has furniture to fill and, wonder of wonders, a telephone. His parents are delighted at his good fortune.
Ernst’s new job involves something he’s good at and has been trained for. He believes he is making a contribution to the war effort. He doesn’t question why the SS might require so many ovens and with such high capacity. But perhaps there really are that many criminals who succumb to typhus in the camps? ‘Prisons need ovens. Cities need sewers. Unpleasant, but the way of things.’
Hannah Arendt’s phrase ‘the banality of evil’ came frequently to mind whilst reading the book and this evil was spread wider than we might imagine and often, as it were, hidden in plain sight. ‘This was how it was done. The tanks and the aircraft were the hammers, but the bureaucracy, the lists and the files by the men in smart shoes and ties were the nails to keep everything in place.’
This is mass murder as a bureaucratic operation with the SS’s prime concern being improving the efficiency of the ovens, ensuring they break down less often and keeping costs to a minimum. Hence the nature of the building Ernst is tasked with working on, something so horrific one cannot imagine it could have been real. (It was, although thankfully it was never built.)
Time and time again I returned to the questions: How did a whole nation allow the ‘normalisation’ of mass murder? How did one individual manage to convince good people to do awful things? (A clever touch is that Hitler is never mentioned by name, but always referred to as ‘He’ or ‘Him’.)
Only Etta has misgivings about Ernst’s work which increase when she learns the nature of the task he is working on.
Eventually Ernst’s eyes are opened to the truth. And when Erfurt, which has been largely immune from the direct impact of the war because of its geographical position, is no longer safe from Allied bombing raids, it becomes clear to him that Germany is not winning the war as the propaganda suggests. Far from it. But what should he do? He’s just one man and he knows the risks involved in speaking out. Not just for himself but for Etta. Even more so for Etta, as it turns out. On the other hand, he fears the information he possesses may be destroyed in the chaos of defeat and the world will never know about it.
Throughout the book there are chilling juxtapositions of the beautiful and the terrible. When Hans Klein, head of the euphemistically named ‘Special Ovens’ Department, shows Ernst to the floor in the factory where he will work, he says, ‘There is a fine view of the hills. All day you can see the smoke from Buchenwald rising to them. It is a pleasant room.’ The book depicts many disturbing scenes but the humanity of the characters of Ernst, Etta and their friend Paul somehow keeps you from feeling completely without hope.
In his Author’s Note, Robert Lautner explains that he started the story wanting to ask the question, ‘What would you do?’ but the question became, ‘What should you do? Now. Today’. It is possible that even today in some small way, and entirely unintentionally, we all may be contributing to a system that profits from the exploitation and misery of others.
The Draughtsman is a chilling reminder of how easy it is not to see what’s going on before your eyes, to question it or to look the other way and thereby be drawn into a state of complicity. And that there is evil in the world that most of us are unable to contemplate but it’s there all the same.
Ernst’s new job involves something he’s good at and has been trained for. He believes he is making a contribution to the war effort. He doesn’t question why the SS might require so many ovens and with such high capacity. But perhaps there really are that many criminals who succumb to typhus in the camps? ‘Prisons need ovens. Cities need sewers. Unpleasant, but the way of things.’
Hannah Arendt’s phrase ‘the banality of evil’ came frequently to mind whilst reading the book and this evil was spread wider than we might imagine and often, as it were, hidden in plain sight. ‘This was how it was done. The tanks and the aircraft were the hammers, but the bureaucracy, the lists and the files by the men in smart shoes and ties were the nails to keep everything in place.’
This is mass murder as a bureaucratic operation with the SS’s prime concern being improving the efficiency of the ovens, ensuring they break down less often and keeping costs to a minimum. Hence the nature of the building Ernst is tasked with working on, something so horrific one cannot imagine it could have been real. (It was, although thankfully it was never built.)
Time and time again I returned to the questions: How did a whole nation allow the ‘normalisation’ of mass murder? How did one individual manage to convince good people to do awful things? (A clever touch is that Hitler is never mentioned by name, but always referred to as ‘He’ or ‘Him’.)
Only Etta has misgivings about Ernst’s work which increase when she learns the nature of the task he is working on.
Eventually Ernst’s eyes are opened to the truth. And when Erfurt, which has been largely immune from the direct impact of the war because of its geographical position, is no longer safe from Allied bombing raids, it becomes clear to him that Germany is not winning the war as the propaganda suggests. Far from it. But what should he do? He’s just one man and he knows the risks involved in speaking out. Not just for himself but for Etta. Even more so for Etta, as it turns out. On the other hand, he fears the information he possesses may be destroyed in the chaos of defeat and the world will never know about it.
Throughout the book there are chilling juxtapositions of the beautiful and the terrible. When Hans Klein, head of the euphemistically named ‘Special Ovens’ Department, shows Ernst to the floor in the factory where he will work, he says, ‘There is a fine view of the hills. All day you can see the smoke from Buchenwald rising to them. It is a pleasant room.’ The book depicts many disturbing scenes but the humanity of the characters of Ernst, Etta and their friend Paul somehow keeps you from feeling completely without hope.
In his Author’s Note, Robert Lautner explains that he started the story wanting to ask the question, ‘What would you do?’ but the question became, ‘What should you do? Now. Today’. It is possible that even today in some small way, and entirely unintentionally, we all may be contributing to a system that profits from the exploitation and misery of others.
The Draughtsman is a chilling reminder of how easy it is not to see what’s going on before your eyes, to question it or to look the other way and thereby be drawn into a state of complicity. And that there is evil in the world that most of us are unable to contemplate but it’s there all the same.
November 16, 2017
4.5* Really interesting read with some historical facts. First book I have read on WW2 from a German pov and it was beautifully written. The ending really brought home the horror. What would you do?
April 22, 2017
I won this in the giveaways in exchange for an honest review.
It's 1940s Germany and Ernst has finally gained employment with the firm of Topf. He's now part of the Special Ovens Department and his job is to draw newly improved equipment for the SS. At first Ernst is quite naive and believes the propaganda about the high body count in the camps due to typhus. But the more he learns, the more he begins to question what's really happening. I didn't expect to like this as I'm not a huge fan of WW2 fiction but it was a very good study of human psychology and poses the question of 'What would you do?'. This is definitely a book to make you think and it will linger with me for the next few days.
It's 1940s Germany and Ernst has finally gained employment with the firm of Topf. He's now part of the Special Ovens Department and his job is to draw newly improved equipment for the SS. At first Ernst is quite naive and believes the propaganda about the high body count in the camps due to typhus. But the more he learns, the more he begins to question what's really happening. I didn't expect to like this as I'm not a huge fan of WW2 fiction but it was a very good study of human psychology and poses the question of 'What would you do?'. This is definitely a book to make you think and it will linger with me for the next few days.
March 25, 2017
Some slightly unusual dialogue, almost as if the Germans are speaking stilted English to each other, but the storyline itself is very good and based on the truth that although it was never put into production, it was the desire that a continuous oven for mass use should be designed for use in the camps and the implications this has for the main characters living and working for a company working with the SS when realisation dawns.
May 15, 2017
Excellent book telling an uncomfortable story but the narrator draws empathy from the reader
May 8, 2019
First of all, this was a great read. I really enjoyed it and I would recommend this book to fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz. I read on it long and hard though, because some of the words I didn't understand and each time I had to look it up. But on a positive note, I have an enriched vocabulary now! The use of certain words go in hand with the setting and the year which the story takes place, so its completely understandable.
I have to give credit to Robert Lautner for being so descriptive. Everything comes alive, from houses to bridges, the concentration camps, even Topf and Sons (the company in Erfurt, Germany, that Ernst Beck, main character, worked for). The story starts in April 1944 and ends in April 1945. What a year it was for Ernst Beck. With zeal he was entering the 'real world'. He is married to his lovely wife Etta for three years, he has plans for a future for them. He is ready to get a job after studying draughting at Erfurt University. He took his first job at Topf and Sons and quickly realized what the 'real world' was made of. He was assigned to the Special Ovens departement and soon discovered what the 'special' meant. The story continues with a riveting tale of heavy choices that Ernst had to make, and the question is, what would have happened if he never did what he decided to do.
Do you just become ignorant to everyday horrors or does the guilt of what you're contributing to start eating you up from the inside? I do not want to go in detail, I feel every reader needs to read this book with no 'preformed idea or opinion'.
Real emotion is captured within the pages of this book and the loss of friends, loved ones, and even the fear of living each day waiting to be bombed, the fear of death knocking unannounced on your door. War can only stay away for so long until the shadow of it finally creeps up your steps and knocks, coming to claim the next victim for war.
The different characters and the role each played, each interconnecting to finally form the bigger picture. A picture of horror or a picture of freedom?
There's no way anybody could relate to the pain, the horror and the trauma unless they experienced it first hand, and even though this is a work of fiction, its still based on facts and we're giving a glimpse into the lives of the people that were so inhumanely treated.
I have to give credit to Robert Lautner for being so descriptive. Everything comes alive, from houses to bridges, the concentration camps, even Topf and Sons (the company in Erfurt, Germany, that Ernst Beck, main character, worked for). The story starts in April 1944 and ends in April 1945. What a year it was for Ernst Beck. With zeal he was entering the 'real world'. He is married to his lovely wife Etta for three years, he has plans for a future for them. He is ready to get a job after studying draughting at Erfurt University. He took his first job at Topf and Sons and quickly realized what the 'real world' was made of. He was assigned to the Special Ovens departement and soon discovered what the 'special' meant. The story continues with a riveting tale of heavy choices that Ernst had to make, and the question is, what would have happened if he never did what he decided to do.
Do you just become ignorant to everyday horrors or does the guilt of what you're contributing to start eating you up from the inside? I do not want to go in detail, I feel every reader needs to read this book with no 'preformed idea or opinion'.
Real emotion is captured within the pages of this book and the loss of friends, loved ones, and even the fear of living each day waiting to be bombed, the fear of death knocking unannounced on your door. War can only stay away for so long until the shadow of it finally creeps up your steps and knocks, coming to claim the next victim for war.
The different characters and the role each played, each interconnecting to finally form the bigger picture. A picture of horror or a picture of freedom?
There's no way anybody could relate to the pain, the horror and the trauma unless they experienced it first hand, and even though this is a work of fiction, its still based on facts and we're giving a glimpse into the lives of the people that were so inhumanely treated.
October 1, 2022
The basic premise of this book is interesting - a young draughtsman is employed by a local firm which, he discovers, manufactures the ovens for Nazi Germany's concentration camps and he is required to copy and annotate the original drawings. This takes the reader into a consideration of the rights or wrongs of what he does. He is, after all, only following orders. The book follows his journey, geographically and intellectually.
However, the writing is rather strange and, for me, off-putting. The style is somewhat staccato, there are sentences with words obviously missing and some of the expressions are not quite correct. I wondered whether the book had been badly translated from German but Robert Lautner is English. I then wondered whether it had gone to print too quickly, without the necessary editing or proofreading.
This is one of the reasons why I can only give it three stars. I also feel that so much more could have been done with the story.
However, the writing is rather strange and, for me, off-putting. The style is somewhat staccato, there are sentences with words obviously missing and some of the expressions are not quite correct. I wondered whether the book had been badly translated from German but Robert Lautner is English. I then wondered whether it had gone to print too quickly, without the necessary editing or proofreading.
This is one of the reasons why I can only give it three stars. I also feel that so much more could have been done with the story.
May 31, 2018
I received this book from Good Reads.
I can not say that it is a pleasant read, but one I think that should be told & read by all. It is told by a young man called Ernest Beck & his wife Etta (who he finds out is a Jew & escaped with her parents to Switzerland & changed their names).
Ernst gets a job as a draughtsman in a factory that makes ovens for the concentration camps.
The story is well told & really makes you think - what would you do in the same circumstances.
I can not say that it is a pleasant read, but one I think that should be told & read by all. It is told by a young man called Ernest Beck & his wife Etta (who he finds out is a Jew & escaped with her parents to Switzerland & changed their names).
Ernst gets a job as a draughtsman in a factory that makes ovens for the concentration camps.
The story is well told & really makes you think - what would you do in the same circumstances.
March 8, 2017
There has been much written about the extent to which ordinary Germans colluded with or turned a blind eye to the brutal realities of the Third Reich and here Lautner revisits this theme through the eyes of Ernst Beck, an engineer in the chillingly-named 'Special Ovens Department'. He works with the SS, he visits Auschwitz and Buchenwald and despite his wife telling him what the ovens are being used for, he tries to hide the impact of his work from himself - till he's finally forced to face up to it.
Lautner revisits questions of complicity and assistance, issues of 'I was only doing my job and following orders' versus the people who refused, who said 'I shall not' even if those were their last words. Important issues, of course, not just for Nazi Germany but also for today. Despite all the good moral and ethical stuff going on here, this feels like a book which is re-hashing old ground - too much has been researched, discussed and written about what Hannah Arendt termed 'the banality of evil' for this book to be adding anything. And by the time Beck does finally face up to things, it seems it's all far too easy for him to make a difference...
So a worthy book and an important topic - but best for readers who know little, or have never really thought, about the people involved in the bureaucracy of the Holocaust.
Review from an ARC from Amazon Vine
Lautner revisits questions of complicity and assistance, issues of 'I was only doing my job and following orders' versus the people who refused, who said 'I shall not' even if those were their last words. Important issues, of course, not just for Nazi Germany but also for today. Despite all the good moral and ethical stuff going on here, this feels like a book which is re-hashing old ground - too much has been researched, discussed and written about what Hannah Arendt termed 'the banality of evil' for this book to be adding anything. And by the time Beck does finally face up to things, it seems it's all far too easy for him to make a difference...
So a worthy book and an important topic - but best for readers who know little, or have never really thought, about the people involved in the bureaucracy of the Holocaust.
Review from an ARC from Amazon Vine
May 13, 2017
I enjoy stories set in the World Wars - the significance of them is undeniable and I think it's important to keep alive all the heartbreaking aspects of the wars: "Lest we forget." I came into The Draughtsman with high hopes that this would be a book I could recommend to people as another great snapshot that captured emotions and also, given that it's told from the point of view of a man working for the S.S., a different point of view. It let me down a bit.
While The Draughtsman is an interesting story, I felt like it took a long time to get going. The author's style also grated on me quite a lot, with his frequent use of incomplete sentences. While it certainly shows the uncertainty of life in Germany during the final months of WWII, and the horrors of concentration camps and bombings, it didn't hit my feelings as much as I had hoped. It's not a standout. It's not that it's a poor story, but I wanted to be blown away, and I wasn't. It might be my own fault for coming in to this with high expectations, but I was let down by The Draughtsman. Interesting book set in Germany during the last few months of World War II, but there are better books with similar settings that I would recommend first. This one gets 5/10 from me.
While The Draughtsman is an interesting story, I felt like it took a long time to get going. The author's style also grated on me quite a lot, with his frequent use of incomplete sentences. While it certainly shows the uncertainty of life in Germany during the final months of WWII, and the horrors of concentration camps and bombings, it didn't hit my feelings as much as I had hoped. It's not a standout. It's not that it's a poor story, but I wanted to be blown away, and I wasn't. It might be my own fault for coming in to this with high expectations, but I was let down by The Draughtsman. Interesting book set in Germany during the last few months of World War II, but there are better books with similar settings that I would recommend first. This one gets 5/10 from me.
September 21, 2018
If you can explain to me the 'remarkable achievement' nonsense at the top of the cover there, I'll be most happy. I'm done with seeing that sort of meaningless crap littering perfectly reasonable books. Other authors, often, just providing something publishers can stick on the front. Readers nodding sagely "'remarkable achievement'...must be good." Me: "what's remarkable about it? It's not a new idea! Is he the first to have got the whole idea down into book form, I don't think so. He has spelled all the words correctly? Is that why it's remarkable?" You get the picture. It. Means. Nothing.
Anyway. My first thought upon finishing was that it was a missed opportunity. The style started out working nicely, succinct, sparse, bleak of course, but became irritating. Then, when you read the afterword at the end, you find that a German considering what to do when set to drawing plans for the crematoria at Buchenwald and Auschwitz (amongst others), wasn't what the guy was wanting to do at all.
He seems to have a beef - quite rightly - with the financial sector and big industry getting away with 'murder,' before during and after the various finance crises, mostly the recent one(s)....so chose to set the book in Second World War Germany, where a guy is helping design crematoria...yes, I see...
OK, he's saying that alarm bells about the finance crisis, should have been sounded and whistles blown, excesses stopped and punishment meted out during and afterwards, safeguards put in place, but it's a bit of a jump to genocide.
As a Historical Fiction novel, posing the question, it actually works rather well. Though I did feel he ducked it a little. He's showing, as he says (again) at the end, the 'banality of evil.' That the Holocaust was mostly carried out by little nobodies. Who probably didn't (want to) know what they were doing. Didn't want to, or couldn't, or shied away from, the big picture. Someone 'had to' round the people up, someone 'had to' transport them - so are the train drivers equally guilty? - someone 'had to' build the camps - OK, they got the prisoners themselves to do that often - the crematoria didn't design and build themselves. Someone 'had to' do it. The 'had to' is the sticky part. Of course they could have gone elsewhere for a job...or could they? They could have said 'no' to the contract from the SS, but their 'rivals' would have grabbed it. They couldn't make an arrangement to not work with the SS en masse (in secret)...you see? The 'complex contradictions' of the intro, are very real and looked at here, but wisely, left for the reader to ponder on. My feeling of what I would have done, is to duck out of it too - as you would - with a 'thank goodness I didn't have to choose.' We think we're more 'free' nowadays and that someone would surely step in and stop something like this from happening. Maybe they would, maybe not. Is the UK rescuing hundreds of people from the Mediterranean and Italy saying 'we don't want them, you take them,' and the UK saying 'we don't want them, we've done our bit by stopping them from drowning,' any different from the situation just before WWII, where everyone agreed that 'something should be done' about the Jews Germany was treating so despicably, but 'ooh, no, we haven't room, we daren't take them, there'd be trouble,' and then Germany actually doing something about them. Any different? A manufactured 'problem' of course, and no one really should have needed to 'do something about it,' but the situation at the time, for the average Joe, meant he could do very little, even to register a protest. What was this guy gonna do? Snap his pencil each time he had to draw? Send plans to the Allies? Good luck with that and with them believing you. Quit the job. Starve. At the time, that's where you've got to place yourself when you are asked 'what would you do' and that is impossible. We all have choices. Often it's no choice at all.
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Anyway. My first thought upon finishing was that it was a missed opportunity. The style started out working nicely, succinct, sparse, bleak of course, but became irritating. Then, when you read the afterword at the end, you find that a German considering what to do when set to drawing plans for the crematoria at Buchenwald and Auschwitz (amongst others), wasn't what the guy was wanting to do at all.
He seems to have a beef - quite rightly - with the financial sector and big industry getting away with 'murder,' before during and after the various finance crises, mostly the recent one(s)....so chose to set the book in Second World War Germany, where a guy is helping design crematoria...yes, I see...
OK, he's saying that alarm bells about the finance crisis, should have been sounded and whistles blown, excesses stopped and punishment meted out during and afterwards, safeguards put in place, but it's a bit of a jump to genocide.
As a Historical Fiction novel, posing the question, it actually works rather well. Though I did feel he ducked it a little. He's showing, as he says (again) at the end, the 'banality of evil.' That the Holocaust was mostly carried out by little nobodies. Who probably didn't (want to) know what they were doing. Didn't want to, or couldn't, or shied away from, the big picture. Someone 'had to' round the people up, someone 'had to' transport them - so are the train drivers equally guilty? - someone 'had to' build the camps - OK, they got the prisoners themselves to do that often - the crematoria didn't design and build themselves. Someone 'had to' do it. The 'had to' is the sticky part. Of course they could have gone elsewhere for a job...or could they? They could have said 'no' to the contract from the SS, but their 'rivals' would have grabbed it. They couldn't make an arrangement to not work with the SS en masse (in secret)...you see? The 'complex contradictions' of the intro, are very real and looked at here, but wisely, left for the reader to ponder on. My feeling of what I would have done, is to duck out of it too - as you would - with a 'thank goodness I didn't have to choose.' We think we're more 'free' nowadays and that someone would surely step in and stop something like this from happening. Maybe they would, maybe not. Is the UK rescuing hundreds of people from the Mediterranean and Italy saying 'we don't want them, you take them,' and the UK saying 'we don't want them, we've done our bit by stopping them from drowning,' any different from the situation just before WWII, where everyone agreed that 'something should be done' about the Jews Germany was treating so despicably, but 'ooh, no, we haven't room, we daren't take them, there'd be trouble,' and then Germany actually doing something about them. Any different? A manufactured 'problem' of course, and no one really should have needed to 'do something about it,' but the situation at the time, for the average Joe, meant he could do very little, even to register a protest. What was this guy gonna do? Snap his pencil each time he had to draw? Send plans to the Allies? Good luck with that and with them believing you. Quit the job. Starve. At the time, that's where you've got to place yourself when you are asked 'what would you do' and that is impossible. We all have choices. Often it's no choice at all.
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March 6, 2017
On the cover of Robert Lautner’s new novel The Draughtsman it says ‘We all have choices’ but under Nazi Germany and when you have been chosen to work for the SS do you have a choice? Can you speak out for others and face being found out with the dire consequences for you and your family.
It is 1944 and for Nazi Germany the net is closing in as the allies fight their way to Germany’s front door and for Ernst Beck a young unemployed engineer he just wants to work and earn some money for him and his wife Etta so that they can start a family when the war finally ends with a dream of eventually having their own home. Then the offer of a job arrives from Erfut’s prestigious engineering firm Topf & Sons. Now for Ernst he can now feel like a man again and start providing for his wife and make his parents proud. Sometimes though not everything is as it seems and for Ernst he will soon find out what the SS have really been doing. On his first day Ernst joins the Special Ovens Department designing new ovens that can withstand burning all day and night at special ‘prison camps’ at Buchenwald and Auschwitz but as visits to both camps including a dangerous situation it soon dawns on Ernst that he has not been told the truth about what these ovens are for and the story of executing criminals and those that have died of disease cannot surely amount to why these ‘special’ ovens are being designed and why the secrecy as he has to report direct to Berlin. For Ernst and Etta there are some trappings that go with the job as he is a special employee. But soon the real truth comes to Ernst that his employers have been colluding with the SS and now he has a choice to make does he risk his life and that of his beautiful wife Etta or does he start telling the truth that these ovens are part of the Crematoria for the concentration camps and he will have a hand in the Holocaust if he remains silent. The terrible burden ways heavy for Ernst as he weighs up the consequences of being complicit. What would become of his wife and even his parents. There now worrying signs that there is no escaping for Ernst.
The Draughtsman is an incredible achievement as Lautner explores how the mind plays out when suddenly life is generous while others struggle and how could he possibly give this new lease of life up. The one aspect of the story is how the war is going for Germany and how close the allies are now as the last months of the war begin. Germany is losing the war there will be heavy price to pay for those found guilty of being compliant and complicit in the Holocaust. This is a dark and at times harrowing read as the themes involved but it is a compelling read and one that will ask many questions of the reader. After you have read this novel ask yourself in a country that was fearful when neighbour turned against neighbour what would you do? This is a novel that should not be treated lightly. The authors note at the end of the book testifies to this. Without doubt a full five star novel.
Thank you to The Borough Press for the advanced review copy.
It is 1944 and for Nazi Germany the net is closing in as the allies fight their way to Germany’s front door and for Ernst Beck a young unemployed engineer he just wants to work and earn some money for him and his wife Etta so that they can start a family when the war finally ends with a dream of eventually having their own home. Then the offer of a job arrives from Erfut’s prestigious engineering firm Topf & Sons. Now for Ernst he can now feel like a man again and start providing for his wife and make his parents proud. Sometimes though not everything is as it seems and for Ernst he will soon find out what the SS have really been doing. On his first day Ernst joins the Special Ovens Department designing new ovens that can withstand burning all day and night at special ‘prison camps’ at Buchenwald and Auschwitz but as visits to both camps including a dangerous situation it soon dawns on Ernst that he has not been told the truth about what these ovens are for and the story of executing criminals and those that have died of disease cannot surely amount to why these ‘special’ ovens are being designed and why the secrecy as he has to report direct to Berlin. For Ernst and Etta there are some trappings that go with the job as he is a special employee. But soon the real truth comes to Ernst that his employers have been colluding with the SS and now he has a choice to make does he risk his life and that of his beautiful wife Etta or does he start telling the truth that these ovens are part of the Crematoria for the concentration camps and he will have a hand in the Holocaust if he remains silent. The terrible burden ways heavy for Ernst as he weighs up the consequences of being complicit. What would become of his wife and even his parents. There now worrying signs that there is no escaping for Ernst.
The Draughtsman is an incredible achievement as Lautner explores how the mind plays out when suddenly life is generous while others struggle and how could he possibly give this new lease of life up. The one aspect of the story is how the war is going for Germany and how close the allies are now as the last months of the war begin. Germany is losing the war there will be heavy price to pay for those found guilty of being compliant and complicit in the Holocaust. This is a dark and at times harrowing read as the themes involved but it is a compelling read and one that will ask many questions of the reader. After you have read this novel ask yourself in a country that was fearful when neighbour turned against neighbour what would you do? This is a novel that should not be treated lightly. The authors note at the end of the book testifies to this. Without doubt a full five star novel.
Thank you to The Borough Press for the advanced review copy.
November 3, 2018
Thank you to the reading agency for sending Macclesfield Library reading group 10 copies of Robert Lautner’s The Draughtsman for us to read, discuss and review.
The horrors of Auschwitz now common knowledge taught in the classroom to each of us, inform our expectations of a novel that tells us it is about Ernst “assigned to the Special Ovens Department” in 1944. It is easy for a reader’s heart to sink at the idea of being placed in that story. Indeed the subject matter alone was deeply off putting to some of the group who found it difficult to feel motivated to pick the book back up and continue moving through Ernst’s career with the SS, feeling that they knew only too well where this story was going and didn’t want to be taken on that particular ride. A feeling only heightened by the current political climate across the world. Those that did stay with Ernst had quite a different response to The Draughtsman and its portrayal of its relatable human characters dealing with unconscionable decisions. This book is not as difficult a read as the subject matter would have you think thanks to Lautner’s writing style and the fast pace of the plot. The story rewards the reader with a perspective on the war that is unerringly relatable and really does leave you to wonder “what would you do?” The language at times almost staccato as if translated from German, Lautner’s cinematic setting; all build the intense atmosphere as the plot builds to its action packed conclusion.
“Ernst’s first job turns out to be almost his demise, despite his enthusiasm. Initially he displays naivety but quickly grows up and learns a lot more about people and living even through the horrors of war.”
“Excellent book- makes you think “what would you do?” The characters are strong and the writing almost visual.”
“Such a horrific subject, a story that we all know. I found it didn’t flow, and knowing where it was leading, I didn’t feel motivated to pick it up.”
“Not an easy read but this book really captured the atmosphere of a truly horrific event in history.”
“I did not get very far as I did not enjoy the writing style or subject matter.”
The horrors of Auschwitz now common knowledge taught in the classroom to each of us, inform our expectations of a novel that tells us it is about Ernst “assigned to the Special Ovens Department” in 1944. It is easy for a reader’s heart to sink at the idea of being placed in that story. Indeed the subject matter alone was deeply off putting to some of the group who found it difficult to feel motivated to pick the book back up and continue moving through Ernst’s career with the SS, feeling that they knew only too well where this story was going and didn’t want to be taken on that particular ride. A feeling only heightened by the current political climate across the world. Those that did stay with Ernst had quite a different response to The Draughtsman and its portrayal of its relatable human characters dealing with unconscionable decisions. This book is not as difficult a read as the subject matter would have you think thanks to Lautner’s writing style and the fast pace of the plot. The story rewards the reader with a perspective on the war that is unerringly relatable and really does leave you to wonder “what would you do?” The language at times almost staccato as if translated from German, Lautner’s cinematic setting; all build the intense atmosphere as the plot builds to its action packed conclusion.
“Ernst’s first job turns out to be almost his demise, despite his enthusiasm. Initially he displays naivety but quickly grows up and learns a lot more about people and living even through the horrors of war.”
“Excellent book- makes you think “what would you do?” The characters are strong and the writing almost visual.”
“Such a horrific subject, a story that we all know. I found it didn’t flow, and knowing where it was leading, I didn’t feel motivated to pick it up.”
“Not an easy read but this book really captured the atmosphere of a truly horrific event in history.”
“I did not get very far as I did not enjoy the writing style or subject matter.”
February 5, 2019
This is a wonderful book and explores the relationship between a couple during the later years of the war in Germany. The reader views, through their eyes, how Fascism and Racism affect the ordinary citizen who live far from Berlin and only hear things through the propaganda delivered through restricted radio stations, newsreels,papers and posters.
It also helps you understand the choices you make when you have no choice at all.
The prose is easy to read but does not sensationalize the brutalities of the SS who are quite visible throughout the book. The protagonist appears quite Naive, especially when he is offered work at one of the most prestigious engineering firms in Germany, or is it that he refuses to believe his own people could resort to such atrocities that are being bandied around by his friends and his wife.
A really good novel that makes you think about how you yourself would react if put in a similar position.
It also helps you understand the choices you make when you have no choice at all.
The prose is easy to read but does not sensationalize the brutalities of the SS who are quite visible throughout the book. The protagonist appears quite Naive, especially when he is offered work at one of the most prestigious engineering firms in Germany, or is it that he refuses to believe his own people could resort to such atrocities that are being bandied around by his friends and his wife.
A really good novel that makes you think about how you yourself would react if put in a similar position.
December 1, 2022
For me this was almost 5 stars but, I did round it up to 5. I enjoyed the story and although I read a lot of historical fiction I usually stay away from wartime books. This was the second WWII book after having read The Book Thief.
The only problem I had with the book was that sometimes a sentence didn't make sense and some of the dialogue read as though a German was speaking English, especially at the beginning. After living in Germany for over 30 years with a German husband, children and now grandchildren, I was reminded of when Germans practised their English on me, very well but, not fluently.
The Draughtsman shows us not everyone is evil but, it is possible to become entangled in the machinery of destruction.
The only problem I had with the book was that sometimes a sentence didn't make sense and some of the dialogue read as though a German was speaking English, especially at the beginning. After living in Germany for over 30 years with a German husband, children and now grandchildren, I was reminded of when Germans practised their English on me, very well but, not fluently.
The Draughtsman shows us not everyone is evil but, it is possible to become entangled in the machinery of destruction.
October 1, 2017
I have read books on WW2 from a lot of different characters' perspectives: French women whose home is taken over by an SS captain, the people who hid others from Nazis, people who were hidden, people who pretended to be something other than Jewish and hid in plain sight, etc etc.
This was from the perspective of a young German man whose first job after university as a draughtsman ends up being working on plans for the oven used to kill people at the camps. It was interesting to me to see how a person can rationalize what they are doing because as the other says, it's not one big event but happens slowly, bit by bit.
I enjoyed it.
This was from the perspective of a young German man whose first job after university as a draughtsman ends up being working on plans for the oven used to kill people at the camps. It was interesting to me to see how a person can rationalize what they are doing because as the other says, it's not one big event but happens slowly, bit by bit.
I enjoyed it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 10, 2018
I really wanted to like this one as the idea sounded so good. Sadly this lacked something. Don't know whether this was translated from another language or whether the authors English isn't quite up to scratch, but he seemed to have difficulty getting the story across. Here a young man finds himself having to make a difficult decision after getting work with a firm who supply ovens to the concentration camps in Germany in the dying days of the second world war. Should he tell the world what he knows or keep quiet to protect his family.Slow and the author seemed to repeat himself far too often.
July 2, 2020
Really great book, interesting perspective, and well written. Usually I find books over 400 pages don’t have enough story to fill the pages, and I want it to hurry up and finish so I can read about something else. That definitely wasn’t the case with this book. There were plenty of twists and turns, and it kept me engaged right to the end. The author’s use of short, half sentences was unusual too. Was also interested to read from the point of view of a non-Nazi German, who wasn’t resisting the regime or denying what they were doing (which seems to be the case in most books).
Downloaded this on a whim not expecting much, but will actively seek out more by this author.
Downloaded this on a whim not expecting much, but will actively seek out more by this author.
July 27, 2018
An interesting Second World War story and, as the author remarks in his afterward, an important reminder of the moral choices that we all have to make which are not always apparent. However,as good as the story is, it didn’t move me as much as it ought. The problem is the author’s spare style and his habit of not always writing in complete sentences. It certainly didn’t do anything for me. An interesting but not especially satisfying read.
November 26, 2018
Great subject matter and story line. However it took me a long time to get into the flow of reading because the writing was so strange. I wondered initially if it was a bad translation from German to english, however a direct translation into German didn’t make any sense, either. I’m not sure of the intention behind this. Considering all the characters were German, this simply didn’t work for me. All in all I enjoyed it, but a two star knock off for the very stilted use of language.
January 15, 2025
Most of the WWII historical fiction books I read are, at the very least, enjoyable because of the characters lives and their survival stories. It is not the case with this book. It is very agitating but interesting, and not in the least enjoyable way — because of the setting near Buchenwald camp where some prisoners and employees of a nearby company are required to supply ovens to the camp. Very informative novel and one that needs to be read
May 21, 2017
Nice, a book "From the other side", not like books I used to, related to this topic. But... The fact, that it is not like the books, written by the soviet authours, most of whom saw the war in reality, this book for me is like juice, mixed with water, while I prefer whole juice. Good to drink, no strong tastes, but not awesome.
February 22, 2019
A worthy follow-up to Lautner's debut novel, full of humanity, humility and thought-provoking writing. Based on historical fact, but the main character is ficticious, this novel shows the impact of The Final Solution. Very well-written, with the lead-character being one you can easily empathise with, I found this an enjoyable read (albeit disturbing because of the ultimate subject matter!)
May 16, 2017
I think this book works despite the very tricky subject matter. The author uses lots of short sentences full of meaning which makes it easy to read but also treats the story with respect at the same time. Not an easy feat.
June 3, 2019
i won a copy of this book in the good reads giveaway, i found the book ok, it was very well written, its just not the type of book i would usually read, (but i like to experiment with books i would not normally read now and then) im not a big fan of books set around war etc,
August 28, 2017
A thought provoking book - Characters are very real and very human.
A reflection on complicity with evil in all its subtle forms.
A page-turning read.
A reflection on complicity with evil in all its subtle forms.
A page-turning read.
September 21, 2017
excellent!
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