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In Our Midst
Drawing upon a long-suppressed episode in American history, when thousands of German immigrants were rounded up and interned following the attack on Pearl Harbor, In Our Midst tells the story of one family’s fight to cling to the ideals of freedom and opportunity that brought them to America.
Nina and Otto Aust, along with their teenage sons, feel the foundation of their American lives crumbling when, in the middle of the annual St. Nikolas Day celebration in the Aust Family Restaurant, their most loyal customers, one after another, turn their faces away and leave without a word. The next morning, two FBI agents seize Nina by order of the president, and the restaurant is ransacked in a search for evidence of German collusion.
Ripped from their sons and from each other, Nina and Otto are forced to weigh increasingly bitter choices to stay together and stay alive. Recalling a forgotten chapter in history, In Our Midst illuminates a nation gripped by suspicion, fear, and hatred strong enough to threaten all bonds of love—for friends, family, community, and country.
Nina and Otto Aust, along with their teenage sons, feel the foundation of their American lives crumbling when, in the middle of the annual St. Nikolas Day celebration in the Aust Family Restaurant, their most loyal customers, one after another, turn their faces away and leave without a word. The next morning, two FBI agents seize Nina by order of the president, and the restaurant is ransacked in a search for evidence of German collusion.
Ripped from their sons and from each other, Nina and Otto are forced to weigh increasingly bitter choices to stay together and stay alive. Recalling a forgotten chapter in history, In Our Midst illuminates a nation gripped by suspicion, fear, and hatred strong enough to threaten all bonds of love—for friends, family, community, and country.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published April 28, 2020
15 people are currently reading
207 people want to read
About the author
Nancy Jensen
7 books48 followersNANCY JENSEN’s work has appeared in numerous literary journals, and her first book, Window, a collection of short stories and essays, was published by Fleur-de-Lis Press in 2009. She has been awarded an Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and an Al Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council. Nancy shares her home with eight rescued cats and her dog Gordy, who is her partner on a pet therapy team with Pawsibilities Unleashed of Kentucky, visiting hospitals, nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, and daycare centers. When she isn’t writing or enjoying the company of her furred family, she teaches as a member of the core faculty in the MFA in Writing Program at Eastern Kentucky University. The Sisters is her first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
January 1, 2025
IN OUR MIDST by Nancy Jensen
Thank you to BookBrowse for the book to read.
4stars
A historical fiction read of a German emigrant family’s experience in an American internment camp after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Thus, begins a journey told from the perspectives of both Nina and Otto Aust. The story focuses on the lives of the Austs, Nina and Otto, and their two sons, Kurt and Gerhard. Otto and his sons are arrested and interned as prisoners of war. Nina is left at home and faces the prejudice and hatred of her community while she struggles to find where the government has taken her husband and sons.
The conditions of the camps are deplorable and their loyalties were tested. Nazi factions began developing within the camps. The Aust men tread a line between compliance with the camp rules and avoiding the bullying Nazi followers in order to survive. Nina eventually arrives at a camp with her family and she and Otto are confronted by bitter choices to stay together and survive.
I’m not surprised that Germans were put in camps since the Italians, and Japanese were as well. This is the first book I’ve read of the Germans awful treatment of being taken from their homes and communities. The book was well written and I enjoyed reading it. The author did a tremendous amount of research for this book.
Thank you to BookBrowse for the book to read.
4stars
A historical fiction read of a German emigrant family’s experience in an American internment camp after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Thus, begins a journey told from the perspectives of both Nina and Otto Aust. The story focuses on the lives of the Austs, Nina and Otto, and their two sons, Kurt and Gerhard. Otto and his sons are arrested and interned as prisoners of war. Nina is left at home and faces the prejudice and hatred of her community while she struggles to find where the government has taken her husband and sons.
The conditions of the camps are deplorable and their loyalties were tested. Nazi factions began developing within the camps. The Aust men tread a line between compliance with the camp rules and avoiding the bullying Nazi followers in order to survive. Nina eventually arrives at a camp with her family and she and Otto are confronted by bitter choices to stay together and survive.
I’m not surprised that Germans were put in camps since the Italians, and Japanese were as well. This is the first book I’ve read of the Germans awful treatment of being taken from their homes and communities. The book was well written and I enjoyed reading it. The author did a tremendous amount of research for this book.
August 30, 2021
From my book review published on The Headlight Review, November 30, 2020.
In Our Midst. By Nancy Jensen. Detroit, Michigan: Dzanc Books, 2020. Hardcover 352 pp. $26.95.
Nancy Jensen is the author of three books. Her latest In Our Midst is a significant departure from her first, Windows: Stories and Essays, published in 2009, and her breakout novel, Sisters: A Novel, published in 2011. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals, to include The Louisville Review, Other Voices, and Northwest Review. She holds an MFA from Vermont College and currently teaches at Eastern Kentucky University. In an interview posted on her publisher’s website, Dzanc Books, Ms. Jensen describes her reason for writing In Our Midst, that she was moved to shed light on a suppressed event in history and to illustrate the destructive nature of bias turned to groupthink.
Nancy Jensen’s In Our Midst, a fictionalized account of a German emigrant family’s experience in an American internment camp during World War II, is a terrific novel, one that leaves the audience asking questions and drawing parallels between the past and the present.
The story focuses on the lives of the Austs, Nina and Otto, and their two sons, Kurt and Gerhard. At the opening of the novel, it’s early December 1941, and these German emigres are celebrating St. Nikolas Day at their restaurant in Newman, Indiana. The Austs are a welcoming and generous family. Their sons’ Kurt and Gerhard are teenagers that have enthusiastically mapped out their futures in America.
The merriment of the German holiday is disrupted the moment the radio streams the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor. (The date is St. Nikolas Day, December 6, 1941, so this does represent an error in the story.) The next day, Nina is taken into custody without explanation and kept away from her family. Most of her community are wary and suspicious because the government is instructed to keep an eye on “alien enemies.” It is assumed that all foreigners from a warring nation must be spies or worse. Prejudices, not impartiality, informs the masses. When Nina returns to her ransacked restaurant, her family is gone.
Thus, begins a journey told from the perspectives of both Nina and Otto, separately at first, then together. Before settling into their respective camps, the three Aust men are shuffled to various holding centers together. Eventually, Otto goes with Kurt to North Dakota, and Gerhard goes to Tennessee. Otto and Kurt are faced with harsh weather climes, and Gerhard is entrenched in a damp camp that is deleterious to his health. In due course, the government decides to allow detained families to gather together in internment camps. There is a caveat, however, as Nina must willingly sign her freedom away for an indeterminable amount of time.
Nina joins her beloved family at the Crystal City internment camp, in Texas. The reunion is joyful but tempered with the reality that they face deportation at the slightest misstep. Their new home is nothing like what they had in Indiana. Here they will face a host of dangers they never knew, to include hostile Nazis, suspicious neighbors, scorpions, limited provisions, and rotating camp directors with their own agendas. Their youngest son, still recovering from the ill effects of the Tennessee camp, is incapable of the physical demands placed on the men of the camp. He soon becomes the target of an evil contingency within the camp. The culminating crisis forces Otto to make a life altering decision, one that changes all of their lives forever.
In the last chapter, “Historical Context for In Our Midst,” the author includes proof of the facts that form the basis for her novel (350-353). For multiple decades, few Americans knew about the internment of the Japanese Americans during World War II. How many are still unaware of the fact that there were German or Italian Americans in internment camps? Or, that they were considered “alien enemies” by our government? President Roosevelt said, “I don’t care much about the Italians. They’re a lot of opera singers. But the Germans are different; they may be dangerous.” Even before hostilities broke out, J Edgar Hoover “had, for as long as five years, been preparing a secret Custodial Detention Index (CDI), cataloging the names, addresses, professions, and social affiliations of thousands of people of German, Italian, and Japanese ancestry residing in the United States.” Hoover reportedly “described the index as a list of people ‘to be apprehended and interned immediately upon the outbreak of hostilities.’”
In Our Midst is engaging and beautifully rendered. There were numerous instances where I stopped to read lines over and over again simply because they created such beautiful images and sounds. For example, here, just before the radio announces the bombing at Pearl Harbor:
“For a few moments, it was quiet, as if the snow had fallen inside the restaurant,
covering everything in deep drifts, absorbing even the sound of their breath.” (9)
And here, visiting a memory of when her son and his best friend would make music together in their restaurant:
“Her heart’s memory knew what was coming—and there it was.
Soft pulses, growing stronger. The voices rose again. They called to each other, in
tones now edged like knives, drew in toward the center, and crossed—discordant.
Stunned, only one voice survived. It could be any of them.” (65)
If you enjoy reading historical literary fiction In Our Midst will not disappoint.
In Our Midst. By Nancy Jensen. Detroit, Michigan: Dzanc Books, 2020. Hardcover 352 pp. $26.95.
Nancy Jensen is the author of three books. Her latest In Our Midst is a significant departure from her first, Windows: Stories and Essays, published in 2009, and her breakout novel, Sisters: A Novel, published in 2011. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals, to include The Louisville Review, Other Voices, and Northwest Review. She holds an MFA from Vermont College and currently teaches at Eastern Kentucky University. In an interview posted on her publisher’s website, Dzanc Books, Ms. Jensen describes her reason for writing In Our Midst, that she was moved to shed light on a suppressed event in history and to illustrate the destructive nature of bias turned to groupthink.
Nancy Jensen’s In Our Midst, a fictionalized account of a German emigrant family’s experience in an American internment camp during World War II, is a terrific novel, one that leaves the audience asking questions and drawing parallels between the past and the present.
The story focuses on the lives of the Austs, Nina and Otto, and their two sons, Kurt and Gerhard. At the opening of the novel, it’s early December 1941, and these German emigres are celebrating St. Nikolas Day at their restaurant in Newman, Indiana. The Austs are a welcoming and generous family. Their sons’ Kurt and Gerhard are teenagers that have enthusiastically mapped out their futures in America.
The merriment of the German holiday is disrupted the moment the radio streams the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor. (The date is St. Nikolas Day, December 6, 1941, so this does represent an error in the story.) The next day, Nina is taken into custody without explanation and kept away from her family. Most of her community are wary and suspicious because the government is instructed to keep an eye on “alien enemies.” It is assumed that all foreigners from a warring nation must be spies or worse. Prejudices, not impartiality, informs the masses. When Nina returns to her ransacked restaurant, her family is gone.
Thus, begins a journey told from the perspectives of both Nina and Otto, separately at first, then together. Before settling into their respective camps, the three Aust men are shuffled to various holding centers together. Eventually, Otto goes with Kurt to North Dakota, and Gerhard goes to Tennessee. Otto and Kurt are faced with harsh weather climes, and Gerhard is entrenched in a damp camp that is deleterious to his health. In due course, the government decides to allow detained families to gather together in internment camps. There is a caveat, however, as Nina must willingly sign her freedom away for an indeterminable amount of time.
Nina joins her beloved family at the Crystal City internment camp, in Texas. The reunion is joyful but tempered with the reality that they face deportation at the slightest misstep. Their new home is nothing like what they had in Indiana. Here they will face a host of dangers they never knew, to include hostile Nazis, suspicious neighbors, scorpions, limited provisions, and rotating camp directors with their own agendas. Their youngest son, still recovering from the ill effects of the Tennessee camp, is incapable of the physical demands placed on the men of the camp. He soon becomes the target of an evil contingency within the camp. The culminating crisis forces Otto to make a life altering decision, one that changes all of their lives forever.
In the last chapter, “Historical Context for In Our Midst,” the author includes proof of the facts that form the basis for her novel (350-353). For multiple decades, few Americans knew about the internment of the Japanese Americans during World War II. How many are still unaware of the fact that there were German or Italian Americans in internment camps? Or, that they were considered “alien enemies” by our government? President Roosevelt said, “I don’t care much about the Italians. They’re a lot of opera singers. But the Germans are different; they may be dangerous.” Even before hostilities broke out, J Edgar Hoover “had, for as long as five years, been preparing a secret Custodial Detention Index (CDI), cataloging the names, addresses, professions, and social affiliations of thousands of people of German, Italian, and Japanese ancestry residing in the United States.” Hoover reportedly “described the index as a list of people ‘to be apprehended and interned immediately upon the outbreak of hostilities.’”
In Our Midst is engaging and beautifully rendered. There were numerous instances where I stopped to read lines over and over again simply because they created such beautiful images and sounds. For example, here, just before the radio announces the bombing at Pearl Harbor:
“For a few moments, it was quiet, as if the snow had fallen inside the restaurant,
covering everything in deep drifts, absorbing even the sound of their breath.” (9)
And here, visiting a memory of when her son and his best friend would make music together in their restaurant:
“Her heart’s memory knew what was coming—and there it was.
Soft pulses, growing stronger. The voices rose again. They called to each other, in
tones now edged like knives, drew in toward the center, and crossed—discordant.
Stunned, only one voice survived. It could be any of them.” (65)
If you enjoy reading historical literary fiction In Our Midst will not disappoint.
March 27, 2021
An incredibly sad story of a German family that immigrated to the US in 1925. They were totally innocent of any wrongdoing but were arrested in December 1941 and their lives were turned upside down. I read this for a book club and I know that when we discuss it I will find it difficult not to go on a rant about it. As an American citizen, I find this story profoundly disturbing on many levels.
February 25, 2025
I first want to express the fact that I in no way support the actions of the United States following Pearl Harbor to arrest innocent Japanese and Germans and place them in concentration camps. Before speaking about the German internees, I want to point out that approximately 120,000 people of Japanese descent were interned in camps during World War II. This included ***70,000 U.S. citizens***. About 33,000 Japanese Americans served in the U.S. military during World War II. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated Japanese American unit. Today, the 442nd is remembered as the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in the history of the US military. The unit, totaling about 18,000 men, over 4,000 Purple Hearts, 4,000 Bronze Stars, 560 Silver Star Medals, 21 Medals of Honor, and seven Presidential Unit Citations. About 6,000 Japanese Americans served as translators and interpreters with the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) in the Pacific. These were young Americans who chose to fight for their country in the European Theater despite the horrible treatment of the Japanese in America.
Approximately 11,500 German Americans were interned. As the book opens Japan has attacked Pearl Harbor and the U. S. was at war. America did NOT declare war on Germany. Adolf Hitler declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941. This was three days after the United States declared war on Japan. Thankfully Hitler made two catastrophic decisions during the war - attacking the Soviet Union and declaring war on the U. S. Our country might have focused, perhaps even exclusively, on the war in the Pacific had Nazi Germany not declared war against us. Thankfully we fought in Europe. In the book the only bad thing that the Nazis had done by December 7th was Kristallnacht. On November 9–10, 1938, Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories. This event came to be called Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) because of the shattered glass that littered the streets after the vandalism and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes. 30,000 Jewish males were rounded up and taken to concentration camps. This was the first time Nazi officials made massive arrests of Jews specifically because they were Jews, without any further cause for arrest. Nina and her family are aware of this event and even speculate that they are being investigated by American Jews in retaliation for the event. ( Anti-Semitism in the family ) Since the Aust was aware of this relatively obscure event and the rejection of the St. Louis, a ship of Jewish refugees that was shamefully turned away from our shores and had to return to Europe, they were surely aware of WWII in Europe. This is never mentioned. What had the Nazis done??? *****1938 German Anschluss with Austria. MARCH 1939 Hitler invades Czechoslovakia. MARCH/APRIL 1939 Britain rearms and reassures Poland. LATE AUG 1939 Russia and Germany sign pact. 1 SEPT 1939 Hitler invades Poland - the official beginning of WWII - the Soviets seize Eastern Poland per agreement with the Nazis. 3 SEPT 1939 Britain and France declare war on Germany. APRIL/MAY 1940 Hitler invades Denmark and Norway. 10 MAY 1940 Blitzkrieg - the Nazis capture Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. 26 MAY 1940 Dunkirk - the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Forces and French soldiers. 22 JUNE 1940 France signs armistice with Germany and traitorous Vichy France is established. The Battle of Britain The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941. Approximately 40,000 civilians were killed. 22 SEPT 1940 Tripartite Pact with Italy. 22 JUNE 1941 Hitler attacks Russia – Operation Barbarossa.... And political prisoner / Holocaust concentration camps??? Dachau opened in 1933. Buchenwald, 1937. Mauthausen, 1938. Ravensbruck, 1939. Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1940 ***** Page 223 of the book - Nina asks: "To be Nazi is to be the enemy?" The answer is YES. The Austs had a radio and access to newspapers and newsreels at movies. When faced with internment of the men, Nina sings in front of officials: "Deutschland über alles" which translates to "Germany above all" in English, and refers to a phrase from the first stanza of the German national anthem. At a time when the family should have been attempting to assure the FBI that they were not Nazis, singing this song did not help to say the least. If anything it established that the family's first loyalties were to Germany, not America. We gradually learn that Gerhard and Hugh are gay young men. There is a reason why the Nazis in the camp burned a triangle onto Gerhard's face. In Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, a pink triangle became one of the Nazi concentration camp badges, distinguishing those imprisoned because they had been identified by authorities as gay men or trans women. If Gerhard were living in Germany at the time of the book and had been outed as gay, he would have been in a concentration camp. ( In the 1940s America, gay people in the United States faced discrimination in employment, military service, and public life. They were not executed. ) ************** So what is my point in all of this???? I believe that the Austs were not a threat to the United States and thus were unjustly imprisoned. They were given a chance to become U. S. citizens, however, but refused to do so because that would have meant renouncing loyalty to any other country. My father was a first generation American. He was an AMERICAN. Yes, his family loved Norway, but they chose to come to this country and swear loyalty to the United States. Like the Austs they could not earn a living in Norway and emigrated to have a better life. That better life was provided by this country. My uncles fought in WWII for America. Meanwhile their relatives were dying in Norway while the Austs remained sworn citizens of Nazi Germany. I thought the book was well written except for the missing facts about the Germany to whom the Aust's maintained their allegiance. The INJUSTICE of the internment of German citizens living in the United States could have been made more reprehensible had the facts about the family that I have listed been absent. The author made the loyalty of the Austs ambiguous and lessened the impact of the concentration camps here in America. Kristi & Abby Tabby Childless Cat Lady
Approximately 11,500 German Americans were interned. As the book opens Japan has attacked Pearl Harbor and the U. S. was at war. America did NOT declare war on Germany. Adolf Hitler declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941. This was three days after the United States declared war on Japan. Thankfully Hitler made two catastrophic decisions during the war - attacking the Soviet Union and declaring war on the U. S. Our country might have focused, perhaps even exclusively, on the war in the Pacific had Nazi Germany not declared war against us. Thankfully we fought in Europe. In the book the only bad thing that the Nazis had done by December 7th was Kristallnacht. On November 9–10, 1938, Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories. This event came to be called Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) because of the shattered glass that littered the streets after the vandalism and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes. 30,000 Jewish males were rounded up and taken to concentration camps. This was the first time Nazi officials made massive arrests of Jews specifically because they were Jews, without any further cause for arrest. Nina and her family are aware of this event and even speculate that they are being investigated by American Jews in retaliation for the event. ( Anti-Semitism in the family ) Since the Aust was aware of this relatively obscure event and the rejection of the St. Louis, a ship of Jewish refugees that was shamefully turned away from our shores and had to return to Europe, they were surely aware of WWII in Europe. This is never mentioned. What had the Nazis done??? *****1938 German Anschluss with Austria. MARCH 1939 Hitler invades Czechoslovakia. MARCH/APRIL 1939 Britain rearms and reassures Poland. LATE AUG 1939 Russia and Germany sign pact. 1 SEPT 1939 Hitler invades Poland - the official beginning of WWII - the Soviets seize Eastern Poland per agreement with the Nazis. 3 SEPT 1939 Britain and France declare war on Germany. APRIL/MAY 1940 Hitler invades Denmark and Norway. 10 MAY 1940 Blitzkrieg - the Nazis capture Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. 26 MAY 1940 Dunkirk - the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Forces and French soldiers. 22 JUNE 1940 France signs armistice with Germany and traitorous Vichy France is established. The Battle of Britain The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941. Approximately 40,000 civilians were killed. 22 SEPT 1940 Tripartite Pact with Italy. 22 JUNE 1941 Hitler attacks Russia – Operation Barbarossa.... And political prisoner / Holocaust concentration camps??? Dachau opened in 1933. Buchenwald, 1937. Mauthausen, 1938. Ravensbruck, 1939. Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1940 ***** Page 223 of the book - Nina asks: "To be Nazi is to be the enemy?" The answer is YES. The Austs had a radio and access to newspapers and newsreels at movies. When faced with internment of the men, Nina sings in front of officials: "Deutschland über alles" which translates to "Germany above all" in English, and refers to a phrase from the first stanza of the German national anthem. At a time when the family should have been attempting to assure the FBI that they were not Nazis, singing this song did not help to say the least. If anything it established that the family's first loyalties were to Germany, not America. We gradually learn that Gerhard and Hugh are gay young men. There is a reason why the Nazis in the camp burned a triangle onto Gerhard's face. In Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, a pink triangle became one of the Nazi concentration camp badges, distinguishing those imprisoned because they had been identified by authorities as gay men or trans women. If Gerhard were living in Germany at the time of the book and had been outed as gay, he would have been in a concentration camp. ( In the 1940s America, gay people in the United States faced discrimination in employment, military service, and public life. They were not executed. ) ************** So what is my point in all of this???? I believe that the Austs were not a threat to the United States and thus were unjustly imprisoned. They were given a chance to become U. S. citizens, however, but refused to do so because that would have meant renouncing loyalty to any other country. My father was a first generation American. He was an AMERICAN. Yes, his family loved Norway, but they chose to come to this country and swear loyalty to the United States. Like the Austs they could not earn a living in Norway and emigrated to have a better life. That better life was provided by this country. My uncles fought in WWII for America. Meanwhile their relatives were dying in Norway while the Austs remained sworn citizens of Nazi Germany. I thought the book was well written except for the missing facts about the Germany to whom the Aust's maintained their allegiance. The INJUSTICE of the internment of German citizens living in the United States could have been made more reprehensible had the facts about the family that I have listed been absent. The author made the loyalty of the Austs ambiguous and lessened the impact of the concentration camps here in America. Kristi & Abby Tabby Childless Cat Lady
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 6, 2024
With little available literature available on the German American internment camps, I was intrigued to read this book by Nancy Jensen.
The Aust family own a successful restaurant serving German fare in a small town in Indiana. As America joins the war with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, once-friendly neighbors and loyal patrons shunned the Aust Family Restaurant. The event had triggered President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 9066, which essentially authorized the rounding-up of anyone that may be considered "enemy aliens" in war-time America. However, the creiteria that qualifies one to be called as such are flimsy at best and relied on circumstantial evidence rather hard, direct evidence of Nazi support. No fair trial was given and those who were rounded up were not given any legal defense. In other words, the Austs were taken mainly because of their being Germans, they had not acqured citizenship despite living on American soil forat least 10 years, and they still had contact with family in Germany.
The family restaurant ceased to operate and later had to be sold, diminished along with the blood, sweat, and tears Otto and Nina had put in to earn their own livelihood. Nina is first taken for questioning, and later housed in a place for "wayward girls." When she is finally let go, she comes home to find out her husband and two sons had also been taken to different holding facilities. The only way for them to be reunited as a family was for Nina to voluntarily intern herself into the family internment camp in Crystal City, Texas.
The story narrates Otto and his son Kurt's experience at a camp in North Dakota, how they weathered the harsh elements, made the most of their camp life, as they struggled with "fence sickness," and tried to support other internees and each other. Another son, Gerhard had been shipped off to another camp somewhere in Tenessee. Not only are they dealing with roll calls and life in a military camp, they also have to deal with radicalization which may take place within camps where the internees feel they are prisoners and have been wronged by the country they had called home for many years.
The story moves to the family detention camp where many of their struggles are similar to struggles endured by those who have lived it in real life. Crystal City is not just a camp for family reunification but also a place for those who will be "repatriated" in exchange for American prisoners of war in Germany, Japan, and Italy. The price of family unity is the loss of their livelhood and identity as Americans--after all, most of these who were rounded up had made America their home for many years, with many of their children speaking English only (or Spanish, if they came from Latin American countries).
It is a great place to start if you want to know about the plight of German American internees during World War II. However, as with many recent historical fiction, be careful on what authors nowadays may insert into these stories, which may indicate certain narrative points they may want you to take.
The Aust family own a successful restaurant serving German fare in a small town in Indiana. As America joins the war with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, once-friendly neighbors and loyal patrons shunned the Aust Family Restaurant. The event had triggered President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 9066, which essentially authorized the rounding-up of anyone that may be considered "enemy aliens" in war-time America. However, the creiteria that qualifies one to be called as such are flimsy at best and relied on circumstantial evidence rather hard, direct evidence of Nazi support. No fair trial was given and those who were rounded up were not given any legal defense. In other words, the Austs were taken mainly because of their being Germans, they had not acqured citizenship despite living on American soil forat least 10 years, and they still had contact with family in Germany.
The family restaurant ceased to operate and later had to be sold, diminished along with the blood, sweat, and tears Otto and Nina had put in to earn their own livelihood. Nina is first taken for questioning, and later housed in a place for "wayward girls." When she is finally let go, she comes home to find out her husband and two sons had also been taken to different holding facilities. The only way for them to be reunited as a family was for Nina to voluntarily intern herself into the family internment camp in Crystal City, Texas.
The story narrates Otto and his son Kurt's experience at a camp in North Dakota, how they weathered the harsh elements, made the most of their camp life, as they struggled with "fence sickness," and tried to support other internees and each other. Another son, Gerhard had been shipped off to another camp somewhere in Tenessee. Not only are they dealing with roll calls and life in a military camp, they also have to deal with radicalization which may take place within camps where the internees feel they are prisoners and have been wronged by the country they had called home for many years.
The story moves to the family detention camp where many of their struggles are similar to struggles endured by those who have lived it in real life. Crystal City is not just a camp for family reunification but also a place for those who will be "repatriated" in exchange for American prisoners of war in Germany, Japan, and Italy. The price of family unity is the loss of their livelhood and identity as Americans--after all, most of these who were rounded up had made America their home for many years, with many of their children speaking English only (or Spanish, if they came from Latin American countries).
It is a great place to start if you want to know about the plight of German American internees during World War II. However, as with many recent historical fiction, be careful on what authors nowadays may insert into these stories, which may indicate certain narrative points they may want you to take.
October 24, 2020
The Aust family leave Germany six years after the end of World War I to make a life in America. They settle in a small, and rather typical, midwestern town in Indiana, where they open a restaurant and acclimate nicely into American culture. The Austs develop close friendships, generously contribute to the community, add to the eclectic, growing a country of immigrants.
And then comes another world war and as America fights Nazism-- which grows powerful by dehumanizing others—it allows fear to justify its own display of dehumanization of others. As we learn of German concentration camps, we develop our own camps for those we consider a threat—Italian, German, and Japanese nationals.
The reader follows the Aust family through their journey from beloved citizens of a small American town to accused traitors-- moved from one camp to another, first separated and alone, then as a family. The family is arrested and judged without due process, tossed into camps against their will, where they’re treated like traitors/criminals and live among true Nazi thugs with no means of protection. With the exception of a few friends, most neighbors in Indiana turn their back on this German family. They have to rely upon small acts of kindness of strangers and new friends and their love for each other.
This is not an easy book to read, but it is an important book because it reminds us not only of
of the importance of due process and constitutional freedoms, but also, the importance of kindness and understanding even during the chaos of war. It is shocking and ironic we fought a war against a regime that dehumanized “others,” yet in the name of that fight proceeded to dehumanize “others.”
The author never preaches, only shows us the world through the eyes of “others.” We live and breathe with the Aust family as this travesty takes place. We see the camps, the betrayal of neighbors, the fear and paranoia of our government. We see the distant eyes of guards and harsh, cold treatment from many Americans.
The truth is difficult and at times I wondered how much of this story deviated from reality. Were paranoid actions in reality truly this brutal or did the author darken the world for effect? In a book like this, research and quality of writing is important, and, ultimately, because of Jansen’s authentic details and excellent writing, I trusted her.
Books like IN OUR MIDST display the importance of historical literary fiction. Good literary writers, like Nancy Jensen, take us on important journeys that most history books avoid. We are allowed to feel the consequences of our mistakes, not simply learn them.
This is a tough read, but it’s an important one-- particularly now, when anger and fear of the “other” is leading our country, once again, to devolve into division and hate. Great writing and insight. I recommend it.
And then comes another world war and as America fights Nazism-- which grows powerful by dehumanizing others—it allows fear to justify its own display of dehumanization of others. As we learn of German concentration camps, we develop our own camps for those we consider a threat—Italian, German, and Japanese nationals.
The reader follows the Aust family through their journey from beloved citizens of a small American town to accused traitors-- moved from one camp to another, first separated and alone, then as a family. The family is arrested and judged without due process, tossed into camps against their will, where they’re treated like traitors/criminals and live among true Nazi thugs with no means of protection. With the exception of a few friends, most neighbors in Indiana turn their back on this German family. They have to rely upon small acts of kindness of strangers and new friends and their love for each other.
This is not an easy book to read, but it is an important book because it reminds us not only of
of the importance of due process and constitutional freedoms, but also, the importance of kindness and understanding even during the chaos of war. It is shocking and ironic we fought a war against a regime that dehumanized “others,” yet in the name of that fight proceeded to dehumanize “others.”
The author never preaches, only shows us the world through the eyes of “others.” We live and breathe with the Aust family as this travesty takes place. We see the camps, the betrayal of neighbors, the fear and paranoia of our government. We see the distant eyes of guards and harsh, cold treatment from many Americans.
The truth is difficult and at times I wondered how much of this story deviated from reality. Were paranoid actions in reality truly this brutal or did the author darken the world for effect? In a book like this, research and quality of writing is important, and, ultimately, because of Jansen’s authentic details and excellent writing, I trusted her.
Books like IN OUR MIDST display the importance of historical literary fiction. Good literary writers, like Nancy Jensen, take us on important journeys that most history books avoid. We are allowed to feel the consequences of our mistakes, not simply learn them.
This is a tough read, but it’s an important one-- particularly now, when anger and fear of the “other” is leading our country, once again, to devolve into division and hate. Great writing and insight. I recommend it.
March 31, 2021
I’m thankful every month that I get to lead a national book club. Women from different states, different nationalities, different political beliefs, we all come together to share our love of books. I love hearing other people’s answers to my questions and opening my mind to other possibilities. Sometimes we talk about parts that frustrated us and other times we share that parts made us cry. I am honored to be a part of this wonderful group of women and the organization that makes it possible. WNBA (not basketball people, I’m only 5’1)
Woman’s National Book Association is a nonprofit group that works to connect, educate, advocate, and lead others in the literary community. It’s very inexpensive to join and there are chapters in all states. If you join you can join my book club 😃
Our book for March was In Our Midst by Nancy Jensen. All books for book club are taken from the Great Group Reads list so you can feel safe knowing a committee has chosen books that they believe you will enjoy.
In Our Midst is a story about thousands of German immigrants who were interned following the attach on Pearl Harbor. The Aust family are torn between who they are and the country they love. Everything they have built, the customers they come to treasure, and the opportunities they wanted for their boys is all gone in a blink of an eye. In Our Midst is a story about a time in history that was forgotten.
“In Our Midst illuminates a nation gripped by suspicion, fear, and hatred strong enough to threaten all bonds of love-for family, friends, community and country.”
Sounds all to familiar and unfortunately very relevant.
Woman’s National Book Association is a nonprofit group that works to connect, educate, advocate, and lead others in the literary community. It’s very inexpensive to join and there are chapters in all states. If you join you can join my book club 😃
Our book for March was In Our Midst by Nancy Jensen. All books for book club are taken from the Great Group Reads list so you can feel safe knowing a committee has chosen books that they believe you will enjoy.
In Our Midst is a story about thousands of German immigrants who were interned following the attach on Pearl Harbor. The Aust family are torn between who they are and the country they love. Everything they have built, the customers they come to treasure, and the opportunities they wanted for their boys is all gone in a blink of an eye. In Our Midst is a story about a time in history that was forgotten.
“In Our Midst illuminates a nation gripped by suspicion, fear, and hatred strong enough to threaten all bonds of love-for family, friends, community and country.”
Sounds all to familiar and unfortunately very relevant.
December 8, 2024
Rating: 3.5
In Our Midst is a fictionalized account of one German family's experience in a a U.S. interment camp during World War II. The Aust family, restaurateurs, have successful integrated themselves into the community of a small Indiana town until Pearl Harbor happens, and the community turns against them. They are individually arrested, courtesy of the FBI (which comes off very poorly in this novel) and while mother Nina is eventually released her husband Otto and sons Gerhard and Kurt are sent to separate camps. Eventually the family comes together at a family camp when Nina agrees to join them . The conditions are deplorable and factions within the German population of the camp battle one another as well as the camp guards. The book is brutal in its descriptions of their treatment and the camp conditions. Jensen has done good research and reports accurately on the less-well-known bit of WWII history. It is an important but not a pleasant story.
In Our Midst is a fictionalized account of one German family's experience in a a U.S. interment camp during World War II. The Aust family, restaurateurs, have successful integrated themselves into the community of a small Indiana town until Pearl Harbor happens, and the community turns against them. They are individually arrested, courtesy of the FBI (which comes off very poorly in this novel) and while mother Nina is eventually released her husband Otto and sons Gerhard and Kurt are sent to separate camps. Eventually the family comes together at a family camp when Nina agrees to join them . The conditions are deplorable and factions within the German population of the camp battle one another as well as the camp guards. The book is brutal in its descriptions of their treatment and the camp conditions. Jensen has done good research and reports accurately on the less-well-known bit of WWII history. It is an important but not a pleasant story.
December 21, 2024
A wonderfully written novel about the lesser known or talked about effects of wars on the innocent, every day people. Like the families in the story, my family had a similar experience when we lived through the Balkan war of 1990s. Receiving and giving help to family and neighbors around us to survive really hits home. Also, my family was separated when my dad was allowed to emigrate to Canada two years before my mom, my brother and I were allowed to join him. We had 4 days to pack essentials and say goodbye to our life before leaving for the unknown. We had to fights through a lot of hurdles together to build our new home, make new friends, and create a life for us in a new world. This story got difficult for me at times to get through because it hit so close to home, but I'm glad I pushed through it as it's a wonderful story that shows that life isn't always all roses and that sometimes we have to make the ultimate sacrifice for the betterment of those around us.
March 23, 2020
A fragile history of an immigrated family working in their founded restaurant. When panic spreads over the Nazi topic, people do harsh, regretful things. These things can impact our family, friends, and community. Will love stand to everyone's suspicions? Will trust become more complex as the minutes go on?
Well, we know one thing for sure! Friends can turn to enemies and prejudice can turn to prosecution.
Keeping their cultures and traditions is the only way to keep themselves happier as the days go by.
Even when two FBI agents take Nina by order of the president and their beloved restaurant crumbles to pieces, they can still hold that small hope of seeing each other again.
Beautiful, heartbreaking and a masterpiece. I loved this book and I hope you do too.
Thank you!
Well, we know one thing for sure! Friends can turn to enemies and prejudice can turn to prosecution.
Keeping their cultures and traditions is the only way to keep themselves happier as the days go by.
Even when two FBI agents take Nina by order of the president and their beloved restaurant crumbles to pieces, they can still hold that small hope of seeing each other again.
Beautiful, heartbreaking and a masterpiece. I loved this book and I hope you do too.
Thank you!
November 12, 2024
3 1/2 stars rounded down. This is the third novel I’ve read about the horrible episode in America’s history where the government interned residents of German, Japanese and Italian descent during World War II. This novel tells the story of Nina, Otto and their two grown sons when they are taken from their productive lives and sent to Crystal City internment camp. If you are unfamiliar with this history this is a wonderful novel to familiarize you. There were times where I found the novel got bogged down and I wanted to skim parts. But I also found the conclusion of the novel quite moving and worth sticking with it. There are also some historical notes at the end of the book that are quite enlightening.
August 28, 2025
A piece of American history that has seldom been discussed — I was familiar with the internment of the Japanese during WWII but had never read anything about the internment of Germans who were living in USA during the hostilities.
Nancy Jensen has crafted a compelling novel capturing the complexities of trying to navigate two worlds at war — your homeland and the country you now call home. In Our Midst is the story of one family, the Austs who struggle to stay together as they are rounded up and sent to inhospitable conditions in USA. As they attempt to cling to their ideals of freedom, they endure the suspicion of friends, hatred, fear, and homophobia.
Nancy Jensen has crafted a compelling novel capturing the complexities of trying to navigate two worlds at war — your homeland and the country you now call home. In Our Midst is the story of one family, the Austs who struggle to stay together as they are rounded up and sent to inhospitable conditions in USA. As they attempt to cling to their ideals of freedom, they endure the suspicion of friends, hatred, fear, and homophobia.
March 1, 2020
In Our Midst was a heart wrenching read. A German family immigrated to America and built a life for themselves. Then came WWII. They were accused of being Nazis, ripped apart, had their home and business destroyed. It's a close examination of the internment of Germans and how most people turned their backs on them. This novel is a valuable read because this subject isn't very well known. It's very eye opening. Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the early read.
December 22, 2024
This is a part of history, I knew nothing about, through I had heard much of the Japanese internment. This is the story of a family that left Germany to come to America. They were supposed to farm but chose to open a restaurant instead. They had a happy life until Pearl Harbor, they were taken by the FBI. They were in several interment camps and never knew why that were selected from the many Germans in their town. Very interesting.
May 8, 2020
An excellent historical fiction work in the internment camp genre (Snow Falling on Cedars, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Tallgrass, etc.) except this time it's the other WWII Axis, Germans. A story with pathos and love, and a very believable ending. So important for US readers to hear of our own cruelties, biases, and racism in a very realistic history.
July 31, 2020
Terrific new novel by Nancy Jensen. She recreates a dark, seldom looked at piece of our history, the hysteria following Pearl Harbor that sent thousands of German immigrants to internment camps. As we look into the dark mirror of our shadowy past and how we treat whom we define as outsiders, this is a must read. So current. Such a beautiful reconstruction of who we have been.
December 23, 2024
This is the first book I have been introduced to the interment of American Germans during WWII.
I have read many books on Japanese interment camps so there was many new insights into the German culture and how they were treated; most of all how they coped and felt during the years they were held captive. Well worth reading.
I have read many books on Japanese interment camps so there was many new insights into the German culture and how they were treated; most of all how they coped and felt during the years they were held captive. Well worth reading.
January 1, 2025
December 8,1941. Somehow my history books in my school years never mentioned that between 25 an 31 thousand German immigrants were rounded up by the Flu based on Notes and lists the J. Edgar Hoover rounded up with FDR's blessings and were shipped to German internment camps because Hooved wasn't sure of their allegiance to the US. it is one of the best books I read in 2024.
April 6, 2021
Interesting novel about a dark time, and some history that we do not read in books. Was troubling, but the author did a good job weaving the characters together and describing the 1940's in the midwest
November 8, 2024
Had to digest this book before rating. Going back and forth between 4 and 5 stars. Had to go with the 5 for beautiful descriptive writing that outweighed the shocking and depressive nature of the topic. A blight on the US and its treatment of the German people on our soil right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Not an easy book to read albeit an important story.
March 3, 2025
I had never heard of the internment of German Americans during wwII. This is a shameful chapter in our history and I applaud Ms. Jensen for her research and dedication in writing such an important historical fiction novel.
March 25, 2020
In Our Midst by Nancy Jensen is a heartbreaking tale of a German family living in America forced into internment during WW2. I don’t read much historical fiction or history books so this novel was pleasantly surprising to me. I really enjoyed the writing which wasn’t graphic at all but told the story of this one family’s immense struggles during this difficult time in a kind hearted way. I really got emotional during some tense situations and was really hoping for a happy ending for everyone. If you are a true fan of historical fiction then I think you’d really enjoy this book.
December 14, 2021
Very real; very powerful!!
February 20, 2025
3.5 to 4*
August 9, 2025
Good read about little known part of American history.
May 29, 2020
What an amazing writing skills, I enjoyed it so much I want a second part :). The story is so powerful and feels so real.
May 6, 2021
In The Midst tells of historically true story of German Internment camps that were activated right after the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941. Even though an historical novel, this book conveys the happenings, traumas, and feelings brought to one German family who lived in a small town outside of Indianapolis, Indiana. The family had settled many years before, establishing a well supported restaurant featuring German dishes. All of a sudden the mother, Nina, is grabbed by the FBI with no warning and taken to a place in Indianapolis where she nor any one else are prepared for nor told about; just a grab and run of the matriarch. In weeks, she is returned with no explanation after being interrogated. Shortly after that even more outlandish captures are made.
I learned so much from this book having had no knowledge that there was such a thing as German Internment camps. This since, has been documented and the camps were all over the United States.
J. Edgar Hoover was the author of the list of who would be interned. Furthermore, for no reason many Germans were exported back to their home countries after having made their home in America.
This book reveals American encampments which were kept as secret. This is a sad time in American history.
Nancy Jensen, a skilled writer, intensely investigated this phenomenon after a bit of history from her own family.
If you like history, this is the one for you.
I learned so much from this book having had no knowledge that there was such a thing as German Internment camps. This since, has been documented and the camps were all over the United States.
J. Edgar Hoover was the author of the list of who would be interned. Furthermore, for no reason many Germans were exported back to their home countries after having made their home in America.
This book reveals American encampments which were kept as secret. This is a sad time in American history.
Nancy Jensen, a skilled writer, intensely investigated this phenomenon after a bit of history from her own family.
If you like history, this is the one for you.
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