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The Dark Room
The Dark Room tells the stories of three ordinary Helmut, a young photographer in Berlin in the 1930s who uses his craft to express his patriotic fervour; Lore, a twelve-year-old girl who in 1945 guides her young siblings across a devastated Germany after her Nazi parents are seized by the Allies; and, fifty years later, Micha, a young teacher obsessed with what his loving grandfather did in the war, struggling to deal with the past of his family and his country.
398 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
209 people are currently reading
3654 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Seiffert
23 books87 followersRachel Seiffert is one of Virago’s most critically acclaimed contemporary novelists. Her first book, The Dark Room, (2001) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and made into the feature film Lore. In 2003, she was named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists, and in 2011 she received the EM Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Field Study, her collection of short stories published in 2004, received an award from PEN International. Her second novel, Afterwards (2007) third novel The Walk Home (2014), and fourth novel A Boy in Winter (2017), were all longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her books have been published in eighteen languages.
Seiffert’s subject is ordinary lives in extraordinary times. Her characters have included the 12-year-old daughter of an SS officer in 1945, a Polish seasonal worker on a German asparagus farm after the fall of the iron curtain, and – most recently – a young Ukrainian man faced with the choice between resistance and collaboration during the Nazi occupation.
Rachel Seiffert has taught creative writing at Goldsmiths College and Glasgow University, and delivered seminars at the Humboldt University Berlin, Manchester University, and the Faber Academy in London, amongst others; she is a returning tutor at the Arvon Foundation. Her particular interest is teaching writing in schools, delivering workshops for the East Side Side Educational Trust in Hackney, Wellington College in Berkshire, and a number of state secondaries in south east London. She is currently Writer in Residence at Haseltine School in SE26, and works with First Story at St Martin in the Fields Secondary in Tulse Hill.
Seiffert’s subject is ordinary lives in extraordinary times. Her characters have included the 12-year-old daughter of an SS officer in 1945, a Polish seasonal worker on a German asparagus farm after the fall of the iron curtain, and – most recently – a young Ukrainian man faced with the choice between resistance and collaboration during the Nazi occupation.
Rachel Seiffert has taught creative writing at Goldsmiths College and Glasgow University, and delivered seminars at the Humboldt University Berlin, Manchester University, and the Faber Academy in London, amongst others; she is a returning tutor at the Arvon Foundation. Her particular interest is teaching writing in schools, delivering workshops for the East Side Side Educational Trust in Hackney, Wellington College in Berkshire, and a number of state secondaries in south east London. She is currently Writer in Residence at Haseltine School in SE26, and works with First Story at St Martin in the Fields Secondary in Tulse Hill.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 358 reviews
March 3, 2012
I've owned this book since either 2002 or 2003, and tried to read it twice, never managing to read more than about 15 pages. Something made me keep it, however - perhaps it was the haunting real life photo on the cover. Anyway, serendipity struck yesterday. I picked it up, started reading, was sucked in and read more than 200 pages in one sitting. I finished it this evening in about an hour. This is an extraordinary book, broken into three tales, all of ordinary Germans, the first two of which are set during or just after the war and the last of which is set in 1990s Germany. All three stories are about what it might have been like to live during that time, as a child, an adult and as a serving Waffen SS soldier.
Seiffert's sparse prose initially seems artificial, exaggerated, but as I read on it became richer and deeper, searching out the emotions of shame, guilt, denial and anger, mostly on the part of innocent Germans who had nothing to do with the terrible things done by the Nazis. Ultimately, this is a moving and thoughtful novel. I hesitate to say that I enjoyed it: the subject matter makes that very hard. However, I certainly savoured the book, and I recommend it highly.
Seiffert's sparse prose initially seems artificial, exaggerated, but as I read on it became richer and deeper, searching out the emotions of shame, guilt, denial and anger, mostly on the part of innocent Germans who had nothing to do with the terrible things done by the Nazis. Ultimately, this is a moving and thoughtful novel. I hesitate to say that I enjoyed it: the subject matter makes that very hard. However, I certainly savoured the book, and I recommend it highly.
December 23, 2022
I really enjoyed Rachel Seiffert's A Boy in Winter. This is her first book, three novellas about German experience of WW2. The first story is about a boy with a physical disability who takes photographs during the war. It's a good premise but the story never really came to life for me. The second story is the best. A group of children of a Nazi couple have to navigate their way alone across the aftermath of the war to their grandmother's house. The third story had the potential to be brilliant but became irritating in the repetitive procrastination of its main character - a man who finds out his beloved grandfather was in the Waffen SS and in all probability murdered Jewish women and children. This was Rachel Seiffert's first book and it shows at times. There's an excess of cliché and insignificant information. It's written in very simple language.
July 4, 2011
Having read other reviews of this book, I feel both confused and harsh about giving my own opinion. Despite a compelling plotline detailing the aftermath of WW2 in Germany, and a fresh perspective given by German citizens (with somewhat Nazist sympathies) about the war, I felt strongly that the writing was really much too spare, cold, and empty to be deemed worthy of the storyline it was describing. I felt completely uninvolved with the characters' plights; I may as well have been reading historical reports of how German citizens coped after the war. I read the first two sections before putting the book to one side; after beginning the third section and feeling absolutely no tie to the character of Michael, or his search for his Opa in the SS histories, I thought it better to cut my losses and start something else!
That said, I did enjoy the actual plotlines of Helmut's and Lore's stories, and so have given the book two stars. I do think, though, that there needs to be a lot more depth to the novel in terms of both content and writing style.
That said, I did enjoy the actual plotlines of Helmut's and Lore's stories, and so have given the book two stars. I do think, though, that there needs to be a lot more depth to the novel in terms of both content and writing style.
February 18, 2015
This is the best work of fiction that employs history without being didactic that I have read since "The Known World." And I am usually very annoyed by WWII novels set in Germany, which all seem to be too much History Channel and not enough literary value. This book means something.
September 23, 2011
This is a trio of very different stories, all with the common theme of how three very diverse sets of Germans deal with the rise and ultimate fall of Nazism. The first of the trio is set in the glory days of the ascent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, as seen through the eyes of a naïve young man, and what happens afterwards. The second is a somewhat rambling story of a 14-year-old German girl who, with her younger siblings survives the disappearance of her Nazi parents and the struggles to get to her family in Hamburg in the immediate aftermath of the Allies’ victory. The third, and by far the best and most challenging, is the story of a present-day young man whose quest for the truth behind his Nazi SS-serving grandfather leads almost to the destruction of the relationship his family and girlfriend.
The first two stories are moving descriptive accounts, which in themselves are interesting (fictionalised) accounts of stories that must have been repeated countless times. But, it is the third story that I find fascinating because, like anyone else, I cannot help asking the same questions of myself. If I discovered that I had an elderly relative, after whose death I discovered that he potentially had an appalling dark secret, perhaps responsible for deaths of thousands of innocent people, but also someone whom I loved and treasured as a youngster: how would I react? Would the former alleged monstrosity annul the good things he had done and the relationship we had? How would I feel about those (other relatives, for example) who were complicit in either a cover-up or wilfully turning a blind eye? These are the sometimes painful questions thrown up in this clever story. It is a story that has a twist in the tail, and gives no easy answers. But I like the fact that the questions are asked, and worked through to one possible outcome.
I can’t say how I would have reacted in the same situation, but I enjoy the challenge of contemplating my behaviour. I think that anyone with even the remotest knowledge of the Nazi occupation of Europe and the atrocities committed in the name of Adolf Hitler will enjoy reading this book, and for those who do not know of the atrocities, perhaps a little research on the subject will be useful before indulging in the pleasure of reading this book.
The first two stories are moving descriptive accounts, which in themselves are interesting (fictionalised) accounts of stories that must have been repeated countless times. But, it is the third story that I find fascinating because, like anyone else, I cannot help asking the same questions of myself. If I discovered that I had an elderly relative, after whose death I discovered that he potentially had an appalling dark secret, perhaps responsible for deaths of thousands of innocent people, but also someone whom I loved and treasured as a youngster: how would I react? Would the former alleged monstrosity annul the good things he had done and the relationship we had? How would I feel about those (other relatives, for example) who were complicit in either a cover-up or wilfully turning a blind eye? These are the sometimes painful questions thrown up in this clever story. It is a story that has a twist in the tail, and gives no easy answers. But I like the fact that the questions are asked, and worked through to one possible outcome.
I can’t say how I would have reacted in the same situation, but I enjoy the challenge of contemplating my behaviour. I think that anyone with even the remotest knowledge of the Nazi occupation of Europe and the atrocities committed in the name of Adolf Hitler will enjoy reading this book, and for those who do not know of the atrocities, perhaps a little research on the subject will be useful before indulging in the pleasure of reading this book.
July 31, 2007
I really enjoyed this debut novel, about how World War II affected the lives of ordinary Germans. It's basically three short novellas strung together, the first two during the war, the last one in current times. The most compelling for me was the family whose parents are taken away because of their Nazi affiliations, leaving the children to make a treacherous journey across the country, trying to get back home. It powerfully evokes the chaos, starvation and confusion of the immediate post-war period.
December 23, 2022
pues al final me ha gustado mucho más todas las historias me han dejado tocada pero la última personalmente porque es algo que nunca me había planteado, el hecho de lidiar con que una persona que tienes idealizada como puede ser tu abuelo y que descubras que durante la guerra haya hecho cosas que no te esperabas y como lidiar con eso no se me ha gustado mucho
October 17, 2019
Have you ever come across a new author and thought to yourself, wow, this author really knows the meaning of showing and not telling? Ms. Seiffert is definitely that kind of author. From the very first opening scenes, I marveled at her literary skill. I mean, can you write the entire story (the book consists of three) without using a dialogue once (!) and keep it so riveting and vivid that in the end no one even needs that dialogue? I, for one, can’t.
As I have already said, the book consists of three, seemingly unrelated, novellas, unified only by the common theme - Nazi Germany and WW2. The first novella centers around a young German man who carefully observes the changes his country undergoes through the lens of his camera while struggling with the inferiority complex due to his handicap. The trains come and go carrying soldiers along with civilians; scenes of brutality unraveling in the streets between the SS and the gypsy population; the first bombs devastating the layout of the familiar streets - I don’t know how Ms. Seiffert managed to compress the entire era into a novella, but the result came out brilliant.
The second novella, which was eventually made into a movie which I highly recommend, features a daughter of an SS man; after a disappearance of her parents at the end of the war, she finds herself having to take care of her young siblings while making a seemingly impossible track to her grandmother through several occupation zones. The mounting desperation, the gradual realization of the horrible truth behind the Nazi regime, the resentment and eventual coming to terms with such grim reality - “Lore” is a brilliant psychological study of a young mind that has to undergo a quick and brutal change and face the consequences of the atrocious actions of the people, to which her own father could have belonged.
The third novella is a conclusion of sorts; it takes place in more or less modern times (late 90s Germany) and tells a story of a young teacher who finds out that his grandfather could have possibly been a war criminal in former Nazi-occupied Byelorussia. In his quest to uncover the truth, he may well destroy his relationship not only with his family but his fiancée Mina as well; however, the need of closure and almost self-destructive drive to face the unimaginable won’t let him rest until he finds in himself to strength to admit what generations before him so thoroughly tried to sweep under the rug. His trip to Byelorussia (both trips, in fact) are so powerful in their message, you will find yourself holding your breath as you follow the lines.
Extremely powerful and masterfully crafted, “Lore” is something that has to be on any historical fiction lover’s and any history buff’s bookshelf. I can’t recommend it enough. Simply brilliant.
As I have already said, the book consists of three, seemingly unrelated, novellas, unified only by the common theme - Nazi Germany and WW2. The first novella centers around a young German man who carefully observes the changes his country undergoes through the lens of his camera while struggling with the inferiority complex due to his handicap. The trains come and go carrying soldiers along with civilians; scenes of brutality unraveling in the streets between the SS and the gypsy population; the first bombs devastating the layout of the familiar streets - I don’t know how Ms. Seiffert managed to compress the entire era into a novella, but the result came out brilliant.
The second novella, which was eventually made into a movie which I highly recommend, features a daughter of an SS man; after a disappearance of her parents at the end of the war, she finds herself having to take care of her young siblings while making a seemingly impossible track to her grandmother through several occupation zones. The mounting desperation, the gradual realization of the horrible truth behind the Nazi regime, the resentment and eventual coming to terms with such grim reality - “Lore” is a brilliant psychological study of a young mind that has to undergo a quick and brutal change and face the consequences of the atrocious actions of the people, to which her own father could have belonged.
The third novella is a conclusion of sorts; it takes place in more or less modern times (late 90s Germany) and tells a story of a young teacher who finds out that his grandfather could have possibly been a war criminal in former Nazi-occupied Byelorussia. In his quest to uncover the truth, he may well destroy his relationship not only with his family but his fiancée Mina as well; however, the need of closure and almost self-destructive drive to face the unimaginable won’t let him rest until he finds in himself to strength to admit what generations before him so thoroughly tried to sweep under the rug. His trip to Byelorussia (both trips, in fact) are so powerful in their message, you will find yourself holding your breath as you follow the lines.
Extremely powerful and masterfully crafted, “Lore” is something that has to be on any historical fiction lover’s and any history buff’s bookshelf. I can’t recommend it enough. Simply brilliant.
February 22, 2010
This book is interesting as it tells the story of WWII, but from Nazi German perspectives. The characters are children in parts 1 & 2. Part 3 involves an adult researching his grandfather's involvement in WWII and the subsequent knowledge of his grandfather's decisions and actions, how Micha feels about him knowing what he did. This is a thought provoking novel, from a perspective I haven't encountered before now.
Another reviewer says this:
People are 'both right and wrong, good and bad, both at the same time'. Helmut appears likeable in his status as an outsider, but it is his disability that prevents him from participation. Lore's parents are high-ranking Nazis, yet are loved by their children. Askan is a doting grandfather, but responsible for countless deaths. The elderly man who befriends Micha is a collaborator and a killer. And Thomas, Lore's benefactor, helps the children, but steals Jewish papers from a corpse. These actions are monstrous, yet their perpetrators are not monsters. Seiffert forces us to confront their humanity, but also their guilt. Whatever their qualities and however they suffer, they may not atone for their action. For such people 'there is no punishment (…) not enough sadness and no punishment'.
Another reviewer says this:
People are 'both right and wrong, good and bad, both at the same time'. Helmut appears likeable in his status as an outsider, but it is his disability that prevents him from participation. Lore's parents are high-ranking Nazis, yet are loved by their children. Askan is a doting grandfather, but responsible for countless deaths. The elderly man who befriends Micha is a collaborator and a killer. And Thomas, Lore's benefactor, helps the children, but steals Jewish papers from a corpse. These actions are monstrous, yet their perpetrators are not monsters. Seiffert forces us to confront their humanity, but also their guilt. Whatever their qualities and however they suffer, they may not atone for their action. For such people 'there is no punishment (…) not enough sadness and no punishment'.
May 28, 2013
This is one of the most beautifully written, thought-provoking books I've read in a long, long time. It contains three stories about WWII.
The first tracess the life of a young man through the war years in Berlin, the second allows us to shadow a teenage girl and her 4 siblings as they cross war-torn Germany during and immediately following the end of the war, and the final story details the process a young teacher follows as he researches the role his grandfather played during the war.
Each story takes hold of your emotions and drags you through the lives of the characters, one day at a time. You feel as though you are experiencing each painful event beside them. Family ties are broken and rebuilt. Courage and self-discipline are called upon. And through it all, you ask yourself, 'What would I have done if it were me?'
I've received several books to review through the Goodreads Giveaway program and this hold the number 1 slot.
The first tracess the life of a young man through the war years in Berlin, the second allows us to shadow a teenage girl and her 4 siblings as they cross war-torn Germany during and immediately following the end of the war, and the final story details the process a young teacher follows as he researches the role his grandfather played during the war.
Each story takes hold of your emotions and drags you through the lives of the characters, one day at a time. You feel as though you are experiencing each painful event beside them. Family ties are broken and rebuilt. Courage and self-discipline are called upon. And through it all, you ask yourself, 'What would I have done if it were me?'
I've received several books to review through the Goodreads Giveaway program and this hold the number 1 slot.
March 17, 2018
I found this book both compelling and thought provoking about the nature of inherited guilt and the aftermath on subsequent generations. Can you love someone as a person when you are aware of the terrible crimes they may have committed? Is it better to know what they did or live in ignorance so as not to destroy the love of family and the memories? When is it time to move on and accept the past? These three stories are quite different but complement each other to provide a varied perspective on war and how there are really no winners.
February 21, 2008
These three novella-length stories are terrific: Seiffert manages to write in a manner that's both spare and detailed. The two pieces set in wartime (featuring Helmut and Lore) are the most immediate and compelling; there's some momentum lost in the Micha story, set 50 years later, but it does serve to round out the book as a whole by providing perspective.
April 12, 2007
I really liked this book. It is about the holocaust, but told from the perspective of Germans who lived through it. There are three short stories - the first is about a teenage boy who is handicapped so can't join the German army, bu wishes he could. The second is the story of five children whose parents were arrested at the end of the war for being Nazis and they have to make their way across a divided Germany to try and find their parents. The last is set in modern times about a guy obsessed with finding out exactly what atrocities his Waffen-SS grandfather perpetrated. Fascinating and well-written, I highly recommend.
January 3, 2012
This is a different look at how World War II affected people in Germany: innocents during the war (children) and a grandson of an SS officer in 1997 who finally finds out what his grandfather did during the war in the Ukraine. Told in three vignettes, well written, deeply characterized stories.
September 21, 2025
I really enjoyed Rachel Seiffert's first book, a collection of three linked novellas, despite the grim subject matter. Wikipedia indicates "Seiffert's subject is the individual in history: how political and economic upheavals impact on ordinary lives." That certainly is true of this, with the impact of the Nazi regime being explored before, during, immediately after, and much longer after in the late 90s.
February 6, 2015
Shortlisted for the Man Booker and other prizes, Rachel Seiffert’s novel explores the complex moral situation among ordinary Germans during and just after the Second World War. In the form of three novellas, by far the most engaging is the middle story, ‘Lore’, about a 12-year girl abandoned by her Nazi parents in the countryside with the task of getting her younger siblings across Germany to Hamburg. Before leaving for an American camp, her mother gives Lore money and jewellery to buy their train tickets – but there are no trains. What unfolds is a fine example of a war story with children at its centre, their innocence and ignorance set against starvation, disillusionment and old hatreds. As the children, including pitiful baby Peter, struggle cross war torn Germany by foot, cart and water, I found their plight both gripping and poignant. In time, they befriend a mysterious man, who may be a holocaust survivor or may be a con man. Throughout, the relationships around Lore, the little girl forced to prematurely become her siblings’ little mother, are handled with great sensitivity and realism. I believe Lore has also been made into a wonderful film of the same name.
Helmut, the first of the novellas, about a misfit boy who photographs Berlin railway station, seemed to me to be a lost opportunity. Given the rich subject, the visual changes Helmut might have recorded over the period of the war and the powerful capacity of photography to bear testament to history, I found this part of the book underwritten. Similarly, the final section of the book was rambling and unfocussed and failed to engage me.
Helmut, the first of the novellas, about a misfit boy who photographs Berlin railway station, seemed to me to be a lost opportunity. Given the rich subject, the visual changes Helmut might have recorded over the period of the war and the powerful capacity of photography to bear testament to history, I found this part of the book underwritten. Similarly, the final section of the book was rambling and unfocussed and failed to engage me.
July 26, 2012
A story that captured my eye mainly due to my interest in the holocaust. I've read many fiction and non fiction material on the holocaust and the appauling effects it had on the Jewish community. However, never have I read a perspective from other Germans living during the war and afterwards. The innocent relatives of the people who were part of the Nazi party; feeling the impact and after effects of the consequences members and their family faced when Germany lost the war and the full extent of the war crimes committed.
The author's writing style was unique, concise and an enjoyable reading experience. Three stories about three different people prior, during and after the 2nd World War. I would have marked it as 5 stars but the reader never truly finds out the ending of the three individual stories, which I found a little frustrating.
Yes I would recommend this story and hopefully I will be able to read it again. I enjoyed it that much I aim to read other titles by the author.
The author's writing style was unique, concise and an enjoyable reading experience. Three stories about three different people prior, during and after the 2nd World War. I would have marked it as 5 stars but the reader never truly finds out the ending of the three individual stories, which I found a little frustrating.
Yes I would recommend this story and hopefully I will be able to read it again. I enjoyed it that much I aim to read other titles by the author.
July 29, 2021
This was so difficult for me to rate. On the one hand, Seiffert’s spare and dispassionate prose is entirely suited to the atmosphere of wartime Germany. The first of the three stories, Helmut, was a fascinating insight into belonging and hazy Nazi sympathies and really set the collection up to soar.
Lore however was at odds with my initial assessment. The cold prose here did the story little favours. The immediate aftermath of the war was a brutally rendered perspective we rarely seem to see in media: the story always ends on VE day, doesn’t it? Lore’s plight should have been compelling, particularly when I learned that the story was based on Seiffert’s own mother’s experience. But it just became a slog: repetitive and hard work, with no pay-off. It says a lot that I did not even attempt the third story in light of this.
Certainly some psychological insight in here, but ultimately lacking in pathos.
Lore however was at odds with my initial assessment. The cold prose here did the story little favours. The immediate aftermath of the war was a brutally rendered perspective we rarely seem to see in media: the story always ends on VE day, doesn’t it? Lore’s plight should have been compelling, particularly when I learned that the story was based on Seiffert’s own mother’s experience. But it just became a slog: repetitive and hard work, with no pay-off. It says a lot that I did not even attempt the third story in light of this.
Certainly some psychological insight in here, but ultimately lacking in pathos.
October 7, 2008
What can I say about this profoundly moving and evocative trio of novellas except OMG. This was a Booker Prize Finalist 2001 (not surprising) and winner of the LA Times Book Prize.
Seiffert's sparse, lyrical prose pierces to the heart of the matter and evokes time, place, character, humanity, and wrenching emotion with the cleanest stroke of the keyboard. Such power and so little dressing.
Seiffert opens a window into the dark rooms occupied by three Germans whose lives are shaped, and shattered, by World War 11. Each character is blind in some way to the essential truths they each have to face. The first is set during the war (and the fall of Berlin), the second takes place in the immediate aftermath (this is the one I personally found carried the most emotional punch), while the third bring us up to the late 1990s.
I can't recommend this enough.
Seiffert's sparse, lyrical prose pierces to the heart of the matter and evokes time, place, character, humanity, and wrenching emotion with the cleanest stroke of the keyboard. Such power and so little dressing.
Seiffert opens a window into the dark rooms occupied by three Germans whose lives are shaped, and shattered, by World War 11. Each character is blind in some way to the essential truths they each have to face. The first is set during the war (and the fall of Berlin), the second takes place in the immediate aftermath (this is the one I personally found carried the most emotional punch), while the third bring us up to the late 1990s.
I can't recommend this enough.
May 13, 2008
I didn't like the first story as much as the last two. I've read other books with a view of everyday Germans in the days leading up to the Second World War and the days immediately after when they had to live with the destruction and realization of where their decisions led but this had a new view in the second story. Likewise, there has been a wealth of material lately on Germans dealing with what their loved ones may have done, and why. (I recommend Bernhard Schlink's "The Reader" for this.) Although the first was too remote for me, the last two stories were gripping. a very affecting read for me.
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July 26, 2016Tremendously well researched, which gives the book verisimilitude. It's the story of three different German families and the effects that WWII has on them. One story takes place during the war, one immediately after, and one fifty years later. Two of the stories focus on the effects of parents and grandparents having been Nazis.
If there had been any connection between the three different sections other than the extremely tenuous link of "photographs were taken during the war," this would have been a better book. As it stands, I would hesitate to call it a novel. It's really three disconnected novellas.
If there had been any connection between the three different sections other than the extremely tenuous link of "photographs were taken during the war," this would have been a better book. As it stands, I would hesitate to call it a novel. It's really three disconnected novellas.
November 21, 2021
Explores the Holocaust and its legacy through the perspective of German people in 3 separate stories who struggle to understand their reality. Used simple prose to discuss heavy topics like the suggested impossibility to atone for evil, but went on a bit and I got bored. also the stories were only linked by theme and I was waiting for a connection but they all just seemed to have dead ends
April 22, 2013
I chose to read this book after seeing the movie Lore, which is based on one of the three stories in this book, The Dark Room. The book is broken into three stories of Germans and focuses on World War II. The first is about Helmut, a baby born missing a muscle in his chest that will weaken his ability to use his right arm. A lifetime working on strengthening the muscles and his arm only do so much good and as a child and eventually a young man he begins to understand that it will always be a burden to some extent. Always a watcher, he ended up hanging out with the fat boys and the nerds who didn't play sports, but became gifted at watching what was going on around him. His parents are a bit overprotective and then a bit ashamed as he fails to be inducted into the army, but he eventually finds a career to sustain him, photography. As a worker for the railroad and a postcard maker, he takes photos of trains coming in and out of Berlin. As the war rages on and he becomes trapped in the Blitz, he finds himself not only more independent but a recorder of history.
Lore- The second story is about a young woman about 15 who is left with several siblings to care for after her parents are put into prison camps for being SS. The father had hidden the family in the Black Forest of Bavaria but alone and with no friends, she must travel with a baby and young children to Hamburg to her grandmother's house. The Americans have taken over after the war and there is a travel ban so the children must hide in the woods. Enter a young man named Tomas, who also happens to be a Jew. While Lore and her siblings were raised to hate Jews, this man is their only chance at survival. Great story and great movie.
Micha - The third story takes place in 1998. Micha is a German young man whose grandfather was known to have been imprisoned for war crimes and then released after his sentence. No one in his family discusses it and the grandfather died when he was a child. Grandma has dementia and can't help and his parents were never told. He struggles with these questions because he wants to understand what it means to be German. His girlfriend is German and Turkish and identifies more with her German background. But what does it mean to be German? Micha does research in the library and asks for information from a historian on a village in what is now Belarus where his grandfather's Wafen SS troops were said to have committed atrocities. A name of a man who still lives there and survived is given to him and in a series of visits, phone calls and letters, the truth of grandfather's involvement becomes clear, but what does it mean for MIcha?
I was really impressed with the whole book and the question many Germans have to ask themselves, how could so many of them have done such bad things? Can it be true? What are the consequences for all Germans with that history? Good book.
Lore- The second story is about a young woman about 15 who is left with several siblings to care for after her parents are put into prison camps for being SS. The father had hidden the family in the Black Forest of Bavaria but alone and with no friends, she must travel with a baby and young children to Hamburg to her grandmother's house. The Americans have taken over after the war and there is a travel ban so the children must hide in the woods. Enter a young man named Tomas, who also happens to be a Jew. While Lore and her siblings were raised to hate Jews, this man is their only chance at survival. Great story and great movie.
Micha - The third story takes place in 1998. Micha is a German young man whose grandfather was known to have been imprisoned for war crimes and then released after his sentence. No one in his family discusses it and the grandfather died when he was a child. Grandma has dementia and can't help and his parents were never told. He struggles with these questions because he wants to understand what it means to be German. His girlfriend is German and Turkish and identifies more with her German background. But what does it mean to be German? Micha does research in the library and asks for information from a historian on a village in what is now Belarus where his grandfather's Wafen SS troops were said to have committed atrocities. A name of a man who still lives there and survived is given to him and in a series of visits, phone calls and letters, the truth of grandfather's involvement becomes clear, but what does it mean for MIcha?
I was really impressed with the whole book and the question many Germans have to ask themselves, how could so many of them have done such bad things? Can it be true? What are the consequences for all Germans with that history? Good book.
August 23, 2021
Three very exceptional stories told from the German perspective of WWII. The first story titled Helmut follows the life of a young boy born with a birth defect that made him unable to lift an arm above his shoulder. When the war began he volunteered to be drafted into the military but is rejected. He is dismayed at this outcome but eventually is able to find work in a photography shop and a new life. As the story of his work unfolds it also slowly illustrates the progressive deterioration of life in Germany as the war goes on. The second story titled Lore is about a young twelve year old girl who along with her younger brothers and sister sets out to walk to their grandmothers who lives in a far distant city following the end of the war. It is a story of utter devastation and hunger and exposes the condition of Germany and many of its citizens after the war. The third story titled Micha is about a young man who in 1997 discovers that his grandfather was in the Waffen SS and sets out to find out what he may have been involved in. It becomes an obsession that leads him to visit the places his grandfather was stationed in during the war and destroys many of his family relations and memories. Rachel Seiffert's writing was exceptional but very unusual. She wrote in short abrupt sentences and paragraphs that often began about half way through where they should have but, amazingly, it all came together to form complete thoughts. This is what stood out most to me, how she could magically make seemingly incoherent sentences become such a beautifully told story. The book is well worth the read if only for the quality of the writing but the stories themselves were also excellent.
April 2, 2018
I was well overdue to read this novel, published in 2001. Seiffert is part German and I felt this was an attempt to imaginatively engage with Germans who were Nazis and with the effects on their families. It is a set of long stories with the theme of World War 2 their only connection. I think I would have appreciated the book even more if she had drawn a connection between the main characters.
Helmut is a young man whose physical disability denies him a military role but who documents the progress of the war in Berlin through his photography. Lore is a twelve-year-old girl who takes her younger siblings across Germany to find her grandmother after her Nazi parents are imprisoned after the war ends. This section is incredibly moving. Michael is a young man whose grandfather was a member of the Waffen SS and who he suspects of war crimes. This section is gripping as Michael defies his family to search out the darkest of secrets.
While the title refers literally to the darkroom that Helmut uses for his photography, it of course also refers to the dark room in people’s souls, the capacity for evil in all of us. Where to draw the line in judging such acts? There is no atonement that can suffice, no judgement that is appropriate, no forgiveness that can be offered or accepted. Seiffert provides no answers but she does make us think and feel deeply in this novel.
Helmut is a young man whose physical disability denies him a military role but who documents the progress of the war in Berlin through his photography. Lore is a twelve-year-old girl who takes her younger siblings across Germany to find her grandmother after her Nazi parents are imprisoned after the war ends. This section is incredibly moving. Michael is a young man whose grandfather was a member of the Waffen SS and who he suspects of war crimes. This section is gripping as Michael defies his family to search out the darkest of secrets.
While the title refers literally to the darkroom that Helmut uses for his photography, it of course also refers to the dark room in people’s souls, the capacity for evil in all of us. Where to draw the line in judging such acts? There is no atonement that can suffice, no judgement that is appropriate, no forgiveness that can be offered or accepted. Seiffert provides no answers but she does make us think and feel deeply in this novel.
January 2, 2019
I bought this book after seeing the film Lore, which is based on the middle story of the three which make up The Dark Room. To my surprise, it was this story which most disappointed me. I had enjoyed the film, but the two narratives are very different, and, in my view, in ways which illuminate issues with the writing.
All three stories deal with World War II in Germany, but from unusual angles. The young lad, unfit for military service who is obsessed with photography and finally gets his chance to fight in the last ditch defence of Berlin. Lore, the eldest of a family trying to get to her grandmother’s after both her parents are interned as Nazis. Micha, years after the war, trying to come to terms with what his beloved grandfather did in Belarus as part of the SS.
The writing is sparse with a lack of descriptive flesh that drove me up the wall. And it’s not just description - there is a lack of incident too. This is why the makers of the film Lore have added so much to the narrative; without additions the book would be unfilmable. The story of Micha and his search for truth in Belarus held me most, but the whole book felt like hard work. This is sad because the concept is good. I just don’t think the execution really works.
All three stories deal with World War II in Germany, but from unusual angles. The young lad, unfit for military service who is obsessed with photography and finally gets his chance to fight in the last ditch defence of Berlin. Lore, the eldest of a family trying to get to her grandmother’s after both her parents are interned as Nazis. Micha, years after the war, trying to come to terms with what his beloved grandfather did in Belarus as part of the SS.
The writing is sparse with a lack of descriptive flesh that drove me up the wall. And it’s not just description - there is a lack of incident too. This is why the makers of the film Lore have added so much to the narrative; without additions the book would be unfilmable. The story of Micha and his search for truth in Belarus held me most, but the whole book felt like hard work. This is sad because the concept is good. I just don’t think the execution really works.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 27, 2018
I can see why this book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize - but I can also see why it didn't win.
It comprises of three novellas, giving 3 very different insights into German views of the Second World War. As a work of fiction, it pulls no punches trying to look into the psyche of those who were dragged along in the wake of Nazism, and who had to suffer its stigma.
The first story is of a young photographer charting the rise of Hitler's regime - and it's possibly a little too brief. The second, following the children of Nazi parents at the end of the war, is just about the right length, and the third, charting a grandson's attempt to understand and make sense of his SS grandfather's part in the atrocities of the war, is probably a little bit too long.
In general though, it's a gripping if slightly depressing read, telling a well known story from some very different perspectives.
It comprises of three novellas, giving 3 very different insights into German views of the Second World War. As a work of fiction, it pulls no punches trying to look into the psyche of those who were dragged along in the wake of Nazism, and who had to suffer its stigma.
The first story is of a young photographer charting the rise of Hitler's regime - and it's possibly a little too brief. The second, following the children of Nazi parents at the end of the war, is just about the right length, and the third, charting a grandson's attempt to understand and make sense of his SS grandfather's part in the atrocities of the war, is probably a little bit too long.
In general though, it's a gripping if slightly depressing read, telling a well known story from some very different perspectives.
September 27, 2020
4.5 stars. This is the side of World War II Germany we seldom see: ordinary Germans during and after the war and even generations later. For me the first two sections were the strongest, especially the second which follows five refugee children as they journey on foot from Bavaria to Hamburg immediately following the end of the war. I would read a hundred more books like this. It is yet another reminder of the vast and myriad ways people suffer from wars—the senselessness of it and the many forms of human cruelty which are much more mundane than the widely known horrors and atrocities yet still staggering in their lasting effects. The author vividly depicts these individual experiences and it doesn’t feel at all like Historical Fiction despite, I’m sure, being meticulously researched. There’s no sense of being pulled out of the story by Big Facts. It’s so human and devastating and you wonder at humanity’s ability to go on after this, and yet we do.
January 19, 2014
I might rather give this 3.5 or 3.75, but skewing up for ambition.
Although the characters were so well drawn it was hard to let go of them and move to the next story, I disagree with the reviewers who felt that it was a flaw in the book to keep each storyline separate. The author faced tradeoffs either way. If she'd interlinked the three stories somehow, say by having them all be about members of the same multigenerational family, or perhaps in the same neighborhood, she would not have been able to show the impact of the war and the Holocaust on such a wide variety of people across class and party lines.
I also thought her decision was useful to the reader in that we could see that all these *separate* people were affected in all these *different* but totally haunting ways.
For me the biggest ding came in that the novel was a little too spare, a little too weighted, perhaps, toward showing rather than telling--not enough interiority, even though all these characters are so isolated and on their own. It's an amazing trick, actually, for the author to have managed. Each character is stuck, pretty much, in his or her own head with almost no one to turn to. But somehow we are *shown* and shown and shown. Very hard to do. Some of this is probably the immediacy of the war in the first two sections. Each character is reactive, putting one step in front of the other. All the same, I would have liked it if these character were thinkers, a little more, if they were the types to reflect. They would have been more interesting to me, and I think the book would have been richer. Contrast Stones from the River.
Even the last character, Micha, can't quite pull together what he learns. He's the only one to confront the Holocaust head-on, and he's given some unbelievably amazing first-hand information about it. He's told by a Belorussian who collaborated with the Nazis, what it was like to be one of the killers, one of those who machine-gunned Jewish women and children into the trenches. Why he did it, why he did not refuse--and also Micha is given the crucial information, not widely available to any of us in modern times, I don't think--THAT REFUSAL WAS POSSIBLE... he says that they, including the Germans, were allowed to refuse this part of their duty, *without consequence.* But almost no one did.
Micha is given this information, almost against his will, even though he's gone to Belorussia specifically to get this information, to find out to what extent his beloved grandfather was involved. And yet, as his wife repeatedly demands, what is the point of this? He's unable to integrate it. The society around him has no container for it. And he himself can't really do anything with it, because *it makes no sense.* It makes no sense now, as the collaborator admits. He can see that it was wrong, he even understood that it was wrong at the time. But it made a kind of sense, anyway, at the time. He cried, the killer says, after he shot those people, many of the men who shot them did. But it was wrong, he says, to have cried, and it's wrong to cry now.
I don't mind having to do a lot of work after a reading a novel, to have to think things through. But one problem in society today is that it's not like a book comes out and we all sit down and read it and argue about it, the way they did in Russia when there was something new by Tolstoy out. So, I can't really turn to anyone and say, well, what do YOU make of the fact that these people shot all these other people and then went on living their lives and lovable people? What about what this collaborator says about this? Was it like the genocide that went on in America, and if the Germans had won--well, I don't think they ever could have won, Germany was not a big enough country to rule the world, but perhaps they could have been not exactly defeated, and perhaps Hitler could have stayed in charge, and perhaps there would have been a bigger Germany, a Nazi Germany for longer. Perhaps it would have collapsed as the Soviet state collapsed, or perhaps the Nazi part would have caved after a while. But with the Jews and the other ethnic groups that the Nazis didn't like GONE, with all of that as a fait accompli, then what? Would they feel about as guilty as we feel about the Indians? Yes, that was bad, but it was done in the past, and we don't see their faces, there is no one to mourn, it's over with. (I am putting this in the harshest possible terms for the sake of argument. For me, it's not over with.) I do know a couple of young German people who are angry about the way their country is portrayed, who feel the story has been told by the victors, who feel that what was done was no worse than the bombings of Dresden, etc, who resent the loss of "family" land in Poland or wherever. I'm not saying they're right, just that they don't *feel* it.
Just that maybe it was a miserable thing to be involved in, but if the Germans had come out on top, it would be OVER, and then they could have gone on with their lives, the way Americans went on with their lives after disposing of the Indians, Turks went on after disposing of the Armenians, etc. So perhaps that is what the collaborator was saying, that a lot of his pain came from having been on the wrong side. He knows it was wrong, but--all spoils to the victor. Had the Germans won, perhaps he would have had his revenge, not on the Jews, who he understood were a displaced target anyway, but against the Communists, and against any neighbors he wanted to lord it over as well. Perhaps it was worth the risk.
Anyhow, some reflection on Micha's part might have helped us work through this... not, perhaps, to any special conclusion, but he might consider some of the possible ones. Or I thought he could have discussed it with his sister, Luise, when he returned.
But then I think: maybe not. Maybe this is just what you live with. This is the reality of what was done, this is who they were, they had no good reasons. They were given guns, they were given orders, they didn't even hate that much, they just did it, because they wanted it to be over and done with.
"People just do it, and then they go on," is as close as the book comes. And maybe that's as close as we can ever get.
The first two sections deal with characters who are in the throes of the war but who don't personally have anything to do with the Holocaust. One character is only kept from participating as a soldier by a disability. It's a small one--he's congenitally missing a pectoral muscle. Because we see him from birth we can see how even this very tiny problem haunts him and his family. Well before the Nazis came along, there seems to have been an emphasis on physical perfection and performance in sports, and it's a great shame to this boy and his parents when it finally becomes obvious at school that he cannot participate in team sports. He's loved by his parents, but: "The midwife takes her husband aside when he arrives home from work. Heads him off before he reaches the bedroom door. Unlike his wife, he never gets to look at his son and feel him perfect, to love him prior to knowing his fault."
Seiffert makes use of cliches about German national traits without making it seem as if she does. Both the first and third main characters share OCD traits, and the middle character also has an extraordinary eidetic memory. The first character is obsessed with train schedules, which makes him aware of the large numbers of people leaving Berlin--more than can be accounted for by those fleeing for the countryside or departing for the front. The third character is obsessed with family trees--I mean, as an adult, constantly reciting the relationships among his family members to himself in the most juvenile way--which leads him to his grandfather, and what he might have done during the war.
While there's a great deal of love and loyalty within families, there doesn't seem to be a lot of actual warmth or physical demonstrativeness. No one is allowed to cry, ever, it seems, for any reason, even into the 1990s. It's worse than New England! Who knows what that does to a culture.
You become aware that even if the characters, especially the first two, are only peripherally aware of what's happening in the Holocaust, theirs souls are being eroded by the decisions of others nonetheless. In Helmut's case, it's the way his beloved city has been drained of its vitality, and not just by war but in some other way that he can document as a photographer but not define. In Lore's case, it's the loss of her parents and of the ideal of her parents, the way the blasted countryside mirrors her inner holocaust.
She survives, but does she? We're left to wonder, one of those tradeoffs the author made.
And, as Micha points out, Germany grows into a country that teaches the Holocaust in school, takes its children on field trips to the camps, makes them write essays and give presentations. But it doesn't make them ask *who*. Who AMONG US? Which of our grandparents on whose laps we grew up sitting... It doesn't connect that final dot.
Before Micha heads off to Belarus to learn as much of the truth as he's able to handle (which is less than he likes to think of himself as wanting to learn), his father tells him that although he loved and admired the grandfather, he himself has always thought that there was a possibility he might have done the terrible things Micha suspects. The grandfather was in the Waffen-SS. He was in the east, and the SS were sent to the east pretty much to do one thing. The Russians held him for more than decade after the war, though they kept many officers, not just war criminals. He says:
"I have never told your mother than I think this, and I never will. I am only telling you now because I want to explain. I wanted it to stop with our generation. Yes? Bernd, your uncle, was already born after the war. Do you understand? I didn't want you and Luise to be touched by it. Aksan [the grandfather] loved you both. That's the part of him I wanted you to have."
Micha goes to Belarus anway, seeking understanding that, by the novel's end, still eludes us all.
Although the characters were so well drawn it was hard to let go of them and move to the next story, I disagree with the reviewers who felt that it was a flaw in the book to keep each storyline separate. The author faced tradeoffs either way. If she'd interlinked the three stories somehow, say by having them all be about members of the same multigenerational family, or perhaps in the same neighborhood, she would not have been able to show the impact of the war and the Holocaust on such a wide variety of people across class and party lines.
I also thought her decision was useful to the reader in that we could see that all these *separate* people were affected in all these *different* but totally haunting ways.
For me the biggest ding came in that the novel was a little too spare, a little too weighted, perhaps, toward showing rather than telling--not enough interiority, even though all these characters are so isolated and on their own. It's an amazing trick, actually, for the author to have managed. Each character is stuck, pretty much, in his or her own head with almost no one to turn to. But somehow we are *shown* and shown and shown. Very hard to do. Some of this is probably the immediacy of the war in the first two sections. Each character is reactive, putting one step in front of the other. All the same, I would have liked it if these character were thinkers, a little more, if they were the types to reflect. They would have been more interesting to me, and I think the book would have been richer. Contrast Stones from the River.
Even the last character, Micha, can't quite pull together what he learns. He's the only one to confront the Holocaust head-on, and he's given some unbelievably amazing first-hand information about it. He's told by a Belorussian who collaborated with the Nazis, what it was like to be one of the killers, one of those who machine-gunned Jewish women and children into the trenches. Why he did it, why he did not refuse--and also Micha is given the crucial information, not widely available to any of us in modern times, I don't think--THAT REFUSAL WAS POSSIBLE... he says that they, including the Germans, were allowed to refuse this part of their duty, *without consequence.* But almost no one did.
Micha is given this information, almost against his will, even though he's gone to Belorussia specifically to get this information, to find out to what extent his beloved grandfather was involved. And yet, as his wife repeatedly demands, what is the point of this? He's unable to integrate it. The society around him has no container for it. And he himself can't really do anything with it, because *it makes no sense.* It makes no sense now, as the collaborator admits. He can see that it was wrong, he even understood that it was wrong at the time. But it made a kind of sense, anyway, at the time. He cried, the killer says, after he shot those people, many of the men who shot them did. But it was wrong, he says, to have cried, and it's wrong to cry now.
I don't mind having to do a lot of work after a reading a novel, to have to think things through. But one problem in society today is that it's not like a book comes out and we all sit down and read it and argue about it, the way they did in Russia when there was something new by Tolstoy out. So, I can't really turn to anyone and say, well, what do YOU make of the fact that these people shot all these other people and then went on living their lives and lovable people? What about what this collaborator says about this? Was it like the genocide that went on in America, and if the Germans had won--well, I don't think they ever could have won, Germany was not a big enough country to rule the world, but perhaps they could have been not exactly defeated, and perhaps Hitler could have stayed in charge, and perhaps there would have been a bigger Germany, a Nazi Germany for longer. Perhaps it would have collapsed as the Soviet state collapsed, or perhaps the Nazi part would have caved after a while. But with the Jews and the other ethnic groups that the Nazis didn't like GONE, with all of that as a fait accompli, then what? Would they feel about as guilty as we feel about the Indians? Yes, that was bad, but it was done in the past, and we don't see their faces, there is no one to mourn, it's over with. (I am putting this in the harshest possible terms for the sake of argument. For me, it's not over with.) I do know a couple of young German people who are angry about the way their country is portrayed, who feel the story has been told by the victors, who feel that what was done was no worse than the bombings of Dresden, etc, who resent the loss of "family" land in Poland or wherever. I'm not saying they're right, just that they don't *feel* it.
Just that maybe it was a miserable thing to be involved in, but if the Germans had come out on top, it would be OVER, and then they could have gone on with their lives, the way Americans went on with their lives after disposing of the Indians, Turks went on after disposing of the Armenians, etc. So perhaps that is what the collaborator was saying, that a lot of his pain came from having been on the wrong side. He knows it was wrong, but--all spoils to the victor. Had the Germans won, perhaps he would have had his revenge, not on the Jews, who he understood were a displaced target anyway, but against the Communists, and against any neighbors he wanted to lord it over as well. Perhaps it was worth the risk.
Anyhow, some reflection on Micha's part might have helped us work through this... not, perhaps, to any special conclusion, but he might consider some of the possible ones. Or I thought he could have discussed it with his sister, Luise, when he returned.
But then I think: maybe not. Maybe this is just what you live with. This is the reality of what was done, this is who they were, they had no good reasons. They were given guns, they were given orders, they didn't even hate that much, they just did it, because they wanted it to be over and done with.
"People just do it, and then they go on," is as close as the book comes. And maybe that's as close as we can ever get.
The first two sections deal with characters who are in the throes of the war but who don't personally have anything to do with the Holocaust. One character is only kept from participating as a soldier by a disability. It's a small one--he's congenitally missing a pectoral muscle. Because we see him from birth we can see how even this very tiny problem haunts him and his family. Well before the Nazis came along, there seems to have been an emphasis on physical perfection and performance in sports, and it's a great shame to this boy and his parents when it finally becomes obvious at school that he cannot participate in team sports. He's loved by his parents, but: "The midwife takes her husband aside when he arrives home from work. Heads him off before he reaches the bedroom door. Unlike his wife, he never gets to look at his son and feel him perfect, to love him prior to knowing his fault."
Seiffert makes use of cliches about German national traits without making it seem as if she does. Both the first and third main characters share OCD traits, and the middle character also has an extraordinary eidetic memory. The first character is obsessed with train schedules, which makes him aware of the large numbers of people leaving Berlin--more than can be accounted for by those fleeing for the countryside or departing for the front. The third character is obsessed with family trees--I mean, as an adult, constantly reciting the relationships among his family members to himself in the most juvenile way--which leads him to his grandfather, and what he might have done during the war.
While there's a great deal of love and loyalty within families, there doesn't seem to be a lot of actual warmth or physical demonstrativeness. No one is allowed to cry, ever, it seems, for any reason, even into the 1990s. It's worse than New England! Who knows what that does to a culture.
You become aware that even if the characters, especially the first two, are only peripherally aware of what's happening in the Holocaust, theirs souls are being eroded by the decisions of others nonetheless. In Helmut's case, it's the way his beloved city has been drained of its vitality, and not just by war but in some other way that he can document as a photographer but not define. In Lore's case, it's the loss of her parents and of the ideal of her parents, the way the blasted countryside mirrors her inner holocaust.
She survives, but does she? We're left to wonder, one of those tradeoffs the author made.
And, as Micha points out, Germany grows into a country that teaches the Holocaust in school, takes its children on field trips to the camps, makes them write essays and give presentations. But it doesn't make them ask *who*. Who AMONG US? Which of our grandparents on whose laps we grew up sitting... It doesn't connect that final dot.
Before Micha heads off to Belarus to learn as much of the truth as he's able to handle (which is less than he likes to think of himself as wanting to learn), his father tells him that although he loved and admired the grandfather, he himself has always thought that there was a possibility he might have done the terrible things Micha suspects. The grandfather was in the Waffen-SS. He was in the east, and the SS were sent to the east pretty much to do one thing. The Russians held him for more than decade after the war, though they kept many officers, not just war criminals. He says:
"I have never told your mother than I think this, and I never will. I am only telling you now because I want to explain. I wanted it to stop with our generation. Yes? Bernd, your uncle, was already born after the war. Do you understand? I didn't want you and Luise to be touched by it. Aksan [the grandfather] loved you both. That's the part of him I wanted you to have."
Micha goes to Belarus anway, seeking understanding that, by the novel's end, still eludes us all.
September 29, 2023
A book about the second World War from the less often seen German perspective and the way ut affected people’s lives over decades. The book explores the impact of this event on three different people and their respective families in different eras of the 20th century. I will break down my analysis into the three characters we were introtuced to.
1. Helmut: Helmut was a kid born in Berlin shortly after WWI with a rare disorder which causes muscle dystrophy in his right arm. He navigates life in a setting which is accepting at first, but then becomes harsher as he goes to school and is excluded from all physical sports as he is not fit to play. This casts him aside as an outsider, a kid who is different. Helmut finds comfort in going to the train station and observing the flocks of people coming and going, the train schedules and the systemic way it all goes together to create a scene of beauty. Helmut then starts working for a photographer and never ceases to amaze him with his skills, creativity and passion for photography. He has a gift for it and falls rapidly in love with photography. As the Second World War starts, Helmut reverts back to being an outsider as he is not able to fulfill his destiny by serving his country and the Führer, defending the soil. His employer is forced to cut him off in an effort to reduce costs and Helmut’s life starts quickly spiraling downwards when his parents leave him with no further explanation. He suffers through the bombings and the war and takes shelter in the station, while working there, until the war is over and the soldiers come back. At this moment, an interesting characteristic of Helmut’s persona shines through. He has a condescending view on the soldiers eith amputated limbs and war injuries begging for money and food on the street, soiling their uniforms. This is because depite his physical disability, Helmut, unlike those soldiers still leads a proud life where he works to feed and take care of himself. Helmut is a character which resonates with the reader as you empathize his struggles and the loss of his family and dreams of photography.
2. Lore: Lore is a 12 year old girl whose life is turned upside down towards the end of the war. As her dad is taken prisoner, and her mother to a camp, Lore is left to fend not only for herself but also for all of her siblings ; one sister, two twin brothers and one baby. She is tasked with getting them all safely to their grandmother’s house several cities over. She packs their necessary belongings and starts off on this tormenting journey on foot as all the trains were suspended due to the war. Their supply of food is diminshed to nothing during the first few days and as they went through towns, they begged for food, and paid in golden rings and bracelets for hot water and shelter. A lot of people in those areas were American or British and they had no sympathy for a ‘Nazi girl’. The German villagers had little to nothing to offer as the rations were too small to give away. Peter, the baby, and the rest of them got thinner by the day due to malnourishment and exhaustion, throughout their journey, they meet a man named Thomas. A man who was in prison but the rest of his life remains unknown which makes Lore suspicious of his intentions. He travels with them all the way to Hamburg to their Oma’s house but his existence remained hidden from their Oma as Lore did not know what to do. Their journey, through rivers, marshes, military zones and empty fields of nothingness brought a lot of challenges but they were able to persevere through it all, most of them at least. Lore’s younger brother, Jochen, one of the twins was shot down by the Russians as he ran into the Russian zone trying to follow Thomas. Their long trip made them tougher and stronger, her siblings stopped asking about their parents’ whereabouts halfway through the journey and all of them handled Jochen’s death with surprising maturity and acceptance. Towards the end of her chapter, Lore meets a few Germans who were talking about the ‘fake’ photographs of dead Jews and American propaganda trying to paint Nazi Germany as an evil force and Lore thinks and considers this possibility, out of curiousity but mostly because she can’t stomach that her father is capable of such atrocities. She tries to ask Thomas about the concentration camps but he rudely dismisses her question and asks her to leave. After not seeing him for weeks, she seeks out Jürgen, the other twin, who was visiting Thomas and finds Thomas gone and Jürgen holding onto what appears to be Thomas’s wallet but is in reality the wallet of one of the Jews who were killed in the camps. Lore is a character whose struggles were extremely difficult and her motives clear as day : survival. You pity the character as you watch her develop throughout her story, less compassion, less understanding and object-oriented, all traits which were utterly important for her success in the end.
3. Micha: Micha is a German teacher in Germany in 1997, he starts off as a person who is weirdly obsessed with WWII and all its events, especially the killings of Jewish people. His ancestors, especially his grandfather from his mother’s side, he discovered was in the Waffen SS, a division in the army which was involved in the concentration camps. This newfound information makes him uneasy and unsure whether he would be able to forgive his grandpa if he really took part in those massacres and the bloodshed. He has this opinion that German kids, when taught about the unfortunate events of WWII, should not shed tears because they feel sorry for the victims but rather because they were the ones who committed them, their parents or grandparents made this bloodshed possible. He thinks Germans need to detach this history from just a group of people, such as Hitler, and accept the fact that Germany, as a nation and people, fully supported what took place. This motivates him to, against the wishes of his entire family, look into his grandfather’s history and try to make his ill grandma remember difficult details about her late husband’s service and the war. Once he had enough information and a photograph of his grandpa, he set out to Belarus to discover the truth. His first visit was fruitless despite meeting a man, Jozef, who lived in a town where Jews where murdered and is said to still remember details about the War, Micha was simply too afraid to ask him the real questions, or show him the photograph. Despite this failed attempt, Micha kept searching for the truth in books and tapes in the university library. More importantly, he kept writing Jozef until he agreed to meet him again. Against his pregnant girlfriend’s wishes, he travels to Belarus once more to interview Jozef. This time, he discovered that Jozef himself, as a German speaking Belarussian, was a translator who also did commit several murders which makes Micha uneasy and unwanting to meet with him again. However, Jozef and his wife, Elena, insist that the interviews go on. Elena’s brothers were also killers and she kept hiding throughout the war from perpetrators, Germans and Soviets alike. In the end, Jozef confirms that Mucha’s grandfather was serving at the time and killed innocent Jewish people. As expected, after learning this piece of information, Micha develops feelings of hatred for his grandfather and stops visiting his grandmother because she knew and did not say. This character, his motives and actions, to me, are unbased. He delved into a War where millions were killed and violence was the answer to everything, where people were willing to kill their own children if the Führer said so. It is unreasonable to hold contempt and hatred for what people did decades ago. It was a complicated war, and although the actions taken in that war are undoubtedly inhumane, who can these people apologize to, how can they be punished beyond their long hard years in prison after the war. In war, there are no heroes and villains, just mothers crying over dead sons and leaders ordering their soldiers to march into death and moral ambiguity. Someone in Belarus, with Micha’s same hatred towards what these people did, shot Jozef not too long after he gave Micha his interview as his truth was now known.
1. Helmut: Helmut was a kid born in Berlin shortly after WWI with a rare disorder which causes muscle dystrophy in his right arm. He navigates life in a setting which is accepting at first, but then becomes harsher as he goes to school and is excluded from all physical sports as he is not fit to play. This casts him aside as an outsider, a kid who is different. Helmut finds comfort in going to the train station and observing the flocks of people coming and going, the train schedules and the systemic way it all goes together to create a scene of beauty. Helmut then starts working for a photographer and never ceases to amaze him with his skills, creativity and passion for photography. He has a gift for it and falls rapidly in love with photography. As the Second World War starts, Helmut reverts back to being an outsider as he is not able to fulfill his destiny by serving his country and the Führer, defending the soil. His employer is forced to cut him off in an effort to reduce costs and Helmut’s life starts quickly spiraling downwards when his parents leave him with no further explanation. He suffers through the bombings and the war and takes shelter in the station, while working there, until the war is over and the soldiers come back. At this moment, an interesting characteristic of Helmut’s persona shines through. He has a condescending view on the soldiers eith amputated limbs and war injuries begging for money and food on the street, soiling their uniforms. This is because depite his physical disability, Helmut, unlike those soldiers still leads a proud life where he works to feed and take care of himself. Helmut is a character which resonates with the reader as you empathize his struggles and the loss of his family and dreams of photography.
2. Lore: Lore is a 12 year old girl whose life is turned upside down towards the end of the war. As her dad is taken prisoner, and her mother to a camp, Lore is left to fend not only for herself but also for all of her siblings ; one sister, two twin brothers and one baby. She is tasked with getting them all safely to their grandmother’s house several cities over. She packs their necessary belongings and starts off on this tormenting journey on foot as all the trains were suspended due to the war. Their supply of food is diminshed to nothing during the first few days and as they went through towns, they begged for food, and paid in golden rings and bracelets for hot water and shelter. A lot of people in those areas were American or British and they had no sympathy for a ‘Nazi girl’. The German villagers had little to nothing to offer as the rations were too small to give away. Peter, the baby, and the rest of them got thinner by the day due to malnourishment and exhaustion, throughout their journey, they meet a man named Thomas. A man who was in prison but the rest of his life remains unknown which makes Lore suspicious of his intentions. He travels with them all the way to Hamburg to their Oma’s house but his existence remained hidden from their Oma as Lore did not know what to do. Their journey, through rivers, marshes, military zones and empty fields of nothingness brought a lot of challenges but they were able to persevere through it all, most of them at least. Lore’s younger brother, Jochen, one of the twins was shot down by the Russians as he ran into the Russian zone trying to follow Thomas. Their long trip made them tougher and stronger, her siblings stopped asking about their parents’ whereabouts halfway through the journey and all of them handled Jochen’s death with surprising maturity and acceptance. Towards the end of her chapter, Lore meets a few Germans who were talking about the ‘fake’ photographs of dead Jews and American propaganda trying to paint Nazi Germany as an evil force and Lore thinks and considers this possibility, out of curiousity but mostly because she can’t stomach that her father is capable of such atrocities. She tries to ask Thomas about the concentration camps but he rudely dismisses her question and asks her to leave. After not seeing him for weeks, she seeks out Jürgen, the other twin, who was visiting Thomas and finds Thomas gone and Jürgen holding onto what appears to be Thomas’s wallet but is in reality the wallet of one of the Jews who were killed in the camps. Lore is a character whose struggles were extremely difficult and her motives clear as day : survival. You pity the character as you watch her develop throughout her story, less compassion, less understanding and object-oriented, all traits which were utterly important for her success in the end.
3. Micha: Micha is a German teacher in Germany in 1997, he starts off as a person who is weirdly obsessed with WWII and all its events, especially the killings of Jewish people. His ancestors, especially his grandfather from his mother’s side, he discovered was in the Waffen SS, a division in the army which was involved in the concentration camps. This newfound information makes him uneasy and unsure whether he would be able to forgive his grandpa if he really took part in those massacres and the bloodshed. He has this opinion that German kids, when taught about the unfortunate events of WWII, should not shed tears because they feel sorry for the victims but rather because they were the ones who committed them, their parents or grandparents made this bloodshed possible. He thinks Germans need to detach this history from just a group of people, such as Hitler, and accept the fact that Germany, as a nation and people, fully supported what took place. This motivates him to, against the wishes of his entire family, look into his grandfather’s history and try to make his ill grandma remember difficult details about her late husband’s service and the war. Once he had enough information and a photograph of his grandpa, he set out to Belarus to discover the truth. His first visit was fruitless despite meeting a man, Jozef, who lived in a town where Jews where murdered and is said to still remember details about the War, Micha was simply too afraid to ask him the real questions, or show him the photograph. Despite this failed attempt, Micha kept searching for the truth in books and tapes in the university library. More importantly, he kept writing Jozef until he agreed to meet him again. Against his pregnant girlfriend’s wishes, he travels to Belarus once more to interview Jozef. This time, he discovered that Jozef himself, as a German speaking Belarussian, was a translator who also did commit several murders which makes Micha uneasy and unwanting to meet with him again. However, Jozef and his wife, Elena, insist that the interviews go on. Elena’s brothers were also killers and she kept hiding throughout the war from perpetrators, Germans and Soviets alike. In the end, Jozef confirms that Mucha’s grandfather was serving at the time and killed innocent Jewish people. As expected, after learning this piece of information, Micha develops feelings of hatred for his grandfather and stops visiting his grandmother because she knew and did not say. This character, his motives and actions, to me, are unbased. He delved into a War where millions were killed and violence was the answer to everything, where people were willing to kill their own children if the Führer said so. It is unreasonable to hold contempt and hatred for what people did decades ago. It was a complicated war, and although the actions taken in that war are undoubtedly inhumane, who can these people apologize to, how can they be punished beyond their long hard years in prison after the war. In war, there are no heroes and villains, just mothers crying over dead sons and leaders ordering their soldiers to march into death and moral ambiguity. Someone in Belarus, with Micha’s same hatred towards what these people did, shot Jozef not too long after he gave Micha his interview as his truth was now known.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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