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There was a garden in Nuremberg
The Nazis have taken charge and life has changed for everyone. Germany’s Jews live in the grip of icy fear. Members of the prosperous Nuremberg congregation must decide where their future lies.
As a board member, decorated WWI veteran and lawyer with a thriving practice, Walter Mannheim is deeply rooted in Germany, whereas his wife Sonia is desperate to extricate their two children from Hitler’s favourite city.
Within Nuremberg, power flows between Julius Streicher, the half-mad Nazi District Commander, and ambitious Dr Benno Martin who runs the Police Commission, reputedly Himmler’s man in Nuremberg. He also happens to be an old war-time comrade of Walter Mannheim.
Nazi harassment escalates. The Jewish community is decimated. Streicher orders the destruction of Nuremberg’s beautiful synagogue. When a nationwide pogrom is launched on November 9th 1938, Walter and his family are still in Germany.
This novel is based on a true story.
As a board member, decorated WWI veteran and lawyer with a thriving practice, Walter Mannheim is deeply rooted in Germany, whereas his wife Sonia is desperate to extricate their two children from Hitler’s favourite city.
Within Nuremberg, power flows between Julius Streicher, the half-mad Nazi District Commander, and ambitious Dr Benno Martin who runs the Police Commission, reputedly Himmler’s man in Nuremberg. He also happens to be an old war-time comrade of Walter Mannheim.
Nazi harassment escalates. The Jewish community is decimated. Streicher orders the destruction of Nuremberg’s beautiful synagogue. When a nationwide pogrom is launched on November 9th 1938, Walter and his family are still in Germany.
This novel is based on a true story.
372 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 6, 2022
11 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 10, 2022
This is an extraordinary book and unique among my reading of literature set during the Holocaust. I found this book utterly compelling and steeped in historical research which was integrated beautifully in the storyline. I think it is great reading whether you are Jewish or not, just if you are curious about the human condition under intense stress. This novel covered the years of 1933-1939 as Hitler was gaining more and more power. The theme touched on both a current theme for me and the historical theme of the Jewish people. When is this homeland no longer your homeland? This means that although you were been born there, educated there, served in the military, had your children and career there, does a point arise when you will be viewed as an unwanted with your survival dependent on leaving everything and taking a leap into the unknown. The answers were different for each member of this family with the father ultimately having the power to determine the fate of all. His rationale for staying is both narcissistic and righteous, depending on how one views it: he feels needed in the Jewish community and he can't give up on the German people, who, he thinks will override Hitler. His wife and the children have their own points of views and their own stories - each so very well told and memorable. This story is unique and specific in the details of this family and conveys the tension at this crucial time. The book is quite factual to my knowledge and gave me much more in-depth knowledge of those early years and resources for the children, but it never became didactic or overly graphic in its depiction of violence. These are decisions we hope to never have to grapple with for ourselves or our children; yet, what if? Wouldn't we have a lot of the same feelings as this family in terms of loyalty to our homeland? Thank you to the author for deepening my understanding and writing this book with so much grace and eloquence.
September 9, 2022
I very much enjoy learning about history in a novel, where facts are intertwined throughout someone’s story. There was a garden in Nuremberg is one of these books. It’s a fascinating read and answers the question many of us have: why did they stay? I highly recommend this book.
September 26, 2022
A wonderful book! I couldn't put it down. I felt very close to the characters every step of the way.
November 23, 2022
In There was a garden in Nuremberg, Navina takes you on a journey through the second world war Germany. You get to know the Mannheim family quite intimately, its joys and despairs, a friendship that survives the horrors of WWII. On the way you feel like you are in the garden with Mannheim siblings growing up, with Walter on Nuremberg streets, with Sonia trying to maintain calm during calamitous period and later you feel the pains of a family in Paris and London but separated.
A heart wrenching story told from a family’s point of view instead of politicians or military commanders, which makes it all very personal.
A book worth reading and a journey worth taking.
A heart wrenching story told from a family’s point of view instead of politicians or military commanders, which makes it all very personal.
A book worth reading and a journey worth taking.
October 27, 2022
Walter and Sonia, along with their two children and his mother, live through the destruction of Nuremburg starting with the Hitler regime taking control in the early 1930's. This painful part of recent history is told in such a way that the reader feels the slow loss of friends, neighbors, freedom and hope for those victimized by people who turned on others to save themselves, as well as those who were propagandized. Difficult to handle and forget and answers some of the How? questions. A must read.
January 12, 2025
A really haunting and powerful book that focuses on the rise of the Nazi’s during the 1930’s. Horrific treatment of ordinary Germans who just happened to be Jewish (and not a religious family per se). The writing was not amazing but the author has written it based on her own family’s accounts and the fear is palpable throughout.
October 17, 2022
AN EPIC VIEW OF RECENT HISTORY
A Garden in Nuremberg follows the journey of a prosperous Jewish family as they navigate the ever-increasing anti-semitic hostility prevailing in Germany prior to World War ll. Hitler releases his vitriolic propaganda midst a barrage of regulations, the theft of properties and businesses, culminatingin violence and detention camps. The situation becomes a matter of life or death for all Jewish people.
The Mannheim family enjoy a comfortable lifestyle in their elegant home and garden in Nuremberg. They have a wide circle of friends and close family and the story gives an interesting insight into their lifestyle and activities. Their two children mature over the course of the book and their growing up in these harrowing times add a further heart-rending dimension to the devastating events taking place.
More and more anti-semitic controls are introduced as Hitler grabs unassailable power. The author's description of Krystallnacht, when personal property was smashed and destroyed, is so painstakingly described that one almost feels they are witnessing the event in person. The Mannheim family withstand each inhumane attack with great dignity and forbearance until they are finally left with no option but to leave their homeland.
This evocative book captures your attention and imagination from the beautifully descriptive opening chapter. The intimate details present a written document of the horrific events that took place in a so-called civilised European country less than one hundred years ago. It sensitively presents a landscape of human degradation and suffering that portrays an epic view of recent history.
A Garden in Nuremberg follows the journey of a prosperous Jewish family as they navigate the ever-increasing anti-semitic hostility prevailing in Germany prior to World War ll. Hitler releases his vitriolic propaganda midst a barrage of regulations, the theft of properties and businesses, culminatingin violence and detention camps. The situation becomes a matter of life or death for all Jewish people.
The Mannheim family enjoy a comfortable lifestyle in their elegant home and garden in Nuremberg. They have a wide circle of friends and close family and the story gives an interesting insight into their lifestyle and activities. Their two children mature over the course of the book and their growing up in these harrowing times add a further heart-rending dimension to the devastating events taking place.
More and more anti-semitic controls are introduced as Hitler grabs unassailable power. The author's description of Krystallnacht, when personal property was smashed and destroyed, is so painstakingly described that one almost feels they are witnessing the event in person. The Mannheim family withstand each inhumane attack with great dignity and forbearance until they are finally left with no option but to leave their homeland.
This evocative book captures your attention and imagination from the beautifully descriptive opening chapter. The intimate details present a written document of the horrific events that took place in a so-called civilised European country less than one hundred years ago. It sensitively presents a landscape of human degradation and suffering that portrays an epic view of recent history.
April 11, 2023
I loved this book! Navina is a storyteller (in the sense of the reader not wanting to put the book down!) drawing on both her imagination and on experiences from her own life and others known to her – and extensive research!
Navina writes of individuals with whom we come to identify, and their friends, and we feel something of their distress and fear. The assault on a lawyer at a police station personalised some of the horror of the Holocaust – most of us have read or heard about some of the unbearable terrors that were inflicted on those deemed by the Nazis as not having the right to live, and the numbers involved are mind-numbing, but Navina brings home the pain of the individual to us.
Many families stayed in their “home countries” long after the threat to their wellbeing and lives became apparent, and Navina makes this more comprehensible with her description of the mother of the Mannheim family badly wanting to leave the city in order to protect the family but making the decision, for multiple reasons, to stay, because her husband feels compelled to remain in order to act for, and to protect, others.
I thoroughly recommend this book - as a good read, and as an education.
Navina writes of individuals with whom we come to identify, and their friends, and we feel something of their distress and fear. The assault on a lawyer at a police station personalised some of the horror of the Holocaust – most of us have read or heard about some of the unbearable terrors that were inflicted on those deemed by the Nazis as not having the right to live, and the numbers involved are mind-numbing, but Navina brings home the pain of the individual to us.
Many families stayed in their “home countries” long after the threat to their wellbeing and lives became apparent, and Navina makes this more comprehensible with her description of the mother of the Mannheim family badly wanting to leave the city in order to protect the family but making the decision, for multiple reasons, to stay, because her husband feels compelled to remain in order to act for, and to protect, others.
I thoroughly recommend this book - as a good read, and as an education.
December 16, 2023
This is one of the best books I have read for a long time. It's based on the author's family who lived in Nuremberg when the Nazis came into power. I had trouble putting it down and read it in a few days.
The vivid descriptive style draws the reader in so they can identify with the characters as real people.
One paragraph regarding Walter's WW1 medals made a lasting impression. When his wife wishes him to wear his medals for a dinner party he replies: "Sonia these medals are the outcome of destruction and suffering. They're mine not because I was brave, but because I survived, one of the lucky few. They're not baubles, to be brought out to show off".
The vivid descriptive style draws the reader in so they can identify with the characters as real people.
One paragraph regarding Walter's WW1 medals made a lasting impression. When his wife wishes him to wear his medals for a dinner party he replies: "Sonia these medals are the outcome of destruction and suffering. They're mine not because I was brave, but because I survived, one of the lucky few. They're not baubles, to be brought out to show off".
January 27, 2023
A beautifully written story that illustrates the death by a thousand cuts of the Jewish community in Germany. We see the gradual build up of the indignities, insults, harassment and new laws which increasingly isolated German Jews from their non-Jewish friends and neighbours. We know how the broader story ends but the novel illustrates the uncertainty experienced by those living through those times. They had no idea how things would develop. I enjoyed the evocative descriptions of the family's home and lifestyle and felt their sense of loss.
November 25, 2023
This is one of the best books I have read this year, mainly due to it being an engrossing novel that is based on the true story of the author’s family as they experienced the descent into Nazism that began in Nuremberg where her grandfather, a World War 1 veteran and prominent lawyer and his family lived.
The story is told as a novel rather than a memoir and follows a wealthy family headed by Max.
As the situation becomes more and more oppressive and frankly terrifying many Jews flee while they still can. But Max, in spite of urging from his wife is reluctant to leave. He loves his country and cannot believe that this situation will last. As lifelong friends shun the family due to laws that make it a crime to even greet a Jew in the street Max’s law practice suffers. There is an element of tension due to the reader’s knowledge of what is to come.
As the world suffers renewed anti-semitism as well as Islamophobia it is timely to be reminded where these prejudices can lead.
The story is told as a novel rather than a memoir and follows a wealthy family headed by Max.
As the situation becomes more and more oppressive and frankly terrifying many Jews flee while they still can. But Max, in spite of urging from his wife is reluctant to leave. He loves his country and cannot believe that this situation will last. As lifelong friends shun the family due to laws that make it a crime to even greet a Jew in the street Max’s law practice suffers. There is an element of tension due to the reader’s knowledge of what is to come.
As the world suffers renewed anti-semitism as well as Islamophobia it is timely to be reminded where these prejudices can lead.
October 15, 2023
Beautifully written and touching story.
August 6, 2023
'There Was A Garden In Nuremberg'
I enjoyed 'There was a garden in Nuremberg' tremendously. I was humbled by this life experience which I have never known. Lines from Keat's 'Ode to a Nightengale' come to my mind in connection with this book:
"What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret"
The writing style conveyed a vibrant word picture which kept me avidly reading. The German Jewish persecution is not far off one hundred years ago. 'There was a garden in Nuremberg' made real this dreadful history and brought into focus for me the experiences of displaced people the world over. War and discrimination are still a blight in our modern world. I recommend this book highly.
I enjoyed 'There was a garden in Nuremberg' tremendously. I was humbled by this life experience which I have never known. Lines from Keat's 'Ode to a Nightengale' come to my mind in connection with this book:
"What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret"
The writing style conveyed a vibrant word picture which kept me avidly reading. The German Jewish persecution is not far off one hundred years ago. 'There was a garden in Nuremberg' made real this dreadful history and brought into focus for me the experiences of displaced people the world over. War and discrimination are still a blight in our modern world. I recommend this book highly.
March 29, 2024
Exceptional read
This book affected me in such a way I can't describe. Initially I felt that the author's writing style was almost geared towards young readers. But after I was into the book a little more I realized that that was when she was revealing the younger characters point of view. With some more time, the political movements became more intricate and more apparent. And the details of those movements were well described. I can't imagine all the hoops that refugees had to jump through to get an exit visa at that time. The emotional and mental fallout was incredible. It's amazing that refugees recovered and of course many didn't. And many others didn't survive. Well written.
This book affected me in such a way I can't describe. Initially I felt that the author's writing style was almost geared towards young readers. But after I was into the book a little more I realized that that was when she was revealing the younger characters point of view. With some more time, the political movements became more intricate and more apparent. And the details of those movements were well described. I can't imagine all the hoops that refugees had to jump through to get an exit visa at that time. The emotional and mental fallout was incredible. It's amazing that refugees recovered and of course many didn't. And many others didn't survive. Well written.
June 15, 2023
Excellent read. A gripping account of the slow increase in discrimination and ultimately persecution of Jews in Germany throughout the 1930s. Focussing on one family, the author conveys the ever-tightening noose around the necks of an entire community. Meticulously researched and well-written. Highly re!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews