Projekt 1065: A Review And TALKING STORY Giveaways

Congratulations to Janet Davis-Castro who won HER FEARLESS RUN on last week's blog. 

No giveaway this week, but I hope you'll check out one of Alan Gratz's wonderful books. 

From the Author's Note:

Project 1065 is a work of fiction set against the very real backdrop of Nazi Germany in World War II. Kristallnacht, the Gestapo, the SRD, the concentration camps, the Hitler Youth, the Edelweiss Pirates, the "Aryan" education in German schools--all of this real. Everything Adolf Hitler says to Michael and the other boys in this book is an actual quote from Hitler; I gathered them together from various speeches and interviews so that I wasn't putting words in Hitler's mouth. Adolf Hitler said enough crazy, awful things that I didn't need to make up anything new for him. p.307

I have the privilege of knowing Alan Gratz, the North Carolina author of this middle grade book for boys and girls. That last sentence is pure Gratz--I can hear his earnest voice saying those exact words.

As readers of my blog know, this isn't my first review of one of Alan's well-researched and well-written pieces of historical fiction. Here is my review of Prisoner B-3087 and one of Refugee. Since Alan's latest book, Grenade takes place in Okinawa in World War II, you can see the connection. Hands down, Alan knows how to connect young readers to the facts and realities of war.

REVIEW

"It's hard to smile when you're having dinner with Nazis." (p.1) This attention-grabbing opening line says a lot. The speaker, thirteen-year-old Michael O'Shaunessey lives a life of pretend. The son of the Irish ambassador to Germany, he is in a precarious position: his parents are spies for the Allies and his uncanny ability to memorize words, numbers, and diagrams is one of their secret tools.

Michael's spy work is under the cover of being a member of the SRD, the junior group that will eventually join the Hitler Youth. It's a role he despises but one that grants him opportunities to access information which he passes along to his parents. He is in class with forty other members of the junior Hitler Youth; much of their time is taken up in learning Nazi propaganda and training to die for Germany. 

https://www.history.com/news/how-the-hitler-youth-turned-a-generation-of-kids-into-nazis

SECONDARY CHARACTERS

Fritz Bendler, a new scrawny boy at school who Michael befriends; Michael's teacher, Herr Professor Doktor Major Melcher; and Simon Cohen, a Jewish airman who the O'Shaunessey's hide in the Irish embassy, are all important secondary characters. Although Simon teaches Michael important lessons about facing his fears and being willing to make sacrifices, I'm going to share some excerpts about Fritz and Melcher which help define Michael's journey.

Early in the book Michael provides an observation that is as much about himself, as it is about his teacher:

Even though I wasn't his biggest fan, I had a soft spot for the old codger. I'd gotten the impression he didn't love the Nazis. It was nothing Melcher had said or done--anything that explicit would have gotten him hauled off to a concentration camp or reenlisted in the army, even though he was too old to fight again. it was just the way he talked so lovingly about the way things used to be. I felt he was a kindred spirit. A fellow faker. (p. 29)

Later on, his classmates are taken aback when Doktor Melcher points out that Hitler, and the other Nazi leaders do not fit the blonde, blue-eyed, straight-nosed Aryan ideal.

You could almost hear the classroom gasp. Was Herr Professor Doktor Major Melcher joking? It had to be a joke. It was no secret that the Führer didn't match the Aryan ideal that he'd gone to war to defend, but no one talked about it. To speak of it in public was like saying the emperor wasn't wearing any clothes. It just wasn't done. But Melcher wasn't joking. I could tell, and so could the other boys. I felt as though I could hear the heartbeats of every boy in the room but mine slow to a cool, calculated thrum. They were trained to be on the lookout for dissenters, people who didn't agree with the Nazi party, tuned in like the special radios that Nazis sold that only picked up German radio stations.

.....If he wasn't careful he was going to end up in a concentration camp. (pp. 103-104)

Meanwhile, Fritz is frequently picked on because of his short stature. Michael decides to teach Fritz how to defend himself and the other boys set up a boxing match between the two friends. To his surprise, Fritz doesn't hold back and tries to clobber him. The scene graphically shows Michael's inner turmoil as well as the brutality of the fight. 

I savaged him, fueling each new punch with some new hatred. I hated Hitler for starting this war. I hated the Hitler Youth for their constant bullying. I hated Fritz for making me hit him again. I hated myself for hitting him. 

When at last I stopped, Fritz lay motionless on the ground, completely and totally beaten. All around us was utter silence. I looked up, eyes afire, chest heaving, arms tensed for another fight. Horst took a step back in fear. I had managed to scare even the monsters, and when you can scare monsters, you can be sure you've become one yourself (p. 128).

As the story progresses, the SRD boys--led by Fritz--torture and capture Doktor Melcher while the police stand by. Michael realizes that the police were scared of a group of 13-year-olds who could turn them over to the Gestapo. He is in agony--but chooses not to say anything in order to carry out his vital plan: steal the plans for Projekt 1065 from Fritz's house. 

https://www.history.com/news/how-the-hitler-youth-turned-a-generation-of-kids-into-nazis

In a moment of painful analysis, Michael finally realizes why Fritz has become cruel and calculating.

Fritz stood over me, a look of fierce cruelty in his knitted eye-brows and suddenly I understood. Why Fritz had wanted me to teach him how to fight. Why he'd been so desperate to join the SRD. All his life, Fritz had been the boy with the bloody nose sitting here on the ground, looking up at the bully who'd beaten him. 

He'd joined the SRD so he could become the bully himself. Just like little Hitler. (p. 236-7)

 *******

PERSONAL NOTE

If you haven't already realized it, I believe this book is a must-read for middle school students, teenagers, and adults. It is suspenseful, full of tension and page-turning action. At many points Michael is forced to make difficult choices, to sacrifice beliefs and people he loves, and to conquer his own fears. Although it is a frightening book because of the subject matter, the material is not gratuitously graphic for the sake of displaying violence. It is unfortunately, an accurate description of what life was like for these young boys who were brainwashed and forced to assume responsibilities that even adult solders would abhor. 

https://www.history.com/news/how-the-hitler-youth-turned-a-generation-of-kids-into-nazis

My father was forced to flee Germany in 1939. He remembered the Hitler Youth rallying outside his parents' apartment in Nuremberg and that one boy betrayed his parents. "Either you were in the Hitler Youth--or else," he told me. 

***********

TALKING STORY GIVEAWAYS

The summer issue of Talking Story, Celebrating Young Adults is now live. Our expert and illustrators are young adults and we're giving away four wonderful books: The Perfect Candidate, The Next to the Last Mistake, When Worlds Collide and Don't Blame the Reckless.  Giveaway ends July 11th and don't forget to leave your email address if you are new to my blog. Also, please let me know which book you're interested in too. 

Rose Under Fire: A Review and a Giveaway!

I wish this book didn't exist.

What I mean is that I wish Rose Under Fire, a brutally honest book about a young American pilot imprisoned in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, didn't demand to be written.

But unfortunately, it did.

Rose Moyer Justice is an 18-year-old American Air Transport Auxiliary pilot ferrying planes for the British government. Although World War II is drawing to a close, during a semi-secret flight she is captured by the Germans. For six long and painful months, Rose is incarcerated with thousands of other female political prisoners and seventy-four Polish victims of Nazi human experimentation who are nicknamed "The Rabbits."

Women working in Ravensbruck.
Photo courtesy YadVashem

Wein holds nothing back from showing Rose's physical, emotional, and mental struggles in the concentration camp. Her descriptions are full of such convincing detail that I felt guilty eating a granola bar while listening to it; the characters' starvation and deprivation had become so real to me. Similarly, when I listened to Rose's beautiful poetry sprinkled throughout the story I had to remind myself that Elizabeth Wein had penned these words. In the same way in which her fellow prisoners clung to her poetry, desperate for beauty in the midst of a world of despair, I felt as if the poems were gifts from Rose herself.

Six million Jews dying in concentration camps is a number difficult to comprehend  But like seeing thousands of shoes at the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., I'll remember individual stories because Wein used amazing characterization and deep point of view to show each one.  

In the concentration camp Rose becomes a part of a "family;" a small group of prisoners bonded together by their desperate hope to survive. Lisette Romilly is nicknamed the "lagermutter" and acts as the mother to the group. A French musician, professor, and novelist, her character is based on Irène Némirovsky who was killed in Auschwitz. Lisette is arrested after her Jewish Polish husband is killed and she attempts to return to France. Rose realizes that Lisette deals with the loss of her sons and husband by mothering her small prison flock. Lisette moderates sibling-like squabbles in her family and fiercely protects and provides for them--by getting small scraps of bread, obtaining contraband medicine, and finding places for the rabbits to hide. 

Róża Czajkowska is fourteen when Lisette meets her. A fierce Polish member of the Gray Banks, an underground paramilitary association. she was arrested delivering explosives to the underground. Lisette begins mothering her when they are imprisoned together in the Lublin castle. When they reach Ravensbrück, Róża is one of the first to be operated on. This is from the mock interview with Lisette: 

"The theory was that the camp doctors would simulate battle wounds on their legs to find cures for German soldiers injured on the Eastern front. My companions had muscle, nerve and bone cut from their legs, or had gangrene cultured in purpose-made wounds in their healthy flesh. Several of our transport died after the first round of experiments in the autumn of 1942." 

Lisette's mission is to get Róża out of Germany so the world will see the atrocities performed there. Rose and Róża are joined by their shared name, Rose's poetry, and the challenge to "tell the world."

 

Scars on a woman's leg after medical experimentation.
Photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

Anna Engel, is one of the harsh women's S.S. guards assigned to Rose's unit. (Spoiler alert: She plays an important secondary role in Code Name Verity, a companion volume to this book). When she discovers that Rose is American, a unique relationship develops between the two women. Anna attended college in the United States and misses American food. In exchange for recipes and cigarettes, Rose procures calcium supplements for Róża. While listening to the book I kept wondering about Anna's (and the other guards) motivations to treat their prisoners with such unfeeling brutality. Wein does a good job of answering that question through glimpses into Anna's backstory.  Wein's portrayal of this sympathetic antagonist is very believable. In fact, Wein told me that she thought Anna was the best character she has ever created. 

I was worried that Rose Under Fire would end too soon; that I wouldn't know what happened to Rose or Róża. But their bravery against overwhelming odds built on a friendship in which they challenge each other to overcome their fears, provides a perfect ending to a powerful book. 

The audiobook was narrated by Sasha Pick who does an outstanding job of portraying a variety of foreign accents. Without question, her excellent narration drew me further into the story. 

I rarely give a five star rating to any book on Goodreads. But this winner of the 2014 Schenider Family Book Award is at least a six in my book. Wein's commitment to historical accuracy combined with a well-plotted story using beautiful language makes this a book I will remember for a long time. In my first email to Elizabeth I confessed I had a hard time saying I enjoyed her book because it was painfully wonderful. She wrote back, "Funny you should say 'enjoying' might not be the best word - when it first came out I'd say to people, "I hope you enjoy it - well, you won't enjoy it, but I hope you appreciate it!" THANK YOU for appreciating it. When I was writing Rose, my Jewish aunt and uncle (my father was Jewish) pointed out to me that if our grandparents hadn't left Europe in the early 20th century, we'd all be dead including my children. It's unbelievable how far-reaching that shadow is. We are the lucky ones."

Roza and her fellow prisoners urge Rose to "Tell the world!" In Rose Under Fire Wein has accomplished exactly that. 

Scroll through Elizabeth Wein's website and you'll find many materials which will facilitate classroom discussion. If you want to picture what life was like for Rose, view this You Tube video by chronoshistory:



To win an autographed hard copy of the Canadian edition of this book, please leave me your name (and email address if you are new to this blog) by Thursday, February 20th. Share this on your favorite social media or follow my blog, and I'll put your name in twice; just let me know what you did. 

This is a book you don't want to miss. 

Prisoner of Night and Fog--and a GIVEAWAY!

If Goodreads allowed more than 5 stars for a review I’d give Anne Blankman's debut novel, Prisoner of Night and Fog, a 6. 

Or maybe a 7.

It’s that good.

Blankman’s historical novel has it all: the underpinnings of extensive research, romance, mystery, beautiful language, rich characters, fast-pace and heart-pounding suspense, a terrific title and above all else—a great story.

Can you tell I loved this book?

Set in Munich, Germany in the early 1930's, this fictionalized account of the unlikely romance between Gretchen Muller, Adolf Hitler’s “pet” niece and Daniel Cohen, a handsome Jewish reporter, is a page-turner that will keep you awake at night.

Out of nowhere, Daniel interrupts Gretchen’s  “normal” with the information that her father’s death was not as a martyr as the Nazis have portrayed it. It was murder. When Gretchen sets out on a dangerous journey to discover the truth, her innocent reverence for Hitler (Uncle Dolf) is ripped away and she begins to see the evil underbelly of his schemes.

I don’t want to spoil this book for you so I’ll just share two favorite passages, from among many.

One of Gretchen's antagonists is her brother, Reinhard, who has mistreated her since childhood. When Gretchen discovers that her mother refuses to support her dream to attend a university and study to become a doctor in lieu of supporting Reinhard, she thinks:

"...The decision had been made. Reinhard had gotten his way, as he always did; they were forced to circle around him like dying planets, and he the sun whose magnetic pull directed their rotation  was the glowing orb that might blaze into uncontrollable brightness at any moment." (p. 79)

When Daniel confronts her naivety about not seeing how Hitler planned to exterminate the Jews she remembers, 

"Uncle Dolf had promised their enemies would vanish into the night and fog. Just as in Goethe's famous poem Der Erlkonig, 'The Alder King.'

"She had recited the poem to Uncle Dolf as they sat in the parlor together last year, sipping apple-peel tea while the old ladies knitted, and he had smiled, for he loved the tale about the super-natural being  who attacked a boy held in his father's arms as they rode on horseback through the night-darkened countryside.

    'My son, why do you hide your face so anxiously?'

    'Father, do you not see the Alder king?

     The Alder King with crown and train'

    'My son, it's a wisp of fog.'" (pp. 179-80)

Joyce Hostetter and I are giving away an ARC of Prisoner of Night and Fog in this issue of Talking Story. Click on the link and you’ll find directions (under "Giveaways") for how to enter.  While you’re there, take a look around at the other resources we offer on the topic of Children and War.

Next week Anne will share some of her secrets of how she wove together Prisoner of Night and Fog.  I'll be giving away a second ARC courtesy of Tracey Adams at Adams Literary.

Just in case you need additional incentive to pre-order a book which I am convinced will be an award winner this year, here is the trailer: