Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

I like to think that my book reviews provide new insights or at least originate from me. It is a relatively easy task when writing about books of which there are no, or only a few reviews available. It is considerable harder for popular novels, such as Jenna Blum’s Those Who Save Us. For example LibraryThing.com has 20 reviews and Amazon.com has 84. So instead of going the individualistic road I am going the other direction. I pick some of the questions from the official reading guide, available from the author’s site and share my related impressions, on this exciting pageturner novel.

But first I need to share the story in a nutshell. Here it is, straight from the back cover

For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy’s sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmführer of Buchenwald. Driven by the guilt of her heritage, Trudy, now a professor of German history begins investigating the past and finally unearths the heartbreaking truth of her mother’s life.

And now some Q and A

1. How would you categorize Those Who Save Us: as a war story, a love story, a mother-daughter story?
One of the strengths of the book is that it is not just one of these but contains most of the above. It is definitely a war and a mother-daughter story. But I am not sure to what extent it is a love story, hence the “almost” part. Yes, there is a love story in the first few dozen pages, and the fruit of that love is Trudy. But the relationship described in the rest of the book is not love. At least not in the traditional sense. A main theme of the book, to explore what it is and how it affected the rest of Anna’s life. Hint: it devoured her from the ability of true love, hence I would call it an “unlove” story instead.

2. In what ways do the characters save each other in the novel, and who saves whom?
The Obersturmführer saves Anna and Trudy from starvation and possible death during the war years. On the other hand Anna saves him from loneliness. Anna and her ex-boss Mathilde saves Jews in the camp by providing food and information. Later in the US, Anna tries to save her daughter from the shadows of the past by not telling her about it. This venture is less successful though, as Trudy has to deal with unconfirmed shadows, shame and suspicions as the result of non-communication. Jack, Anna’s American husband saves the mother and daughter from punishment after the war as collaborators with the Nazis. There are further “savings” prompted by and involving side characters too, which I won’t have time to go into now.

3. Do you see Anna’s beauty as a blessing or a curse?
Always these either/or questions. Of course it is both, depending on the situation. In her life though it is more of the latter. It draws attention to her and in wartimes, which is full of ravenous soldiers it can be dangerous.

4. Why does Mathilde take this risk of feeding the Buchenwald prisoners?
Because she still has a balanced moral value system. It is a bit more complex than that though as she has to weigh in the risk against the benefits when making such decisions as whether to risk her life to bring more bread or not. For her staying human was more important than staying alive.

5. Do you see the Obersturmführer as a monster or as human?
Again, both. The art of being a monster, which he very much was, is compartmentalization. He did not see Jews as humans therefore he had no problem of killing and torturing them. This corrupted his petty soul and blinded his senses to the extent that he believed he was in love with Anna and the feeling was reciprocal. He was human in the sense that he needed human warmth and feeling of being part of a family, but he was a monster by not recognizing that forcing such things do not work on the long term and they are not the real thing.

There are many more questions in the guide, but I also wanted to include a meaningful quote from the book itself. Here it is from page 402

Look, Rainer says.
Trudy does. She sees nothing out of the ordinary: the gray-white lake, the overcast sky a darker gray above it, the dense black calligraphy of branches on the far shore. Behind them is a brilliant lemon-colored slash of light that somehow has the effect of making the afternoon seem even colder than it is. The wind rushes ceaselessly over the ice, teasing water from Trudy’s eyes; her cheeks will be bright red when she and Rainer get back indoors. But this is also thrilling, like being, Trudy thinks, on the deck of a ship embarked on an Arctic expedition.
A brace of geese flies overhead, returning from some warmer clime, honking.
What is it I’m supposed to be looking at? Trudy asks. Rainer chuckles and puts his arms around her from behind. This is our problem, Dr. Swenson, he says into her hair. You think too much. Stop it. Don’t think. Don’t talk. Just look. Be.