The German Wife: An absolutely gripping and heartbreaking WW2 historical novel, inspired by true events

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The traditional role of women in German society was often described by the so-called " four Ks" in the German language: Kinder (children), Kirche ( church), Küche ( kitchen), and Kleider (clothes), indicating that their main duties were bearing and rearing children, attending to religious activities, cooking and serving food, and dealing with clothes and fashion. However, their roles changed during the 20th century. After obtaining the right to vote in 1918, German women began to take on active roles previously performed by men. After the end of World War 2, they were labeled as the Trümmerfrauen or "women of the rubble" because they took care of the "wounded, buried the dead, salvaged belongings", and participated in the "hard task of rebuilding war-torn Germany by simply clearing away" the rubble and ruins of war. [5] The German Wife has timelines from Nazi Germany, the debilitating drought and Dust Bowl of Texas in the 1930s and life in post war Alabama.Whether it be the living the terror in the rise of Nazism, the literal and figurative suffocating Depression in Texas of the 1930s or the segregation of Southern life in 1950s USA, Kelly takes you there. What comes out clearly in each locale is that no journey is easy. When freedoms and choices are stripped away, sacrifices will have to be made … but at what cost? Subject to persecution both subtle and overt, their children brainwashed, indoctrinated, even parents in prestigious positions are powerless to prevent it happening. Friendship with Jews gradually becomes something that will attract punishment, being made an example of. “We had so long been afraid of the consequences of dissent that even as the nation descended into madness, any moral call to rise up against the chaos went unheeded.” Beaujouan; Tomáš Sobotka; Zuzanna Brzozowska; Kryštof Zeman (January 2017). "Has childlessness peaked in Europe?" (PDF). ined.fr. Lizzie and Henry are children and work on their family’s almost bankrupt farm. Their farm failed, Lizzie married, and Henry was sent to fight in the war. Lizzie really didn’t want to get married, and Henry ended up with PTSD from the war.

The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency". www.cia.gov. Archived from the original on 21 December 2014 . Retrieved 17 April 2018. Reagin, Nancy. A German Women’s Movement: Class and Gender in Hanover, 1880–1933 (U of North Carolina Press, 1995). Lewis, Gertrud Jaron. By Women, for Women, about Women: The Sister-Books of Fourteenth-Century Germany (PIMS, 1996). This is an interesting but disturbing German perspective on World War II, both before, during, and after the war. Annaliese goes from a young woman in love with her husband, Hans, to someone married to a monster, a doctor at Dachau concentration camp. When she meets Alexander, a prisoner sent to work in her garden, she learns the horrific truth about Dachau and her husband’s role there.You will feel all the emotions each character is feeling in both time periods through Ms. Rimmer’s marvelous writing style and learn the difficult times for those who lived in Germany and resisted or spoke out and learn about the Americans who lived here during the depression and through the dust bowl. Whilst still at heart, a love story, this book had the power to evoke so many feelings, that I’m sure I won’t have felt the same way about it as the last reader, nor the next. It really is a journey you need to make for yourself and see where it leads you! Family law in West Germany, had, until recently, assigned women a subordinate role in relation to their husbands. It was only in 1977 that legislative changes provided for gender equality in marriage; until that date, married women in West Germany could not work without permission from their husbands. [9] [3] War..Oh no you may be thinking...Another WWII novel? Aren't there enough? Yet, I am overjoyed that I refused to let those sentiments enter my brain as I would have missed out on reading this accomplished powerful book. Why should you read this? One, because it will give you a whole different perspective from the Germans' point of view. What about the Germans who abhorred the Reich but felt trapped into joining for fear of losing their families' and their own lives. What part does morality play here when thousands are being murdered? What principles go into making that decision? What was it like to have your children inoculated into Hitler's propaganda watching them spew hate while neighborhood watch dogs would report you if they felt that you were not being supportive.? What if you always had to sneak conversations under the covers for fear of listening bugs? I had often thought of the latter but not in reference to the Germans themselves. This book of historical fiction is gleaned from a true narrative about Operation Paperclip. "Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 Nazi German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from former Nazi Germany to the U.S. for government employment after the end of World War II in Europe, between 1945 and 1959. Conducted by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA), it was largely carried out by special agents of the U.S. Army's Counterintelligence Corps (CIC). Many of these personnel were former members, and some were former leaders, of the Nazi Party." Reading The German Wife I was snatched from the real life for several hours and I never regretted it! This book is worth it! Amazing unforgettable story became one of my favourites!

Women in business 2015 results". Grant Thornton International Ltd. Home. Archived from the original on 29 March 2017 . Retrieved 17 April 2018. I loved this story so much and highly recommend it, there are lots of issues raised in this book and I am sure that book clubs will have many a late night talking about it, thank you for another keeper.

the subject matter is honestly really hard. it really tugs at your moral compass… what the main character (the German wife) and her family did during the years leading up to WW2 as well as throughout the war are at times unforgivable… but flash forward to 1950 and the American wife did some unforgivable things, too. but both were to protect their own families… at the expense of someone else. After the marriage, Hans joins the German SS to further his medical career. He is very committed to researching a cure for malaria. He is sent to work at the "Dachau Concentration Camp" where his is pressured to perform horrifying tests on the prisoners. Han's job is to infect the prisioners with malaria, administer hallucinogenic drugs as truth serums, and subject the men, women, and children to freezing temperatures to test their reaction to hypothermia. The camp rules are to bring torture, suffering and death to those imprisoned there. Han's hates his active role in this cruel environment, but is unable to tell anyone of his despair because he fears for his family member's safety. When Annaliese figures out Han's is part of the inhumane acts, she begins to resent him. She feels betrayed. They are both trapped in an unbearable life. Just like the timeline made for a pleasant change, so did the perspective. We have had WWII historical fiction from multiple points of view: American, English, Polish, Danish, Italian and French. But very few venture into the core of the war, into Germany. Even within these, there are multiple perspectives possible: the Nazis, the commoners, the resistance fighters, the East Germans who struggled with the Russian takeover after the official end to the war,… This book focusses on one of the least common perspectives: the unwilling German Nazi. While it doesn’t handle it perfectly, it still does a pretty good job of it. The German Wife is a vivid, tender tale set in Berlin, Germany, as well as Huntsville, Alabama, between 1930 and 1950 that takes you into the lives of the Rhodes family. A family whose individual actions, decisions, choices and secrets made during the war will have long-lasting effects and irrevocably change lives forever.

As for Lizzie, I have zero sympathy for her, I’m pretty sure I would have tried to get Henry some help as coddling him did him no favors. Isn’t an adult just a child, shaped by experience? How does a person learn not to hate, when that hate has been imprinted upon them from such a young age?” The German Wife is essentially the story of two women: Sofie von Meyer Rhodes and Lizzie Miller. Sofie is the wife of a pardoned SS official who has moved to America after the war for a fresh start. Lizzie is one of Sofie's new neighbors; she is actively against any Germans moving into her neighborhood.

Historical fiction fans will not want to miss THE GERMAN WIFE, but be aware readers will also learn of more horrors during WWII and the lingering effects it had on American servicemen. 5/5 When Jürgen or Sofie cried, I cried. When Lizzie became exasperated with Henry, I felt her pain. This book also allows the reader to see both sides of the war, from the effect it had Sofie and also Lizzie, from the Jewish or German point of view. Also, it was rather sad that the United States was in such a race for space that they easily brushed the crimes of a lot of Germans right under the rug. Perhaps Jürgen was innocent of the ways many other Nazi soldiers felt, no doubt many of the Germans that were allowed to emigrate to the US for the sake of the space program did believe in what they fought for. This displayed injustice on a grand scale, reiterating the pain that I felt for the millions of those lives lost, and for so many more that suffered or were affected by the war in other ways.