*My Thoughts*
Prisoner of Night and Fog is Anne Blankman's debut novel. It is based on true historical events that happened in Germany during the period from the end of the Great War in 1918 through 1931. The story is told through the eyes of fictional character named Gretchen Müller who has a birds eye view of Hitler's rise to power because her family is part of his inner circle.
As most readers know by now if they TRULY paid attention in history class, Adolf Hitler was a psychopath who enjoyed seeing a entire race of human beings exterminated via concentration camps, gas chambers, and all sorts of other torture methods by those in his inner circle. His rise to power happened because a majority of German citizens remained SILENT while he and his compatriots in the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party were murdering innocent people just because of their religious faith, or political view point.
It is apparent that Blankman spent a lot of time researching her subject Adolf Hitler and who he really was and how his mental health issues actually played a role in pretty much everything he did. She looked into his relationship with Eva Braun, and Hitler's half-niece Geli Raubal, and even adds Gretchen into the mix as Hitler's favorite sunshine to make things a bit more interesting. Actual historic figures who were instrumental in Hitler's rise to power show up regularly as the story kicks into high gear.
Even though there are many fascinating books already written about this SICKO, Prisoner of Night and Fog takes a fresh look into Hitler & Germany as seen through the eyes of a character who has been brain washed by her family and the Nationalist Party her whole life into believing that the Jews were evil incarnate, and were responsible for Germany's Wiemar Republic failure, high unemployment rates, and people starving from not enough available food, or worthless money.
It is through Gretchen's eyes that we watch her transformation from a party loyalist, to a person who truly doesn't believe that all Jewish people are evil, or deserving to be murdered. This happens concurrently with Gretchen's desire to dig deep into the conspiracy of her own fathers murder. We see this through her relationship with Jewish journalist Daniel Cohen who works for an actual news paper called the Munich Post that was very anti-Nazi Party and responsible for bringing the truth into the light of day.
I will be eager to see where Blankman goes from here. She has stated that the next book will pick up in 1933 when Adolf Hitler become Chancellor of Germany. Will this also include Gretchen and Daniel, or will new characters step up instead?
Author - Anne Blankman
Title - Prisoner of Night and Fog
Released by Balzer + Brey
Published April 22, 2014
Genre - Historical Fiction
Format - EBook 416 pages
Great review Shelley. I really liked this book. I'm also intrigued to see what happens next.
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