Looking for novels set in Nazi Germany for a teen DD

[loveyouradvice]

She's doing history GCSE and one aspect is understanding life in Nazi Germany - any recommendations for novels? Ideally lighter weight ones, gripping narrative... even detective novels set in this era... or YA!!!

Auslander by Paul Dowswell is a YA novel set in Poland and Nazi Germany. Very good according to my teen.

The book thief. Or The Boy in Stripped Pyjamas.

I'd recommend Mischling, Second Degree: My Childhood in Nazi Germany, by Ilse Koehn. Not a novel, but an autobiography, and gives a very vivid impression of growing up in the 1930s and during WW2.

www.amazon.com/Mischling-Second-Degree-Childhood-Germany/dp/0140342907?tag=mumsnetforum-21

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys- just reading it at the moment. It's a multi narrative novel set at the end of ww2 tracking east German refugees fleeing the Russian advance. Really interesting as it's not a perspective normally covered.

elephant in the garden (m. mopurgo)
anne frank diaries
the tin drum (guenther grass)

I can understand your wish to encourage your daughter's reading. However, there is a side of me which says, 'No. This is not a lightweight topic.'

I did recently read Leslie Wilson's 'Last Train to Kummersdorf' - which is about the very end of WW2 and I felt that this was a very honest - and historically accurate - book, conveying Germany as the war came to an end.
And you can show her this poem, if you like.

Our Hunger

We have been hungry. We were in distress.
And what food did they provide to comfort us?
One single dumpling. Thin soup – just half a bowl.
Enough nourishment to make our cravings grow.
We stand in line for three hours. Half-dead
on our feet, we wait. We are not well fed.

We have been hungry. We swallowed distrust.
Because how long do you last on pride and a crust?
And they went, ‘Yes, help yourself to a loaf.
Have some margarine, some sugar. You can take both
in exchange for shoes and clothes.’ That’s what they said.
We surrender possessions. We are not well fed.

We have been hungry. We experienced pain
Each day we ransacked the shelter, looking again
and again for cabbage leaves, peelings, scraps.

We counted ourselves lucky to find any of that.
Cleaning up, polishing off every last shred.
Not one crumb gets rejected. We are not well fed.

This one from wonderful Persephone books, is a diary, written during the war, in Hamburg:

www.persephonebooks.co.uk/on-the-other-side-letters-to-my-children-from-germany-1940-46.html

There's also Christopher Isherwood's two Berlin novels Goodbye to Berlin & Mr Norris Changes Trains.

Another vote for The Book Thief but if you want a soldiers perspective I'd also highly recommend All Quiet on The western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. It's definitely gripping and shows the human side of the "enemy soldiers". A good example of how it affected normal boys on the other side too.

Life after life
www.goodreads.com/book/show/15790842-life-after-life
The book thief!

I'd recommend the graphic novel Maus. And the book thief.

The Silver Sword is brilliant, it has stayed with me since I read it as a teen. Also When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.

Another one for Alone in Berlin - it's wonderful.

Agree Alone in Berlin is excellent but may be a bit hard going.

Number the stars is about the evacuation of the jews from nazi occupied denmark.

agree it's harrowing stuff. not easy to deal with

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00PQJHIZ0/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

I really enjoyed this book about auschwitz and nazi rule in general!

Another vote for stones from the river

Another one recommending Mischling: Second Degree. As it's an autobiography you can look up on a street map all the places she lived, the evocation of her day to day life is very clear. I read it when I was about 13 or 14 and really small details have just stayed with me for over 30 years. It's not light, but it is readable.
It might also be interesting to watch "Heimat" (it's about 10 hours so maybe good for a rainy weekend). It covers about a 50 year period (? Can't quite remember) including both world wars but you get a very clear feel for everyday life.

Winter by Len Deighton. Not lightweight but a very good historical novel. I read it at around 14 and thought it was a very good read. It's about a German family. It's set from 1900 to 1945 so gives a some background as to how the Nazis came to power.

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit! Loved it as a young teen, read it a zillion times.

If she is an older teen and can cope with some pretty harsh stuff, then I'd agree with Alone in Berlin. It was written just after the war by pretty much the only major German writer who did not go into exile but lived through it all. Too caught up in his own problems of MH and cocaine addiction to get involved in any resistance but he saw a lot and knew how ordinary people were affected.

The book theif isn't too harrowing.

Reunion by Fred Uhlman is brilliant. DS read it in Year 9.

All the light we cannot see by A Doer. Suitable for teenagers and has the twin stories growing up in Nazi Germany and occupied France. Carnegie Medal winner and IMO a beautiful book.

My DD is also fascinated by Nazi Germany and how Hitler managed to come to power with such intolerable and corrupted beliefs. She recommends the Diary of Anne Frank, How Hitler stole Pink Rabbit, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and Eva's Story