I saw a copy of this book at Barnes and Noble a couple of years ago and after reading the cover blurbs, put it on my wishlist at PaperbackSwap.com. Received a copy from them a few months ago and finally got around to reading it. It was a somewhat difficult book to read given the subject matter but as the novel developed, it kept me interested and turning the pages.
The novel takes place in Berlin in 1943 at the height of WWII. The novel is called "City of Women" because most of the adult male population has been drawn into the Nazi war machine. Berlin is a place where the remaining Germans are living lives to avoid the police, where a wrong word slipped against the powers that be could lead to torture or to a Nazi concentration camp. This is the world where Sigrid Schroder lives with her mother-in-law while her husband is serving in the army on the Russian front. Sigrid meets one of her neighbors, a young woman named Ericha, at a local cinema who begs Sigrid to tell the local police the she came to the cinema with Ericha. The police suspected Ericha of crimes against the State. Sigrid subsequently gets involved in helping Ericha protect and hide Jews from the Gestapo in a sort of underground railway. This reminded me somewhat of Anne Frank's story. Sigrid also meets a Jewish man at the cinema who becomes her lover but can she trust him?
I was really unaware of how the everyday citizenry of Germany were affected by the war and how some acted against the Nazi policies while others just demurely went along with them even though they witnessed Jews being rounded up in the streets and sent away to concentration camps. Overall, this was a very engaging novel highlighting the brutality of the Nazis, the fear of the citizens and how some were trying to be redeemed in a very difficult situation.
The novel takes place in Berlin in 1943 at the height of WWII. The novel is called "City of Women" because most of the adult male population has been drawn into the Nazi war machine. Berlin is a place where the remaining Germans are living lives to avoid the police, where a wrong word slipped against the powers that be could lead to torture or to a Nazi concentration camp. This is the world where Sigrid Schroder lives with her mother-in-law while her husband is serving in the army on the Russian front. Sigrid meets one of her neighbors, a young woman named Ericha, at a local cinema who begs Sigrid to tell the local police the she came to the cinema with Ericha. The police suspected Ericha of crimes against the State. Sigrid subsequently gets involved in helping Ericha protect and hide Jews from the Gestapo in a sort of underground railway. This reminded me somewhat of Anne Frank's story. Sigrid also meets a Jewish man at the cinema who becomes her lover but can she trust him?
I was really unaware of how the everyday citizenry of Germany were affected by the war and how some acted against the Nazi policies while others just demurely went along with them even though they witnessed Jews being rounded up in the streets and sent away to concentration camps. Overall, this was a very engaging novel highlighting the brutality of the Nazis, the fear of the citizens and how some were trying to be redeemed in a very difficult situation.
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