Crooked Cross and The Prisoner

I don’t usually like sequels but if you read the Crooked Cross you’ll  definitely want to continue with The Prisoner. 

Both these well-written books involve the daily misfortunes of a regular German family starting at the end of 1932. It is hard not to like and sympathize with them regardless of the atrocities carried out by the Nazis. In fact I found I could even understand why many Germans turned a blind eye, didn’t want to get involved or, even in some cases, supported the party’s cause. Until it affected them personally.

This story follows the Klugers –a middle class family with two sons and a daughter, as they strive to navigate the rapidly changing political climate they find themselves in.

Starting with an idyllic Christmas Eve in their family home, the cracks soon
appear. With both sons disillusioned and out of work and the daughter looking forward to her wedding, the Mother just wants everyone to be happy while the Father is increasingly worried about another war. “To these two hard-working,middle-aged parents and the three children it was a time for the knitting together of personal happiness, and of completing the magic circle of their family . . . “.

But the circle is soon broken, as the sons both join the party and find new purpose. With their brown shirt uniforms, defined roles and wages they are elated when Hitler wins the election “Hitler was to them like some splendid deliverer, a god.”

And so the story continues about their day-to-day lives weaving in romances, family meals, neighbours, but always with the underlying threat of war. Then there is the tragic result of the daughter’s romance with a Jewish man.

No spoilers here, but The Prisoner carries on in the same vein, following the family’s move from their bucolic country home to a pokey flat in Munich. The brothers grow apart as their opposing personalities and reaction to what is going on around them become more and more divisive. Attending a Hitler rally the younger brother observes about the crowd “. . . they reminded him of young birds waiting to be fed.”

All the while the long suffering mother, Frau Kluger, placates her grumbling husband, puts food on the table for her sparring sons and tries to ignore the undercurrents that are slowly upending all their lives.

If you ever thought that politics don’t affect you personally, read these books. They are a sharp reminder of what can happen when people turn a blind eye to their leader's worst tendencies.