Those Who Save Us is a powerful and heart breaking tale of the lives of everyday Germans during World War II. Alternating between past and present, we learn the story of Trudy and her mother Anna. Trudy is a college professor who is drawn into a project by a colleague chronicling the lives of ordinary Germans and their feelings about the war, Hitler and the persecution of Jews. While conducting these interviews, Trudy meets a spectrum of Germans. Some excuse their own behavior during the war by couching it in "it was a war, you did what you had to" while some relate stories of how their attempts to help their Jewish neighbors or show any sympathy was severely punished. But what was surprising was the fact that some of the German emigres still harbored intense anti-Jewish sentiments despite everything that had transpired. But while Trudy chronicles these stories she is unaware that her own mother is an encyclopedia of stories to tell of her life in Germany.

Anna was the daughter of a strict and harsh father who used his only child as an unpaid housekeeper. He was a Nazi sympathizer and one who hoped to marry off his beautiful daughter to a Nazi probably hoping that this would elevate him. Unfortunately for him, his daughter falls in love with a Jewish doctor and becomes pregnant. Unfortunately for her, she decides to hide him in her house when the Nazi begin looking for him. This is successful for a while until her father somehow finds him and turns him in and he is sent to a concentration camp. Anna is justifiably horrified and runs away from home, moving in with a local baker.

This book captures you with its excellent descriptions of life in Nazi Germany. The rationing of food, the fear felt by good people who worry about what their government may be doing but cannot do a thing about it. It is an interesting portrait of what happens when you are at your wits end and your salvation comes in the form of your enemy. How does one survive the choices you made in order to insure your survival and that of your child? Before you realize Anna's history, she is described as cold, distant and almost unloving. But as you read of her struggles and the realities of her life in Germany, it explains why she became who we now see.

Anna's story is much more interesting than Trudy's as Trudy sometimes seems to just be going through the motions. Though you know Anna's life does not end up happy, seeing her as a young women is captivating. As she falls in love with the doctor, you want to believe that theirs will be a happy tale. Trudy though the product of her mother's silence was not a character that I really identified with. I can understand that being the child of a woman like Anna must have left many emotional scares but I could not help looking at Trudy's life and character as unfulfilled and alienated both from the other characters and the reader.

I enjoyed this book and kept thinking about it long after I finished. Things are not tied up in a neat bow but the growing understanding between mother and daughter is nice to watch. There were a few iffy moments in the book like getting used to the fact that none of the dialogue has quotations. But as I kept reading, I soon forgot about that. Plot wise I found some of Trudy's relationships somewhat odd and seeming to come out of nowhere. But maybe they were thrown in to show just how dysfunctional she had become over time. ( )

My mother-in-law loaned this to me. I really liked it. Interesting characters set in an interesting time and place. ( )

Blum explores the need for secrets and silence in this story of a silent, German mother and her professor daughter who wants to know the truth about her past. ( )

Haven't read it yet.

Loved this book!