Anika Scott

An effective, highly suspenseful post WWII saga-

Clara Falkenberg, once an heiress to the Falkenberg Iron Works has been living under an assumed name since the end of the war. She earned a tough reputation while at the helm of the Iron works, but whenever possible, Clara snuck extra rations to workers who were brought in from Russia and Poland to work for them. But eventually she fled Essen fearing retaliation from the Nazis.

However, Clara hasn't heard from her best friend, Elisa, and her show more teenage son, Willy, and fears the worst. Traveling with fake credentials, Clara attempts a return to Essen to look for them. However, before she reaches her destination, she is detained by Thomas Renshaw, a British Captain who suspects her of having committed war crimes. Clara makes a brave, dangerous, and desperate escape from him and continues her quest to find her friend.

She soon meets a black marketeer named Jakob Relling, who agrees to help her find Elisa. Jakob guesses early on who Clara really is, but he is also holding back some startling information about Clara's friend.

Meanwhile, Renshaw catches up to Jakob, tempting him to betray Clara in exchange for much need supplies and food for his family.

What choice will he make and what will be the consequences of his decision? Where is Elisa? What happened to her son?

This is a thought-provoking novel, very absorbing and with stark, realistic and vivid depictions of post war Germany.

The story probes the after effects of war, the toll it takes once the impact of the damage sinks in on the ordinary citizens who must grapple with the ravages left behind, and the soul searing personal reckonings of deeds they had no control over and those they did.

The age old questions of complicity, of good versus evil, and justification or rationalization for what one does to survive during war, and the guilt that rides shotgun, are probed, as the characters face their own personal demons, looking to find peace, and a way forward.

While Clara is our main protagonist, I think Jakob is the character that truly stands out. There are some very surprising twists and revelations along the way and plenty of moral dilemmas to sort through. There is sadness and disappointment, but there is also a light at the end that gives one hope, despite all the evil and human frailty that will haunt these characters forever.

This is a compelling read and touches upon topics not often examined in books set in this era of time. I was surprised by how quickly the story grabbed me and by how much time had passed before I finally looked up from the book, realizing I had nearly finished it in one sitting.

While there is a mystery, much of the book is about drawing attention to the complexities of the war, exposing the grey areas, the denial, and the moral reckoning of the characters. The plot isn’t all the deep, but there are some extremely taut moments of suspense and intrigue and will give readers plenty of food for thought.

Overall, this book appears to be well-researched and offers a lighter, but interesting and different angle of the second world war to explore.

4 stars show less

What good does guilt do? It comes after the fact, never changing the past action that inspired it. The one thing that guilt does do though, is that it confirms the conscience of the person experiencing it. And without guilt there can be no true remorse, no hope that a person will do better going forward. This is particularly interesting in the context of the actions people take during wars like WWII. So many people just put their heads down and carried on. Some people truly agreed with the show more Nazis, throwing themselves into working for the party willingly, eagerly, while others did what they felt they must to survive. But when the dust settled, who was who? And does it even matter? Do guilt and remorse after the fact, coupled with small gestures during a great evil, balance out the immeasurable harm, known and unknown? What price does loyalty carry, especially loyalty to the wrong thing or person? Anika Scott asks these perhaps unanswerable, unknowable questions in her debut novel, The German Heiress, especially in the person of her main character, Clara Falkenburg, once known as the Iron Fraulein for her position assisting her father in the running of the family's massive ironworks, a key contributor to the Nazi war machine.

Almost two full years after the end of WWII, Margarete Muller gets engaged to her doctor boyfriend just before telling him she needs to return home to search for her missing best friend. But this man with whom she thinks she might start a new life is not who he seems and she is repulsed by the hints of who he truly is. Then again neither she is not who she claims either. Margarete Muller is an alias and she is really the missing heiress to the Falkenburg ironworks, Clara Falkenburg, who fled her home before the Allies arrived. Now she feels pulled to return to Essen to find her friend Elisa and Elisa's son Willy. She is discovered on the train back and is briefly captured by the English Captain Thomas Fenshaw, who has been hunting her for war crimes for two years. She manages to escape but thus starts a cat and mouse game with Clara searching for Elisa and Fenshaw searching for Clara. As Clara searches, she finds an unexpected and unlikely ally in Jakob Relling, a black marketeer, who is searching for Elisa for his own reasons.

While Clara is the main focus of the story, the narration centers on both Clara and Jakob Relling, showing the impact of the war on not only a figurehead suspected of war crimes (Clara) but also a regular German swept along in the war (Jakob). Jakob fought in the Nazi army in Russia, lost his leg, and now must do his best to provide for his two young sisters, one of whom is pregnant by a long disappeared English soldier, and the only family he has left out of a once large clan. Clara is on the run from the Captain, barely staying one step ahead of him and his relentless search, living in the rubble and ruins of her once proud city. Jakob has discovered a treasure trove of Nazi supplies in an old coal mine, a stash that would keep his family fed for a year or more, but he is wary of the teenage boy guarding it, a boy who doesn't believe the war is over and whose mind may be permanently affected by his experiences during the war. How Jakob's discovery and Clara's search are related is not a surprise to the reader but it is to Clara. And it is just one of the secrets that she uncovers over the course of the novel, life-changing secrets about her friends and family. As she comes to understand the truth about others, Jakob also helps her understand the truth about herself, the knowledge that she didn't do enough, that her small acts of conscience never made up for the terrible evil, the exploitation, the abuse, and the death that her position and public actions condoned. Scott beautifully evokes the bleak winter landscape of Essen and the desperate poverty and threat of starvation throughout the devastated city. The bombed outward landscape reflects the frozen piece at Clara's moral core, the place that she has pushed the remorse, the guilt, and the knowledge of her culpability. The story is an intense one, balancing both the thrill of the chase with deep, personal reflections and the ending itself reflects this careful balance. What is right and fair might remain unanswered but this compelling and propulsive historical fiction certainly gives readers a lot to think about in the characters of Clara, Jakob, and Fenshaw. show less

Clara Falkenberg was handed the reins to her family's ironworks empire in Germany during World War II. As the War ends, Clara flees the ironworks and takes the alias of a secretary that had worked there, Margarete Muller. Two years later, Clara desperately wants to find the best friend she left behind, Elisa Sieland. As Clara heads back home, her cover is blown by British Officer Fenshaw who wants Clara to pay for her war crimes. Clara escapes Fenshaw's grasp only to find Elisa's home show more destroyed. In her search for Elisa, Clara connects with Jakob. Jakob is now a black marketeer who has lost a leg in the war. Jakob is also in search of Elisa since he stumbled into a mine shaft with a young soldier named WIlly Sieland who is guarding a stockpile of German supplies and believes that the war is still raging. Clara and Jakob form an alliance to find Elisa and help Willy, but Fenshaw has not let up on his quest to capture The Iron Fraulein.
The German Heiress is a unique look into post World War II Germany and the many layers and situations that the German people faced in the aftermath of the war. Clara is a very well-developed and intense character. For the entire story, she is struggling with her identity as well as her morality for what happened at the factory during the war. The German government gave Clara the moniker of the Iron Fraulein, which is a name she tried to run from; however, it is Clara's iron will that helps her through the toughest of obstacles. Other than the suspense of Clara constantly being on the cusp of capture by Fenshaw, I found Clara's internal moral fight the most intriguing. I was absorbed as Clara fought with herself in trying to decide whether or not she did enough for the people forced to work for her. Willy's character also surprised me, Willy's mental health is fragile and his secret the most explosive. Through Willy, I was able to see the influence of propaganda and the Jungvolk. The writing transported me to the bleak, destroyed landscape of Essen, Germany. Home were demolished, landscapes were changed and food scarce, but the people found a way to carry on. This book took me a little while to get into as Clara's character developed and some of her secrets are revealed as this happened, I was pulled deeper into her and Jakob's quest as well as the cat-and-mouse game with Fenshaw. The ending is surprising and shows the hope that post World War II Germany kept.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review. show less

Germany, 1946. Clara, accused by occupying Allied troops of committing war crimes while she was operating her family's business (a formidable ironworks) during the recent Second World War, is living under an assumed name. Frantic to locate her dear friend, Elisa, a single mother, and Elisa's teenage son, Clara cautiously emerges from hiding and is promptly detained by an English officer, for whom capturing and punishing her seems to be a personal mission. But Clara--determined, resourceful, show more and courageous--isn't giving up without a fight. She finds an unlikely ally in Jakob, an amputee with street smarts who also is looking for Elisa. The result is a compelling tale of love and hatred, both in many forms.

As other reviewers have noted, The German Heiress presents Europe-after-the-war from a different perspective, that of a vanquished woman trying to survive in the aftermath of love and loss. What Clara and other characters endure is too disturbing to be an enjoyable read, but it is an important one that stands out among the current bumper crop of World War II novels. Highly recommended. show less