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Those Who Save Us

by Jenna Blum (Goodreads Author)

4.08 · rating details · 15,556 ratings · 2,515 reviews

For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuhrer of ...more

Hardcover, 482 pages

Published April 5th 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (first published January 1st 2004)

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Jun 12, 2007

Sammy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: a-the-best

This is one of those books that make you go, "Wow." And I did go, "Wow," when I put it down. Blum takes an enormous risk writing from the German perspective of the Holocaust, but it's a much needed risk. It's amazing how people still frown down on all Germans involved in the Holocaust, how persecuted and hated they became once WWII was over.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the actions of the German's who openly participated in this senseless genocide. ...moreThis is one of those books that make you go, "Wow." And I did go, "Wow," when I put it down. Blum takes an enormous risk writing from the German perspective of the Holocaust, but it's a much needed risk. It's amazing how people still frown down on all Germans involved in the Holocaust, how persecuted and hated they became once WWII was over.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the actions of the German's who openly participated in this senseless genocide. And there is of course that even if you're not directly involved, not doing anything to stop it still makes you a part of the problem. But this book sheds a tiny light on the German's who stood back and did nothing, or only did a little, or did what they could. It shows us why many people didn't do anything to stop those doing wrong.

The book starts a little slow, and at first I wasn't too partial to the jumping back and forth between Trudy in present day America to Anna back in war torn Germany, but after the first few chapters/sections of it, I grew used to it and actually preferred it. It also took a little getting used to the way dialogue was written out, I haven't read too many books that cut out quotation marks all together. But again, once you get used to it, it takes on a natural flow.

Anna and Trudy are both very different and intriguing characters that really hold the whole story together, especially Anna. We have the privilege of seeing her young life in WWII and then seeing how it affects her as an older woman, allowing us a glimpse of other German's who came out of Germany after the war from a more personal perspective.

When reading this book keep an eye out for the name Pfeffer, it will allow the interesting, I guess you could call it a twist, at the end to be even more "shocking." For me the name sounded familiar, but it was only a name in passing that I will have to probably go back and read again.

One thing that tied me personally to the book was when Anna finally came to America and the sort of treatment she received. On my father's side of the family his own dad's family immigrated to the U.S. circa 1920s. When WWII came around, the family was treated with hate and disdain, even the kids (like my grandfather) who were born in the U.S. I think it was one thing that I appreciated about this book, is that while it's not condoning anything the German's did in the war, it's gently saying that hating all German's is wrong. There are still German's out there racked with guilt even though, as the book tells us, there really wasn't much they could do.

This is a touching novel, that while it does have a positive ending, doesn't turn into a sappy mother-daughter bonding book. It stays true to it's characters and style, and I definitely applaud Blum for taking a bold step and putting this amazing novel out there.(less)

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Oct 23, 2007

Lorna rated it

· review of another edition

Ugh. What a terrible and yet compelling book. It's the oddest thing. I swung back and forth between giving it one star and giving it four. I chose one because overall it was terribly clunky and awkward. I felt as though the story was in the hands of an amateur who botched up too much to make the overall experience enjoyable. Or, as if the struggle to write was too obvious: here are only a few of my complaints:

* Mixed metaphors
"The arctic are is like shards of glass in the...more

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Sep 01, 2007

Collette rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Marisa, Joy

I was drawn to this book because of the subject matter, having understood that for many women (Jews and Germans both) staying alive really meant doing whatever it took to survive the dangers of wartime in Germany. A riveting story -- and I'm sure that the themes of love and survival were all too common during the war. Be prepared to read some harrowing, brutal passages although if you have read any other graphic accounts of the Holocaust (ficiton or nonfiction) this may not be shocking. I also...more

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Jun 16, 2008

Jeanie rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: wwii-era, book-club

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Quite engrossing. A definite page turner and one that I felt I couldn't put down & would stay up to the wee-hours reading. :-)

The imagery was unreal as well. Everything that was described, I could picture/envision. This book was a difficult topic, but the style of writing was easy to comprehend.

So many WWII books deal with stories and tragedies of the Jews (as they should); however, this book, told the story of the sacrifices and...more

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Jun 07, 2009

MaryTank rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Yes

Recommended to MaryTank by: Pauline

Well written, fast read. I have often wondered how and why the German people accepted what was happening during WWII? This book describes how many, if not most, were just trying to survive during difficult times. However others truly believed in what was happening which is called patriotism regardless the right or wrong of it.

Contrary to my book club I do not believe Anna fell in love with the Oberstrumfuhrer. I believe she was a victim of the trauma caused by her dependency on...more

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Sep 24, 2007

Lucy rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: those intrested in WWII in Germany

Those Who Save Us, written by Jenna Blum, is an historical fiction novel set in Germany during World War II. Anna is an eighteen year old girl who falls in love with a Jewish doctor and finds the courage to finally stand up to her domineering father, a Nazi sympathizer and altogether unkind man, and hide her lover in her own home. When her father turns him over to the Gestapo, Anna leaves and lives and works with a woman who works with the Resistance Movement. Anna, pregnant and alone, is ultima...more

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Jan 31, 2011

Barbara rated it

Recommends it for: Maria, Kelly

Recommended to Barbara by: Rose and Elizabeth

Shelves: holocaust-ww-2

While visiting the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, one encounters many horrifying exhibits. There is an huge atrium, with a ceiling which seems endlessly tall. Around this room, covering all of the wall surfaces, there are photographs. There are happy families posing for group photos, babies with their toothless grins, little girls with pigtails, boys flying kites, sober individual shots for graduations, little men at their Bar Mitzvahs,loving couples gazing into eachother's eyes - all peop...more

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Sep 21, 2008

Kelly rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Kelly by: Santica Shin

This was a very well written book about Nazi Germany told from the perspective of non-Jews who survived the war. I had never really considered what was happening to the non-Jews in Germany during that time, so in this regard I found it to be very educational. The book is told from the points of view of Anna, a mother, and Trudy, her very young daughter who both endured more than is imaginable a the hands of the Nazis. Anna's story is revealed in flashbacks while Trudy's is told in the present...more

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Mar 18, 2008

Brian rated it

· review of another edition

How good was this book? So good I want to tell everyone about it, which in turn caused me to remember I joined this site but never posted on it because I hadn't been motivated until now.

Anna is a young woman living in 1940s Germany who becomes involved in a relationship with a Jewish doctor -- you can guess without me having to say anything the far-reaching consequences this will have, and it sets into motion all that follows.

Fifty years later her daughter Trudy, a professor ...more

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Nov 27, 2007

AriAnne rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Everyone who loves history

This book was phenomenal. I couldn't put it down! It is an amazing blend of the German/Jewish experience during WWII, at least from an outsider's point of view, which is how the book is set up. Trudy, the main character, is a peripheral part of the experience in that she was only 3 when she left Germany, and yet she is so integral to the telling of her mother's story, which is also her story. She grew up thinking she was something other that who she is and her mother is trying to protect her...more

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May 30, 2008

Leslie rated it

· review of another edition

Wow! This book kept me up at night, thinking about the topics it explores. While on the surface it is about German people's experiences during WWII, it is about so much more, including the psychological effects of abuse and humiliation. My favorite line comes near the end when Anna's husband asks her if she loved the SS officer. She recognizes how we "come to love those who save us, or rather those who shame us." That's a pretty intense concept.

My only complaint is that the...more

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Oct 13, 2010

Kristina rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I found this book to be extremely fascinating making it easy to get through fairly quickly despite the number of pages. The German Project especially was incredibly interesting to read about as Trudy (Anna's daughter) interviews Germans about their perspectives and involvement during the war.

The story flips between Anna's story during WWII and her daughter's story as a modern professor of German history. Throughout the entire book I wondered whether Anna would ever tell her daughter...more

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Nov 03, 2008

Peggy rated it

· review of another edition

A real page turner. Excellent writing style full of description, narrative, imagery. Author made you care about the main character and all she endured during her days in WWII Germany living as a non Jew. Brutal, sad times. Confirms that one must do what one mjust do to survive.

Good Read !

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Oct 20, 2011

Cheryl rated it

· review of another edition

This book was phenomenal! It tells the story of 2 women, a mother and daughter, and their relationship. Trudy, a professor at a university, is conducting research into the role of German women in Nazi Germany. Her mother's health is failing and she is put into a nursing home for a time. Trudy tries to understand her mother, Anna, but her mother refuses to talk to her. There is a second story line throughout that tells of the mother's life when she was in her early twenties,living in Weimar, Ge...more

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Dec 24, 2008

Cass rated it

· review of another edition

All throughout this book, I went, "Whoa," over and over and over. I personally think Trudy's part of the story and Anna's part in present day is a little tedious, but all of Anna's past was one spell-binder of a delicious WWII read. I love how beautifully Blum explores the dangers of Stockholm Syndrome, and how tastefully she brings it to life. It is one amazing book, and it's just... wow. It's no light-hearted read, get that straight right now. It's very dark and the ending can be vie...more

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Aug 12, 2008

Devorah rated it

· review of another edition

Totally and completely engrossing.

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Oct 02, 2011

Susan Emmet rated it

· review of another edition

My second time through Jenna Blum's historical novel of the Holocaust. It's the story of Anna, born in Weimar near the Buchenwald concentration camp, who falls in love with a Jewish doctor and bears his child after he is taken to the camp. One of the camp's commanders, the Obersturmfuhrer, takes her "under his wing," providing food and "education" for her daughter Trudy, as well as rendering Anna his prisoner for sexual "pleasure." Although Horst is an amoral monste...more

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Nov 08, 2008

Emily rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: History buffs, book club readers

Recommended to Emily by: book club

Very engaging story, I highly recommend this book.

Usually I'm not a fan of following two "complementary" story lines because one always ends up being more interesting and rarely are they both equally important to the story. This book has neither of those problems. The two story lines in Those Who Save Us are beautifully intertwined, neither story would be complete without the other and both stories are equally weighted, so you always want more from both women.

...more

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Oct 03, 2008

Andrea rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: People interested in the social history of WWII and the holocaust

Shelves: read-historical-fiction

A great book - one of the best books that I have read in a while! It's a fascinating story (I found I couldn't put it down), a sad story, a heroic story of surviving in WWII Germany as a civilian although a bit unbelievable. Still, it was a story that I wanted to believe in and I'm sure there are untold stories out there that may never be told.

Blum does a good job of portraying life for German civilians while still being incredibly aware and sympathetic to the treatment of Jews in ...moreA great book - one of the best books that I have read in a while! It's a fascinating story (I found I couldn't put it down), a sad story, a heroic story of surviving in WWII Germany as a civilian although a bit unbelievable. Still, it was a story that I wanted to believe in and I'm sure there are untold stories out there that may never be told.

Blum does a good job of portraying life for German civilians while still being incredibly aware and sympathetic to the treatment of Jews in Germany and of the holocaust, especially in her development of the one of the main characters, Anna. I was incredibly drawn to Anna and felt for her and all that she had to go through. I thought several times - what else could she do? What would I have done? However, the plot was advanced through this empathy and I do wonder how true to life the character of Anna was.

The book flip-flops back and forth between war era German in Weimar and the present day in the U.S. It chronicles Anna's fight to survive during the war and her daughter Trudy's fight in the present to understand Anna's role as she refuses to discuss anything that happened to her. After finding a portrait of her mother, herself, and an S.S. officer as a girl Trudy grows up thinking that her birth father was the S.S. soldier. When she grew up she became a professor of German history and started a German remembrance project to record oral histories of Germans who survived the war. (As a side note, the funding was pulled from a grant a co-worker received to record interviews of Holocaust survivors. Pretty generous if you ask me and a part of the book that made me angry. She should have gone out and found her own funding!!!!!)

Through the interviews she's confronted with a wide variety of attitudes and starts remembering bits about her life in Weimar with the S.S. officer. What she did not know was that her mother fell in love with a Jewish doctor (despite her father's incredible anti-semitism) and hid him in her house in the attic. Her father turned him in the the S.S. and she was with his child. She ran away to a local bakery - the baker was active in the resistance movement (as was her doctor) and she stayed there learned the trade. They supplied bread to the officers at Buchenwald and used the opportunity to deliver bread to the prisoners and taking out messages and sometimes film. When the baker is caught and executed, Anna has no choice but to become the lover of an S.S. officer - the one whose picture her daughter found.

Everyone assumed the worst - including the American soldier husband Anna ended up marrying. But through the German remembrance project Anna discovers the truth. Even when confronted Anna doesn't admit the truth, but the process of healing for mother and daughter (and in the process a better relationship) started.

While there were many hearth breaking parts to this story, the one that really hit hard was when Anna first came to American with Trudy and her new husband and was learning English. They all went to the Christmas Eve service and all of the women of the church shunned her. (After all those years of hating Germans, it doesn't die that quickly....or at all...which is so sad to me!) She made a German pastry for the potluck dinner and by the time they left at the end it was untouched - all her hard work and care for nothing b/c it was German and because it was from her. So sad!

(less)

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Sep 11, 2009

Elysabeth rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Elysabeth by: Paula Friedman, Judy Reichman

Shelves: book-club, favorites

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 17, 2008

Khaya rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: intense-sad-or-dark, historicalfiction, holocaust

This book was well-written and interesting, if a bit intense. Another holocaust-from-the-perspective-of-resistant-Germans, a la "The Book Thief," but less lighthearted.

The story alternates between two stories. One is of Anna, a young 1940s German woman with an illegitimate child (fathered by a Jew she loves, who was captured during her pregnancy). Anna becomes active in the German resistance and is caught sneaking food to Buchenwald prisoners, an offense punishable by de...moreThis book was well-written and interesting, if a bit intense. Another holocaust-from-the-perspective-of-resistant-Germans, a la "The Book Thief," but less lighthearted.

The story alternates between two stories. One is of Anna, a young 1940s German woman with an illegitimate child (fathered by a Jew she loves, who was captured during her pregnancy). Anna becomes active in the German resistance and is caught sneaking food to Buchenwald prisoners, an offense punishable by death. As a result, she is blackmailed into serving as the unwilling mistress of the SS officer who caught her. The relationship continues for 3-4 years, until the war ends and the officer runs away. Anna and Trudy are liberated by an American soldier, who marries Anna and brings them to America to live.

The other story is of Trudy, Anna's daughter, 50 years later as she works as a professor of German history. Trudy is interviewing Germans who lived during the war, ostensibly as part of a research project but is actually driven by a fierce desire to understand her mother, who absolutely refuses to speak about the war. Trudy knows about the SS officer only through vague childhood memories and a picture she has found of the three of them, and is under the mistaken impression that he is her father. She is anxious to know whether Anna loved the SS officer, whether the relationship was consensual, etc., and no answers are forthcoming.

Both stories were interesting, emotionally compelling, and dramatic in their own way. I took off a star because, while I loved the complexity, sometimes the story was just too tragic for me. It also raised questions in my mind about how Germans really felt about the SS officers. Anna's German acquaintances clearly looked down on her for her liasion with the officer, and it seemed as if they disapproved because he was an SS officer. Does that mean they didn't like the SS? Does it make sense that the typical German had strong negative feelings about the Nazis, having voted Hitler into office and tolerated the killing of the Jews? Or was the author simply projecting her own American feelings about a woman sleeping with an SS officer, and assuming that the other Germans would have viewed it the same way?(less)

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Mar 09, 2008

Carrie rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Historical Fiction Readers

Shelves: all-time-favorites

Rating: 4.10

Well, after my recent trip to the heart of Deutchland, I am a bit overwhelmed with the desire to read WWII accounts. It is amazing to me that the scope of human emotion, tragedy and courage was felt on such a grand scale by all that lived during that time.... and in many cases, are the grey generation of today. I sat down this morning, and moved rarely... until i had finished the book in one sitting.

This book of fiction is written by a former producer for Stev...more

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Jan 26, 2008

Cortney rated it

· review of another edition

Those Who Save Us is the story of an Aryan German girl (probably 18 or 19 years old) named Anna who fell in love with a Jewish doctor around 1939. She hid him in her father's house when things started to get scary for the Jews. Her father found out and turned him in to the Gestapo. At this point in time, she was already 4 months pregnant. The Jewish doctor was part of the Resistance Movement, as was a female baker in town. The girl left her father's home and became the baker's apprentice. Eventu...more

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Dec 06, 2008

Kristie rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Kristie by: Fleur

This was a good book. There were style points that prevented me from giving it five stars -- I'm not sure why the author chose not to use quotes throughout -- but it was an engaging read and very thought provoking. We all probably consider what we would have done if we had been alive during certain points in history, and this book tells of people's choices before, during, and after the war. It's fiction, of course, but it's possible for the reader to see how the characters might mirror the stori...more

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Nov 11, 2008

Kellie rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-literature, 2008-reads, bookclub-books

Wow! This book will stay with me for a long time. The story angle is unique and the writing was beautiful. There have been many books written about the Holocaust, but I don’t think that many have been written from the viewpoint of a German woman who lived through WWII as the enemy. Not as a Nazi, but as a German citizen who had to cope with the knowledge, or lack of knowledge, of all that was happening around her.

The author takes you back and forth between Anna’s story during th...more

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Aug 10, 2008

Tina rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 13, 2009

Amber rated it

· review of another edition

This is now one of my top favs. I just finished it, and I feel like I am still "in" it. Such a good story of how we can go through our lives not understanding what reality has been for another. And also, how we keep secrets for so many reasons, when if we could only speak we could release ourselves, and people we love... Wonderful book. Wonderfully told.

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Nov 20, 2008

Kate rated it

· review of another edition

This hauntingly lovely book is the best I’ve read in a long time.

It’s the story of Anna, a German caught up in the firestorm of Nazi Weimar and her daughter, Trudy. Anna’s selfless acts of kindness and her accompanying shame were well executed – believable and haunting.

Trudy’s own story is well marked by a life she can barely remember.

This Holocaust epic told from the German point of view gave what is for me well worn – the Holocaust – a fresh slant.

...more

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Dec 03, 2008

Lorrie rated it

· review of another edition

Anna survives during WWII in Germany by doing what she needs to do in order to live and provide food for her young daughter, Trudy. After the war they move to America with a soldier and she tries to forget. Trudy grows up and tries to find out the truth about her memories of an SS officer. Anna still won't open up even after being faced with a survivor that can tell stories of the amazing things that Anna did to save lives. Instead, Anna can't get past the guilt of her association with the of...more

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Mar 12, 2009

Sherri aka SDMomChef rated it

· review of another edition

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I usually hesitate to read books about the holocaust because the holocaust is so incredibly sad and depressing. However, there are books, such as The Book Thief, that are so adept at telling the story in such a way that the events become more complex and human that I am left feeling more enlightened after reading the book.

What I think makes this book so unique is that it is primarily about the story of Anna and her daughter, both during WWII...more

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Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Anna & the Obersturmfuhrer: A character study.	7	60	Feb 05, 2012 04:06pm
RoB Network: Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum	1	2	Feb 04, 2012 01:36pm
Do you feel Anna should have told Trudy about her past?	7	63	Jan 15, 2012 06:18pm
Castleton Public ...: How would you categorize this story?	1	4	Dec 27, 2011 07:16am
Holocaust	1	41	Jan 06, 2008 11:32am

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About Jenna Blum

Author of the New York Times bestseller THOSE WHO SAVE US (Harcourt, 2004) and THE STORMCHASERS (Dutton, May 2010).

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Quotes from Those Who Save Us

“Life is so often unfair and painful and love is hard to find and you have to take it whenever and wherever you can get it, no matter how brief it is or how it ends.” — 24 people liked it

“How could she tell him that we come to love those who save us?” — 17 people liked it

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