On Inspiration: Interview with Marion Kummerow

My guest today is Marion Kummerow, a USA Today Bestselling author who has received rave reviews from readers and critics for her novels about the German resistance during World War II. Her historical fiction explores the dark side of human history, featuring characters who face moral dilemmas, make difficult decisions, and fight for what is right. She also infuses her stories with humor and undying love, because she believes that love is what makes the world go round. Her stories are authentic and immersive, transporting readers to another time and place. She writes with the conviction that we must never forget the past, so it won’t repeat itself.

Born and raised in Germany, Marion has lived in various countries before returning to Munich with her family. After writing several non-fiction books, she felt drawn to the past and the subject of resistance to the Nazi regime. It took her years of courage and hard work to turn the true story of her grandparents Ingeborg and Hansheinrich Kummerow into a trilogy: “Love and Resistance in the Second World War”. Unrelenting is the first book in this series. Her other series include “War Girls“, “Berlin Fractured” and “Escaping the Reich“, and “German Wives“.

Bringing history to life through her books is Marion’s passion. She visits museums, travels to memorials and the locations in her books, reads original source material, and consults experts to meticulously research the historical facts and details in her novels. When she’s not writing or researching, Marion likes to travel, do yoga, and spend time with her family. She also enjoys reading books by other historical fiction authors.

You can connect with Marion via her website, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and Amazon. You can shop for all her books here.

Marion’s recent release is The Last Safe Place, a standalone novel Marion was kind enough to answer some of my questions about her writing together with her inspiration for the book.

What or who inspired you to first write? Which authors have influenced you?

Writing began for me with a family story I could not let rest. My grandparents, Ingeborg and Hansheinrich Kummerow, resisted the Nazi regime. Their courage intrigued me since I was a child, until I finally honoured their lives by putting the story to paper.

I admire Erich Maria Remarque who depicts the human cost of war in his famous anti-war novel All Quiet in the Eastern Front, and also Primo Levi, an Auschwitz survivor whose work reminds me to look closely at ordinary people and the choices that change a life.

What is the inspiration for your current book? Is there a particular theme you wished to explore?

My current novel, The Last Safe Place, is inspired by the real Operation Seven, when a small group of Jews were spirited to Switzerland by Abwehr officers who used the machinery of the regime to subvert it.

I wanted to examine conscience inside institutions, and how tiny bureaucratic acts can become lifelines. It is a story about risk, but also about the human capacity to protect one another in dangerous times.

What period of history particularly inspires or interests you? Why?

I am drawn to Germany during the Third Reich, especially the everyday texture of civilian life and the tiny pockets of resistance. It is personal because of my family, and it is urgent because memory fades when we do not tend to it.

That period lays bare how fragile democratic norms are, and how quickly compromise can harden into harm. Writing into it is my way of insisting that we must never forget, so it will not repeat itself.

What resources do you use to research your book? How long did it take to finish the novel?

I begin with primary sources. I read letters, diaries, eye witness accounts, and historic newspapers to capture voice and detail. I consult archives such as the Bundesarchiv and museum collections, and walk the streets where my characters live so I can place a doorway or a tram stop with confidence. I also lean on historians and subject experts who generously correct me. From first idea to finished novel usually takes nine to twelve months, with research and writing happening side by side until the final page.

What do you do if stuck for a word or a phrase?

When a word refuses to arrive, I leave a placeholder and keep the scene moving, because the  first draft doesn’t need to be perfect. Later I open my period dictionaries and scan contemporary sources to check how people spoke about a thing in 1943 rather than how we describe it now.

Is there anything unusual or even quirky that you would like to share about your writing?

I write best in absolute silence, thus I’m not one of the authors you’ll find happily writing away in a coffee shop, unless it is absolutely necessary.

Do you use a program like Scrivener to create your novel? Do you ever write in long hand?

I draft in Scrivener, because it lets me keep chapters, research clippings, and timelines in one place. When the structure is solid, I move the manuscript to Word to write the first draft. I usually outline on one sheet of paper in long hand, jotting down just a few words per chapter.

Is there a particular photo or piece of art that strikes a chord with you? Why?

There is a small black and white photograph of my grandmother in a sunchair against the backdrop of the Swiss alps during her honeymoon. She is young, and everything hard still lies ahead of her. It reminds me that history is carried by ordinary people who choose, one day at a time, to do what is right.

What advice would you give an aspiring author?

Write the best story you can, and build a relationship with your characters. Once your characters become your friends or enemies, you’ll feel the way they feel and can transport this to the reader.

Tell us about your next book.

I just finished a draft on a new novel in the Berlin Wife series. It’s set in the first years after the war, when cities lay in ruins. My heroine Roxy is leading a somewhat “boring” and normal life, but this all changes when she recognizes the man who commanded the camp at Belzec and she goes to the quest of bringing him to justice.

If you are new to my books, you might start with my trilogy “Love and Resistance in the Second World War” which begins with Unrelenting and is inspired by my grandparents’ story.

And if you prefer a stand-alone inspired by a daring rescue, The Last Safe Place explores Operation Seven through the eyes of German protagonists who choose conscience.

 

Inspired by the incredible true events of Operation Seven, where a handful of Jewish citizens escaped Berlin in 1942 by posing as German intelligence agents. A beautifully emotional and action-packed historical novel about a forbidden love affair, unfathomable courage and the power of never losing hope.

Leonore: An aspiring journalist, Leonore cannot believe she’s now undergoing covert training to be a German agent. Her instructors have no idea she is Jewish. With her family gone, she refuses to wear the yellow star. And this secret mission to escape Berlin is her last chance to be free…

Knut: Lieutenants Knut and Bernd have fallen in love in stolen moments. Bernd, with his warm brown eyes, is Knut’s last safe place in a regime built to hate who he is. They pretend to be loyal to their Nazi superiors. But their real mission—recruiting Jewish agents to smuggle them out of the country—has only just begun.

Michaela: As a Jewish doctor banned from practicing, the threat of deportation looms. But what about her two precious little girls, living in secret with their Aryan aunt outside Berlin? She must put all her faith in Knut and Bernd if she’s ever to see them again… with no idea if she can really trust the two softly spoken men in Nazi uniforms, posing as a German spy is her only option.

Hope forges unlikely friendships between the people of Operation Seven. But when the cover of the entire group is threatened, will they make it across the border to Switzerland in time?

Fans of The Nightingale, All the Light We Cannot See and Kate Quinn will be totally swept away.

Thanks so much Marion. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction. What an incredible story.

Connect with Marion via her website, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and Amazon. Buy her books here.

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The post On Inspiration: Interview with Marion Kummerow first appeared on Elisabeth Storrs Historical Novels.