A Goodreads user asked Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch:

I recently used Making Bombs For Hitler for a jr book club activity with some bright/gifted 5th graders. We had one student who disliked the book because he felt it was extremely biased against the German people in general. The rest of us didn't see that as your intent. We thought you were merely presenting the POV of prisoners shaped by their personal experiences. How would you address this one student's view? Thanks

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch Hi Kate,

Thanks for your question. It's pretty difficult to write a book set in a Nazi slave labor camp that shows Germans in a 100% positive light, but I tried my darnedest to include incidents. For example, when Lida is liberated by the Americans and she is allowed to go into that German woman's home to take food, the reader sees that this German woman has suffered greatly from the war. She has very little food and her son was killed in the war.

We also see that Lida's initial impression of her was wrong. Remember when she first sees the woman, looking out through her lace curtain? Lida is judging the woman. In the later scene, when Lida opens the door and is on the other side of the lace curtain, she has a truer picture of what this woman had to suffer during the war. Certainly, the woman's suffering was not on the same magnitude of Lida's, but this woman was also a victim of Hitler.

These paired scenes are intentional: we cannot judge another person's circumstances based on appearance or first impressions.

Also, the food that the Polish slave laborers get from German farmers on weekends helps Lida and her friends survive.

And if you look at Inge, you see that she starts out treating Lida poorly but does warm up to her. Had she stayed in the laundry, one suspects Inge would have protected her. But you also see the results of the special treatment. Is Inge also punished for not treating Lida harshly like she was supposed to? We can only surmise. Lida is punished for that special treatment.

Germans of the time were subjected to massive propaganda campaigns that depicted Jews and Slavs and other non-Aryans as not-human. Regular Germans also benefited materially during the war -- they were given better food, better houses, slaves for their farms etc. That was also part of Hitler's propaganda campaign.

I think it's important to acknowledge that this happened. If we don't acknowledge it, we are at risk of repeating it.

I did exhaustive research for this book. In addition to accessing first person accounts of slave laborers, I also used first person accounts of Germans of the time -- diaries and memoirs -- of civilians, children, camp guards, military.

Also, if you look at the world today, Germany stands out as a compassionate, forward thinking nation. This has nearly always been the case except for the brief destructive madness of Hitler's years. We are all German in this way -- essentially good -- but at risk of becoming hateful if we deny the humanity of our fellow human beings.

Hope this illuminates.
Marsha

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