THE BOOK FAIR

  EVEN IN

DARKNESS

Author:        Barbara Stark-Nemon

Published:   2015

Genre:          Novel

Cover:          E-Book

Pages:          327

Review:

The book encompasses the period from 1913 to 1996 and is based on the author’s family.  The novel opens before WW I and begins the life story of eighteen year old, Klare Ente, (the author’s aunt), who marries Jacob Kohler.  Although both Klare and Jacob have Jewish roots, neither the Ente nor the Kohler families share religious affiliation to Judaism.  The couple marries before Jacob‘s recruitment into WW I, where he sustains injuries for which he receives the Iron Cross.  After Hitler’s rise to power, the families continue to ignore their Jewish roots, and the anti-Jewish race laws, until the ever-restrictive laws, change their lives.  Throughout the decades, Klare maintains a close friendship with a Christian family.

 

The author presented the unwillingness of Jews to realize the danger directed towards them in Germany, (and German occupied countries), and emphasized the fact that no matter how assimilated into German culture, and estranged from Judaism, Jews were still rooted out and targeted for destruction.  It is interesting that the Ente and Kohler families were not shipped out of Berlin to Poland, where 99% of Germany’s Jews landed, but rather, were taken to Theresienstadt, Hitler’s model camp, and the only camp the Germans allowed access to rare, supervised Red Cross visits. The novel also touched upon the sister who left Germany for safety and the very different lives the sisters led.

The writing was often cumbersome.