The German Wife: A Novel Paperback – June 28, 2022

A relatable account of families caught in worlds where surviving requires the unthinkable. The decisions made by both German and American characters drew this reader in and left me empathetic. This was one of the most interesting of the many historical novels I have read. Well researched and excellent character development. Kelly Rimmer did it again.

This was a confusing book for me to read at first. I almost stopped reading several times. The reviews were almost all excellent. The history seemed to be accurate but something did not ring true for me for a long time. You see, i was born in 1929 so lived through much of this time period. Although i was born in America I was old enough during the war time to know what was going in Europe. I was born in Pennsylvania so did lie awake at night waiting for the bombers to come to our shores. It was a time of uncertainly. News was not immediate as it is today. But in the aftermath we did become aware of much of the time. I lived in Pittsburgh. My Dad worked on LSTs A city just is ore aware of what is goiNg on. BUT OUR AUTHOR MADE ONE GLARING ERROR IN HER RESEARCH. HER EARLY DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE GERMAN COUPLE WAS NOT IN THE SPEECH PATTERNS AND IDIOMS OF THE DAY. NO MATTER WHAT COUNTRY IN WHICH THEY RESIDED. I LIVED IN GERMANY AFTER THE WAR WHEN MY HUSBAND WAS A VISITING PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH. EVEN THEN PEOPLE WERE NOT YET CONNECTED ENOUGH TO ADOPT OTHER PATTERNS OF SPEECH. DURING THE WAR EDUCATED GERMANS SPOKE HIGH GERMAN, PROPER GERMAN. IN KELLY RIMMER'S BOOK MANY OF THE CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN SOPHIE AND HER HUSBAND SOUNDED AS IF THEY WERE TRANSLATED FROM ENGLISH IN OUR MODERN DAY IDIOMS. ONE BLATANT REMARK WAS THAT SOMEONE HAD A "FULL PLATE". TODAY IT MEANS ONE HAS TOO MUCH TO HANDLE. TOO MANY WORRIES, CONCERNS OR RESPONSIBILITIES. THEN I BELIEVE IT WOULD HAVE MEANT THAT ONE HAD MORE FOOD ON THEIR PLATE THAN ONE COULD EAT.. IT MADE E SHIVER EVERY TIME I READ SUCH INSERTION OF MODERN DAY SPEECH PATTERNS IN THE WRONG ERA OF HISTORY. PERHAPS MS RIMMER DID NOT KNOW ANYONE IN THEIR 90S WHO HAD LIVED THROUGH THAT TIME SPAN. BUT THEN SHE SOMEHOW RESEARCHED HIISTORICAL RECORDS TO CORRECT THE HISTORY. IT WAS UNNERVING TO READ AND I ALMOST STOPPED THE BOOK. BUT THEN IT HAD RECEIVED SO MUCH PRAISE FROM REVIEWERS AND READRS AND EDITORS. HAD NOT ONE OVER THE AGE OF 90 READ THE BOOK?I DID CONTINUE THE STORY. IT WAS A WELL PLANNED OUT PLOT. BUT I JUST WANT THE AUTHOR TO KNOW THAT HER HABIT OF TALKING LIKE A LATE 20TH AND EARLY 21ST CENTURY YOUNG PERSON DURING WWII WAS AN OBVIOUS ERROR TO ANY WHO HAD BEEN THERE. OTHER AUTHORS HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GO TO THE PAST IN A PLOT AND SOME HOW USE DIALOGUE FROM THE TIME PERIOD. I HOPE THIS GIVES HER INCENTIVE TO BETTER TRANSLATION OF CASUAL CONVERSATION IN THE TIME PERIOD BEFORE TELEVISION AND THE DIGITAL AGE. Thank you. I have thought a long time about this.

This book gives both sides to the WW2 war. It tells of close friends who disagree with what went on. How many Germans had to work even though they didn’t want to for fear of their families’ safety. It tells of the fear of Americans when the Germans were brought over. The prejudice that went on. Highly recommend.

The German Wife by Kelly Rimmer is an amazing story, which the author reveals to the reader by way of two women: Sophie von Meyers Rhodes, the German wife, from Berlin, Germany, and Lizzie Davis, an American from Dallam County, Texas. Rimmer does a wonderful job juxtaposing the lives of the two women through the turbulent years, leading up to and beyond World War Two. Rimmer will elucidate and explain how the Third Reich came into power, and the gradual change in the laws that led to violence and the persecution of the Jews. What is significant here is how the war and the policies and ideology of the Nazis affected the personal lives of the characters: Sofie von Meyer Rhodes, Jurgen, her husband, Adele, her aunt, Mayim, her childhood Jewish girlfriend, her children: Georg, Laura, Gisela, and Felix. And then there is Lizzie Davis and her family, her mother and father and her brother, Henry, and the millions of innocent people touched by war. No one can evade the agony of war, not even Karl and Lydia zu Schiller, and their son, Hans, devoted Nazis to the very end. You will come to realize that hate and war destroy everything it touches. This profound story reminded me of a line that I once read that said, “If you hate someone and or want revenge against someone, don’t forget to dig two graves. One for your victim and one for yourself.” Because hate and war will destroy you. Rimmer’s story is beautifully written and provocative. It will make you stop to think just how could we have allowed this tragedy to happen? How could we have stopped it before it got out of hand? What could I have done to prevent it? We know from experience and from history that standing idly by is not the answer. The story is bittersweet. It will not only bring you to tears, but it concludes in the only practical way that is possible: It will allow people to move forward (those who have survived) and to begin a new chapter in their lives, one without hate, one without war. Thus, I highly recommend this book to all readers.

As i read how Germany formed to Nazi, my heart and mind kept jumping to the current state of America. Sometimes, i just had to put the book down for awhile.But the story became a more personal and uplifting story of two survivors trying to fit in to their new life and neighbors in Texas.We have to fight to save our country!

Once I started reading, I could not put the book down. Rimmer did an amazing job at writing how it must have felt being an ordinary citizen trapped in Nazi Germany with no way to escape the advance of Nazism and the moral compromise some people made to keep their families alive. It presents the question what would you have done perfectly, and where was the line drawn for ordinary citizens, the dilemma of survival vs guilt and I would recommend this read

Wonderfully developed characters. Her insight on their motivations was superb. Her depiction of how a country could be taken over by deceit and propaganda resulting in changing an entire population into parroting believers was frightening.Very good writing.

The paper clip project was something I’d never heard of. It was such an interesting way to introduce what people went through in Germany during World War II.