The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa

Author : Armando Lucas Correa
Title : The German Girl
Published : 2016
Publisher : Simon & Schuster UK
Pages : 369
Genre : Historical Fiction

     Before everything changed, Hannah Rosenthal lived a charmed life. But now the streets of Berlin are draped in swastikas and Hannah is no longer welcome in the places she once considered home. A glimmer of hope appears in the shape of the St Louis, a transatlantic liner that promises Jews safe passage to Cuba. The Rosenthals sell everything to fund visas and tickets. At first, the liner feels like a luxury, but as they travel the circumstances of war change, and it soon becomes their prison. Seven decades later in New York, on her twelfth birthday Anna Rosen receives a package from Hannah, the great-aunt she never met but who raised her deceased father. Anna and her mother immediately travel to Cuba to meet this elderly relative, and for the first time, Hannah tells them the untold story of her voyage on the St Louis.

     I have once again returned to the world of the Holocaust and historical fiction. While I have read a great deal on the subject both real and fiction, I keep finding new stories that bring me back into this world. They are never easy reads and nor should they be. And when I come to the end of each one I think to myself that I am done with this topic They leave me feeling drained, but with that said I fell like learn a great deal from them. When I came across this book It felt like I was learning something completely new that took place. Everything up until this point was always about the fate of those who stated be it through choice or by having no means of escape. But I was aware that for some lucky few they did find a way to leave before things got really bad. It is however not a story of roses and light for them. What had been promised to them turned out to be a ghost, a wish that was torn to shreds by those in power around the globe.

     This author starts out following familiar tropes, as the violence towards jew escalated. How bit by bit their freedoms were stripped from them and their lives crumbled before there eyes.  They are always heartbreaking to read. And in the times we live in an all too worrying possibility to repeat themselves. But it is here that the narrative takes a hard right turn. To witness the hope of this family, with their thoughts of freedom coming in to clear view. One simple boat journey could take them away from the horrors to come. I suppose its s they say nothing can kill you quicker than hope. What do you do when you arrive at what is supposed to be a paradise to be informed that it will not be given to you. For Hannah, she has to deal with all these emotions all the while coming of age trapped aboard a boat.  In some ways, it has a small twitch that reminds me of reading the diary of Anne Frank. It is the tale of brave young women trying to come to terms with things way out of there control. 

    But here's the twist we also get to spend time in the present with Hannah's great-niece. Also, women trying to come to terms with great loss in her life. These to work as bookends on lives that where pushed to breaking point and dealt an unfair hand by things out of there control. I enjoyed spending time with both these women for many of these same reasons the mirror each other. And when I was done I came to have great respect for each of them. This is a story of people trying to figure out there a place in this crazy world. And while the tension of other similar books is lessened by the knowledge that Hannah must survive in order for the story to make sense it is no less tense. I felt I was completely wrapped up in the story and their individual fights for freedom and the truth. 

     I once again found a new light to be shone on such terrible events of the past. And while this is a fictional story it is best to remember these boats to freedom were a real thing and their fates were no less tragic. This author gave me everything I was looking for in this book.  It is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. He chapters these women's complicated lives and emotions and gave me more than anything a story oh hope.