Those Who Save Us

Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I have been holding off on this review for quite some time now. I read this a few months ago, and I just wasn't ready to say what I thought. Because, quite frankly, I didn't know what to think of it. My supposition as to why is this: I cannot honestly tell if the author wanted me to feel sorry for the two central characters, a mother and her daughter who survive World War II and then escape Germany. But in the end, I did not.

The story is not typical of World War II survivor tales. Instead of looking at the war from the perspective of a Jewish protagonist, the story focuses on a German woman, Anna, who only wants to save her child, Trudy, from the atrocities of war and from the Nazi regime. She would do anything to keep her alive, including engaging in a brutal relationship with the horrid Obersturmfuhrer, a high ranking Nazi officer. Blum does not hold back when describing the details of their affair, and I think it might have been what disturbed me most about this story. Of course, it should be disturbing. And I would have little to no judgment for a woman trying to survive in such a time, especially a woman who is trying to save her child. But Anna was really hard to even sympathize with, and so I was not sure how I should feel about her.

When we first meet Anna, she is engaging in a romance with a Jewish doctor. They never marry, and unfortunately he falls victim to the concentration camps. Trudy is the doctor's daughter. This is where my confusion started. I could not tell if Anna ever loved the doctor. She chased him, and he clearly tried to repel her advances, at least at first, because he knew it was dangerous for a young, beautiful German woman to fall for a Jew. But then he gives in, and their relationship is what leads to his capture. The real problem I had was that Blum described their sexual liaisons in a way that seemed violent. It almost seemed like it was something Anna endured, and frankly, I tried to skip those scenes. I'm never really comfortable with graphic depictions of sex, but this really bothered me as the novel went on because I couldn't feel bad for Anna. I don't think she ever really loved the doctor. At least, I don't feel like Blum effectively conveyed that to the reader, even if she does seem to mourn his loss. Because of those scenes, I felt like they had a very lustful relationship instead of a true connection based on respect and concern for one another. Maybe others got something different from their relationship. But it just didn't seem healthy or happy.

As the story progresses, and Anna is doing all she can to save her daughter's life, she engages in an affair with a Nazi official. He makes it clear that either she engages or there will be trouble. In return, Anna is able to feed and take care of her daughter. The town takes notice, however, and the people seem to disdain her behavior. I have to admit that I did, too. And it isn't so much that she engaged in the affair. I understand why she did. However, the depictions of their relationship were also graphic and violent, and yet she seemed to connect with the Obersturmfuhrer. I almost felt like she was strangely falling in love with him. Maybe it was Stockholm Syndrome? Yet he was such a despicable human being. I don't know if that was Blum's intention, but it was written is such a way that I almost wanted to blame Anna for the affair.

What further confused me is Anna risking her life to take bread to the captives in the Buchenwald concentration camp. I think Blum wanted the reader to see that Anna was a good woman who wanted to do her part in helping the Jews. But everything about her actions seemed cold and calculating, so rather than helping me to feel sympathy, I felt like what she was doing wasn't in keeping with her character. Instead it felt forced - like Blum was trying too hard to turn Anna into a more compassionate person. I just wasn't buying it.

Of course, none of my feelings about Anna and her coldness were helped by Blum's depiction of her after the war was over and she lived in America. Anna ends up marrying and migrating after she meets a U.S. soldier. She hides her past life from everyone. She is treated coldly by her American counterparts. The women in middle America refuse to accept her. I think Blum wanted us to believe that it was because she was a German, the enemy. But I thought the women didn't like her because she was distant. She did nothing to develop relationships with anyone. She kept to herself. She was even distant and cold with her own daughter. So that only made me dislike her more.

And that brings me to Trudy. I really had a hard time with Trudy. She wants to know what happened in Germany. And for a long time, she believes her father is the Obersturmfuhrer. But I thought Trudy was whiny and childish. This is a grown woman. And yet she cannot confront her mother or face her own indecisiveness when it comes to men. Again, I think Blum wanted me to feel something for Trudy, but I could not. Her inability to act, her selfishness, her complaints, all of it got to me. I wanted to scream out, "Pick up the pieces and get on with your life, for the love of all that is good and holy!" It just really bothered me. I have little patience for playing the victim. but it felt like Trudy wanted to play the victim.

In the end, I think Blum wanted to create a story about two sympathetic woman who were trying to overcome their painful history. But I felt no sympathy. Rather, I felt abhorrence and disgust. Blum isn't a bad writer; however, the book missed the mark for me. I wanted to feel something closer to empathy, but I just could not.


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