I know that this series was ground breaking in showing the Holocaust in its brutality. Therefore, the book is more important then my review indicates.
Reading this book today, I have to wonder, why the women seemed to be blamed for so much in this book. The Nazi is pushed into serving Heydrich by his wife, the Jewish family stays because the wife wants to. When the women are not to blame, they are for the most part weaker than the men - crying and sobbing over the men more than once. I know that the purpose is to show as much as the Holocaust experience as possible, I just wish the female characters had been a bit more varied. The strong women are not given as much space (and one strong woman is blamed for her family staying), and one woman is only mentioned in passing. The book limits the roles of women to supporters of their husbands (and getting raped to save their husbands) to victims of sexual violence. That's it. I wanted more.
Still the writing has vigor and is engrossing.
4
