The German Girl: A Novel

What makes this historical novel stand out are the characters who inhabit the novel. We see the themes of memory, erasure, desperation, depression, classism and denial through the eyes of pre-pubescent girls as they struggle with these issues layered over the usual adolescent confusion. The author also weaves these themes into the tapestry of characters each of whom has a different reaction to the horrors of their lives and the decisions they are forced to make as a result. It draws the readers into the emotional and psychological center of the novel and keeps us there. For me, history was a memorized set of facts imposed by my teacher. But reading good historical fiction makes those facts and dresses them with flesh and blood of humanity. Mr. Correa does an excellent job of creating characters who become more than just characters on a page. but rise to the level of recognizable people. Setting the story in two time periods also reminds us that the past is never truly divorced from the present. Given some of the realities of today's world, this narrative is also a cautionary tale. I will think of that each time another group of refugees fleeing from a repressive regime are denied entry to a land of sanctuary.

I remember when studying WWII how ashamed I was that we turned ships away. I liked the bo0k as it really showed how we goofed as a nation.

One of the saddest German/Jewish novels I have read ANd I have read alot!! Always s new perspective on that horrible time in history!

The German Girl is really a story about two girls; one, Hannah, a 12 year-old living in 1939 Berlin, the other, Anna, a 12 year-old living in 2014 New York City. Anna has never known her father, who was killed in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. So when she receives a package of old family photographs from her great-aunt Hannah, whom she’s never met, she and her mother decide to travel to Cuba where Hannah lives and investigate Anna’s father’s life. There, Anna learns of Hannah’s experience as a refugee from Nazi Germany, travelling on the ship St. Louis. The vast majority of the passengers on the St. Louis were Jewish Germans, and they were refused entry in Cuba, the United States, and Canada.Unfortunately, this book is so frustrating, because there is no emotional power to it. None. And with a subject as inherently emotional as the Holocaust, that’s disappointing. It’s not an unreadable book, but it’s unsatisfying. The writing is decent, but it is quite often inconsistent (there are frequent occurrences of the narrator expressing one thing and two sentences later, expressing the exact opposite).The biggest problem with this book is the characters. I’m not of the opinion that characters have to be likeable, but they do have to be interesting, and they do have to be developed, especially in a character-driven novel as this one is. All the characters in The German Girl are superficially developed and often strain credibility. I couldn’t care about any of them, because I couldn’t understand any of them, because I couldn’t KNOW any of them. A few examples…I didn’t understand why Alma, Hannah’s mother, felt such anger toward Cuba and nothing at all about Germany, the country that expelled her. For that matter, neither did Hannah, and that strikes me as just so odd. It’s like their expulsion only impacted them in terms of inconvenience – there was never any sense that this family was being ripped from their home. I didn’t understand why both Alma and Hannah both simply wallowed, and that makes me angry that they wallowed. Perhaps had I understood their reasoning, I would have felt more compassion for them.The “love story” between Hannah and her friend Leo. There is no romantic chemistry between the two, and why should there be? They’re 12 when this “epic love” supposedly blossoms. Their “love” was all told to the reader, not shown at all (which is true of the entire book, actually), and so not only does the relationship fall flat, it makes no sense to me that at the end, Leo is who Hannah thinks of. I just don’t buy “true love”, because I was never allowed to actually SEE Hannah’s heart.Toward the end of the book, Hannah talks a lot about the “guilt of the Rosenthals (her family)”. Well…there was no set up for this. It only came up at the end of the book, and there were never any indications that Hannah or Alma felt any sort of misplaced guilt about being Jewish, or surviving the trip on the St. Louis, surviving in Cuba…I really have no idea what guilt their family suffers from. Because, again, I was held so far away from the characters that even if guilt was implied, I couldn’t reach it.And in my view, this is all a problem that results directly from the structure and mechanics of the book. There’s a an idiom in writing – “show don’t tell”. And it’s good advice for a very good reason – showing a character by having them act, and feel, gives a deeper, more complete picture of a character than simply telling the reader that “Hannah did this, and Alma did that.” The author essentially wrote a series of summaries of events, interspersed every so often with live-action scenes. One example is a scene where Hannah apparently has an argument with her brother. Rather than showing the reader the argument, and perhaps revealing character of both, the author simply tells us “Though he raised his voice, I responded in a whisper.” Well, that’s vague. And there are so many scenes like this.I also found the parallelism of Hannah and Anna to be so heavy-handed as to be irritating. It was done to force a connection between the two rather than organically developing one.So, with some guilt because it’s hard to criticize Holocaust stories, I have to say The German Girl was a tremendous let down. Too much distance and shallow treatment for a topic that deserves depth and richness.

This novel starts off very strong in the first several sections. It delivers a taut tense insightful view of Hannah in Berlin in 1939, and Anna, her namesake in 2014. Both are 12 years old. Hannah's family is Jewish and must escape Berlin, while Anna is born after her father dies in the Twin Towers in 9/11. Hannah's family manages to get on an ill-fated ocean liner destined for Cuba. From this point on in the story, the narrative loses it's focus and sense of authenticity. All the tautness fades even in the face of Castro's takeover of Cuba. The author does not explore this theme well and the narrative limps a bit to the end. Still it's a worthwhile story, based on true events. The opening sections are riveting.

This is a fictional tale centred around Hannah, a young German Jewish girl, escaping Nazi Germany in 1939 along with almost 1,000 others on the all too factual MS St Louis.I think the tragic story of the MS St Louis is well known and, therefore, do not think there any spoilers in referring to it.Its Jewish passengers, most of whom were from Germany and were escaping oppression, abuse and inhuman treatment at the hands of the Nazis, were carrying Cuban entry visas, for which they had paid a very high price, issued by the Cuban Immigration Service, headed by the corrupt Manuel Benítez, a close associate of the head of the Cuban army, Fulgencio Batista, who went on to overthrow the Cuban government and establish himself as the dictator of Cuba, until overthrown by Fidel Castro and his rebel movement.Whilst the MS St Louis was in transit from Hamburg to Havana, the "Benítez" visas were invalidated and less than 40 of the escapees were allowed to land in Cuba; the Captain took his ship to America but the escapees were not allowed to land; then to Canada, where again the escapees were not allowed to land; eventually he returned to Europe; approximately one quarter of the escapees were taken in by Britain and survived the war; the remainder were landed in mainland Europe and died at the hands of the Nazis.Hannah, who was one of the ones landed in Cuba, survived - to say any more would present spoilers but there is a lot more to it.This is a powerful, moving, tragic story but told brilliantly.

The tragedy told in this beautifully written book is a tale of war, of brief escape, of hope of survival. All Hannah and her parents dreams and desires of a free and happy life by escaping to Cuba on The St Louis is thwarted. The rejection of these 900 or so passengers by Cuba despite having the relevant documents is so sad. After the St Louis was turned back from Havana, the souls on board - mainly German Jews fleeing for their lives were also refused entry by Canada and the States - and although eventually, taken some by France, some by Holland some by Belgium these countries, too, were overwhelmed by the Nazis and many died in concentration camps - only the 287 souls taken in by England not ending up in concentration camps too.The characterisation of Hannah and her friend Leo is good, the descriptions of prewar Berlin and the voyage are well drawn.A bond forms between Hannah in Cuba and her great niece Anna in 2014 in New York who still mourns the father she never knew who died in The Twin Towers tragedy and is the same age Hannah was when she boarded the ill fated St. Louis.In my opinion, the best part of the book is the earlier part because Hannah appears to be stuck forever unable to move forward contemplating into old age a life she could have had, should have had but never dud, her only redeeming hope vested in the one survivor to live well and be happy, Anna.So, a sad book, beautifully told; ultimately depressing. But I am glad I read it even though it was hard going at times - not because of the writing, but the content, because, truly, although fiction,fictional characters, It is based on truth. Another tragic story from a hopeless time when innocent lives were abruptly, brutally destroyed. A story that must be told. I am glad I read the book. It sadly has the ring of truth about it.

What a heart wrenching story. The parallel between Hannah and her namesake Anna between two different wars is eerily similar. I liked reading about the traits in Anna that seem to stem from Hannah. It literally broke my heart when Hannah and her mother were separated from her Papa and Leo.And for Anna to lose her dad before she ever knew him in 9-11, is tragic.I'm pleased that at the end, Hannah found some semblance of peace.I’ve read true stories on the holocaust before but this is definitely one of the best. I think it’s truly important for people to read these to never forget our history and the atrocities our countries have seen. I never knew before, the role Cuba had in WW2 and taking in refugees.I did find parts a bit slow particularly at the beginning. It sometimes felt overly descriptive in places. It picked up once it got to them boarding the ship. But it didn't stop me from enjoying the book.

This book was a real insight through the eyes of a young Jewish girl during the rise of the Nazis in Berlin. I found the style of writing really described how a young girl felt during this period and my heart went out to her. The description of the journey to Cuba on the MS St Louis was uplifting but the eventual arrival to Havana was not what I expected. What happened to the ship and passengers afterwards was heartbreaking. The book was written through the eyes of Hannah during the thirties in Berlin and in Cuba, and through the eyes of Anna whose father was reared by Hannah, but who was killed in the 911 terrorist attack in New York. I really enjoyed this book and learned about the MS St Louis. I have read the next one, The Daughter’s Tail which I can also recommend.

An enjoyable well written read. The story is like a wheel rotating its way through tragedy, irony, hope and disappointment whilst travelling along the linear metric of time. An affluent German jewish family suffer the persecution of Nazi Germany and seek escape - with hundreds of other jews - to the USA on the steam ship St Louis. Using this historical backdrop, the author weaves a narrative through the eyes of a young lass (The German Girl). The USA will not take the family and the ship diverts to Cuba, who in turn reject the majority of the jews on board but our family do manage to disembark in Cuba, where most of the family remain trapped and isolated for decades, waiting. Years later ..... well I suggest you read the book and find out. You will not be disappointed but I suspect you will be moved.