In my last post I wrote about the significance of Homer’s Odyssey and why it was making a comeback in a huge way through Hollywood film making. For close to the last decade another subject from history has also had me questioning significance: World War II historical fiction.
Several years ago the monthly bookclub I attend was reading a novel titled Sarah’s Key. While it’s been a long time since that read, I do recall it being centered around a mystery from WWII. I won’t plot spoil what I do remember, but suffice to say it was set in France and dealt with the hiding of Jewish people during the war. While it was incredibly frustrating and deeply saddening to read what was based on true life events, this book led us down a path that still continues today: reading works based in this time period. What keeps us reading and why are books with this theming still written and published in 2026?
I believe to a degree everyone has a sense that history tends to repeat itself and many horrors of the past should be learned from and never see the light of day again. So many lessons could be learned just from the experience of the Holocaust. I don’t presume to have adequate words to discuss how terrible a stain on humanity this period of history is, but many authors have attempted to shed light on these atrocities. I did have the opportunity two years ago to visit the Dachau concentration camp. Seeing the physical remains put into perspective the words I had read both in fiction and in historical sources. It is a real place, as are a startlingly high number of other camps across Europe, even if they are not still standing. The first building we went into contained a large map of these camps and I was surprised at how little we really have heard about their magnitude and existence. One topic that was reiterated over our time in Germany, from Munich to Berlin, was how much the German people have owned their role as a country and as individuals. They teach and show openly in their cities what happened with the desire to not ever be culpable in such horrors again. There is a lesson we can learn from that.
Much of the historical fiction being written strives to cover as much true material as possible. There are biases, of course, but enough novels and settings are covered that a fuller picture is there if one takes the time to read for it. As someone of strong German descent I have struggled at times with my heritage, but through reading I have also seen that a country’s entire identity cannot be boiled down to one or more groups or individuals. I first read, then taught, The Book Thief to my tenth graders for a few years. Here amidst the events of Kristallnacht, book burning, Hitler Youth, a march to Dachau, and others, we find families trying to resist and help their fellow neighbors and colleagues who are Jewish. This theme is evident in many of the works I’ve read since.
In preparation for a recent trip to Florence, Italy, I picked up a book based on the work of the Monuments Men (and women) who were tasked with protecting and recovering art during and after the war. This led me down a rabbit hole of reading several works on the subject and they repeatedly raised the question of whether this protection was worth human lives. The resounding answer was yes. Art, and architecture, are just as much a vital part of history as humanity. Much of art is evidence of the best of humanity, of our desire for beauty and also our capacity to create. At the risk of sounding trite, a picture is often worth a thousand words, as are sculptures and buildings. The great works that have stood the test of time give us hope for what lasts beyond our limited life spans. In the words of J.R.R. Tolkien, through the voice of Samwise Gamgee, “There is some good in the world. And it’s worth fighting for.”
In America we have to go back many generations to find a war fought on our home soil, against a foreign enemy. Yes, the attacks of 9/11 struck at home, and certainly I don’t mean to lessen that terrible act of terrorism, but these were very limited in scope to wars lasting years and years. We haven’t felt the strains of occupation by a foreign power: watching friends, family, and neighbors losing their jobs, homes, and lives in large numbers. We haven’t had to live on rations, lining up in hopes of getting a small portion of what our weekly grocery trip used to provide. We haven’t had to hunker down in cellars while air raid sirens blare praying that when we later emerged our homes would still be standing and our loved ones wouldn’t be buried under rubble. Hopefully reading these works gives us perspective and remind us to appreciate all that we have, and recognize that there are parts of the world today struggling still with war and the horrors it entails.
Recommended Reads:
The Nightingale – Kristin Hannah
All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr
Beneath a Scarlet Sky – Mark Sullivan
The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
Code Name Hélène – Ariel Lawson
The Last Masterpiece – Laura Morelli
The Alice Network – Kate Quinn (or really anything by Kate Quinn)
Sarah’s Key – Tatiana de Rosnay
Girl with Dog 