The Birthday King: A Romance"Our fortunes are with Greater Germany". We must survive the crisis with "discretion and foresight" -- this remark, by one of the characters in Gabriel Fielding's implacable, impressive novel of inside Hitler's Germany explains the spiritual metabolism of a great many of those who temporized and compromised in the touchy business of material self-interest and physical self-preservation. They are certainly as guilty as those that stoked the fires of the crematoria. Prominent here are the Weidmanns, an industrialist family of sufficient prestige to avoid the taint of their Jewish blood lines, thinned by intermarriage, and their old friends, the von Hoffbachs, who play the social game in Berlin with the Hitler hierarchy. Most of the characters pursue an expedient course but particularly Ruprecht Weidmann, the younger of two sons anxious to get his hands on the family factories, while Alfred, the older, with a strong religious drift, needs to resolve his own spiritual and political convictions. Thus he is an easy victim for Rupecht's betrayal which leads to a more comfortable internment first and then the horrors observed in an extermination camp. It is an admirable book, a forceful illumination and considered indictment of the "innocent malevolence" of the Germans and there are scenes and characters of depth as well as sharpness. To be read (reluctantly by some) and remembered, but perhaps less likely to appeal than the Greenbloom cycle."--Kirkus |
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Alexandra Alfried Alfried's asked Baronin bedroom beneath Bergedorf Berlin beside better birthday king brother camp Carin coffee Colonel course dear door East Prussia everything eyes face factory father feel fingers Frau de Luce Frau Grunwald Frau Weidmann Fräulein von Boehling front Führer Führerbunker German Gestapo girl going Gudrun Halstedt hand heard Herr Baron Herr Goebbels Herr Weidmann Hoffbach Hubertus Jews kissed Kommandant Kommandant's laughed leave Liebling light Lillesand looked Luftwaffe Luthmann Mama mind minutes morning mother moved never Nicholas night Onkel Fritz paused perhaps Pohl prayed precht prison Rastenburg realize remember round Ruprecht Schönform silent smiled someone stairs stood sure talk tell there's things thought tion told took trousers turned waiting walked watch Wehrmacht Weid What's wife Wilhelmina window Wolfsschanze worry young