What is going through the mind of a war criminal, tried by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg? Regret for his atrocious actions? Frantic desire to defend himself to the end? Desperate longing to be forgiven by his former enemies or craving of human kindness, even though he knows that he doesn’t deserve any… And the strongest of all, the fear to never again see the one, who he risked … risked everything for, the only woman that he still continues to live for.
All this is only the tip of the iceberg in the myriad of emotions for Ernst, former leader of the Austrian SS incarcerated in Nuremberg prison, who already knows what fate awaits him. Day after day he recollects his life, trying to understand where he made that wrong turn that changed his whole life and brought him into service of his new masters, who soon dragged his whole country into the most blood-shedding war in history. With agonizing sincerity he analyzes his past, which made him, a former promising lawyer, into a weapon of mass murder in the hands of his new leaders.
Self-loathing and torturous doubts are plaguing Ernst’s mind, which together with unwanted hopes for salvation, terrifying visions of the nearing end, and ghosts from the past turn his incarceration into a never-ending nightmare. And yet, at the very edge of the abyss, he’s still clinging to life, because a woman is waiting for him, a woman, whose secret he’s still carefully guarding, and the one who he still hopes to see…
Reviewed By Sarah Stuart for Readers’ Favorite
The Austrian: A War Criminal’s Story by Ellie Midwood opens with a short prologue entitled “Nuremberg prison, October 1946.” Ernst Kaltenbrunner, a former leader of the Austrian SS, has been tried by the International Military Tribunal and sentenced to hang. He is preparing to meet his death, ten minutes ahead, with dignity. The chapters that follow recount the events that led to his trial and the verdict. The author has based this novel not only on actual historical events, but has fictionalized many of the main characters who lived and fought for the Third Reich, such as Ernst Kaltenbrunner himself, Martin Bormann, Adolph Hitler’s private secretary, and Heinrich Muller, the Chief of the Gestapo.
Ellie Midwood’s historical novel, The Austrian: A War Criminal’s Story, has a prologue that features the last ten minutes of Ernst Kaltenbrunner’s life. It seemed an unlikely start to the story, but the drama had me gripped instantly. The secret lies in the sixteen chapters being sub-divided into sections, each with the place and date stated. This makes it incredibly easy to follow a book written almost entirely in flashbacks. Some of them are set in the years immediately prior to WW2; others recount Ernst’s earliest childhood memories, including the departure of his father to fight in WW1. Still more show him growing to adulthood and his love life, his first interest being a girl with golden hair who is actually a Jewess. Well-written and researched, the whole book is vivid and intriguing. I recommend it to anyone, whether or not they have a special interest in war stories.
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Whenever I read historical fiction I tend to look for several aspects: well-drawn characters, an absorbing plot, and the opportunity to learn new historical facts. With Ms. Midwood’s book, I certainly was not disappointed; she delivered all of these components with a punch! From the very first chapter, where its 1946 Nuremburg prison backdrop and the main character, Ernst Klantenbrünner, having received his sentence to hang, literally falls to his death, I was hooked! Where was she going to go from there? I wondered.
I soon found out. Using a peel-the-onion-back-slowly technique, the author very cleverly shows us, step by step, how and why this man became the man he was, and how he got to the place where he ended up. We travel to his innocent childhood in Austria, where his harsh, domineering, anti-Semitic father rendered him vulnerable as well as planted the seeds of prejudice. Back to his Nuremburg cell we travel, where he discusses his life’s journey to a sympathetic American psychiatrist. Once again, the onion peels back to his first foray into sex, coupled with passionate college students welcoming him into an earlier version of Hitler’s National Socialist Party, thus seguing into the famous Beer Hall Putsch event. As the book continues to go back and forth, the love of his life emerges, a married woman who isn’t who she seems (the author carefully explains how she is fictionalized at the back of the book). However, real associates do filter in and out, such as Himmler, Ribbentrop, Heydrich, Göring and Albert Speer, all contributing to the tough psyche Klantenbrünner has so developed so completely––a psyche he ultimately regrets.
As I turned the pages, I became Wikipedia’s new best friend, constantly looking up German organizations and the aforementioned people, and because Midwood’s research was so extensive, my enlightenment quadrupled. Yet, to me, all of this comes with a caveat. The more I discovered about the actual participants of this horrendous time, the more convinced I became that they were simply monsters. Recommend this book? Yes, definitely, because not only was this story extremely well told, I believe it’s an important narrative that should never be forgotten.
First off, before you read this book, make sure to read all three of The Girl from Berlin books. If you don’t, you’ll probably be very confused during this book and not enjoy it. Overall, I thought this book was fantastic and if you loved The Girl From Berlin series, this book is a definite must read. It doesn’t have the same suspense and tension as in the three The Girl from Berlin books, which I why I only gave it four stars, but it is still really good. It’s also interesting to see the story from Ernst Kaltenbrunner’s eyes and why he made the decisions that he did. While the portrayal of Kaltenbrunner in this book may be seen as controversial, I think Ms. Midwood did an excellent job demonstrating how someone can be changed by their society and hateful rhetoric. This book definitely made me think and I would highly recommend it to anyone.
This is a book that what keep you thinking and asking yourself questions. I kept thinking that humanity hasn’t learnt anything from WWII. At one point one of the prisoners tells the prison guards that something like this can also happen in the US. It is an eerie but right speech.
This book tries the answers the question of how a normal guy became a high ranking member of the SS. Is there a specific moment where everything changes or was it just pure luck and what happens when you get in to deep?. The book switches from the Nuremberg trials to Ernst’s his childhood to his climb up the ladder. Does he regret his choices?
It is a fascinated story.