Drawing on the true story of the White Rose—the resistance movement of young Germans against the Nazi regime—The Traitor tells of one woman who offers her life in the ultimate battle against tyranny, during one of history’s darkest hours. In the summer of 1942, as war rages across Europe, a series of anonymous leaflets appears around the University of Munich, speaking out against escalating Nazi … speaking out against escalating Nazi atrocities. The leaflets are hidden in public places, or mailed to addresses selected at random from the phone book. Natalya Petrovich, a student, knows who is behind the leaflets—a secret group called the White Rose, led by siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friends.
As a volunteer nurse on the Russian front, Natalya witnessed the horrors of war first-hand. She willingly enters the White Rose’s circle, where every hushed conversation, every small act of dissent could mean imprisonment or death at the hands of an infuriated Gestapo. Natalya risks everything alongside her friends, hoping the power of words will encourage others to resist. But even among those she trusts most, there is no guarantee of safety—and when danger strikes, she must take an extraordinary gamble in her own personal struggle to survive.
Praise for V.S. Alexander’s The Irishman’s Daughter
“Accompanied by an expertly rendered plot, bold and empathetic characters, and prose that jumps off the page, this tale will particularly satisfy fans of historicals and those looking for stories about the redeeming grace of faith and hard work.”
—Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
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Natalya Petrovich is a German citizen of Russian origins struggling to keep herself and her parents safe in Nazi Germany. So horrified by the Nazi regime, however, Natalya can’t help but fight against it by joining the White Rose, a nonviolent resistence movement. This leads Natalya deeper into the horrors of Hitler’s Third Reich, often with little hope of surviving. But she has made her choice: to actively bring about change rather than hide from the truth. Throughout her ordeal, Natalya maintains the resiliency and courage of someone desperate to see sanity and hope restored to her world. Through superb research and extraordinary storytelling, the author brings us along on Natalya’s journey as through we’re beside her every step of the way.
This isn’t my normal genre of reading so when I picked it up to read it I was reluctant but then it started and I enjoyed it.
This story shows us the horrors of world war II from a German womans perspective.
It was heartbreaking reading about the things that happened and all the emotions were raw.
This book isn’t for everyone but I recommend it if you like reading about the war and history.
The Traitor by V. S. Alexander is historical fiction story of a young woman‘s life that is based on facts set in Nazi Germany 1942 through 1949. It describes small group resistance to evil and how she and other members of various groups including the famous White Rose made a difference. Harrowing details and experiences most could never imagine. The Traitor is written with characters who come alive to the reader. Alexander’s book reads like a true story because of the authors extensive research, study and understanding of those who were a part of the resistance and historical documents. This important book helps us to remember the brave people who fought the evil of that was the National Socialist Party.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I appreciate the opportunity and thank the author and publisher for allowing me to read, enjoy and review this book. 5 Stars
This intriguing new novel by V.S. Alexander gives the reader a look at the horrors of World War II from another perspective – those of Natalya Petrovich. Natalya is a German citizen, lives in Munich and is a student at the University. She was born in Russia but her parents moved to Munich when she was very young to have a better life. She sees the cruelty of the war when she volunteers to work as a nurse at the Russian front. When she returns to Munich, she vows to try to make a difference. When her best friend asks her to join a small resistance group called the White Rose, she knows that being part of the group could lead to her death but she is determined to take the chance if she can make a difference. Natalya risks her life and the lives of her parents hoping that her words and actions will encourage other people to resist what is happening in Germany. Will her gamble pay off and will she be able to make a difference or is the White Rose group destined to failure? As the Nazi hierarchy of Munich searches for the members of the group, Natalya’s hopes for survival diminish and she must take an extraordinary gamble in her own personal struggle to survive.
The plot of the novel is intriguing and suspenseful. I flew through the pages to find out what would happen to Natalya and the other members of the White Rose. I will admit to some tears during the story but the overwhelming feeling was the strength and resilience of many of the German citizens.
Note: Be sure to read the author’s notes at the end of the book to find out about the White Rose resistance group in Germany. Many of the characters in the novel are based on real people and the author did extensive research to learn more about the real people in the group and made an effort to ‘marry fiction with history’.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review. All opinions are my own.
Resist the only way we can
The Traitor is a fiction novel based on the true story of “The White Rose” a resistance group formed by College Students Hans and Sophia Scholl and their college friends. The main character is a friend and a member of the group Natalya, her friend Lisa and the villain is a boy named Garrick who pretends to like Natalya in order to infiltrate the group. He is really a Gestapo agent.
The White Rose group really existed and Hans and Sophia Scholl were the leaders. There were many members of this group. The group made flyers against Hitler and distributed them throughout Germany telling the people of the horrible things Hitler was doing. They also wrote messages in paint like Down with Hitler and Hitler is a murderer, drew swastikas’ on buildings and put a red X through them.
Many of the members were caught and murdered with the guillotine by the Nazi’s.
In the story Natalya’s life was spared and she was sent to prison on the word by Garrick that she would spy for them in prison and help them catch other resistance members. She never did.
his is the story of Natalya through her association with the White Rose, imprisonment, time in the asylum where Garrick had her sent trying to catch other resistance members to the escape from the asylum and a safe house to her meeting with her future husband Manfred and work at a POW camp.
It is the story of how she survived, her family, her cat named Katz and that of her friends.
The book is a story of Patriotism, Resistance in the face of death, love of family, a lot of courage and a great ending. The book kept me reading until wee hours in the morning. I would definitely recommend it.
Thanks to V.S. Alexander, Harper Collins UK One More Chapter, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of the book for an honest review.
A bit of an intense book of surviving WW2. I didn’t realize it was based on some actual people and events. I enjoyed the story and the main character. I couldn’t help but feel I have read several other books just like this one. Thanks to Netgalley for the early copy
historical-fiction, historical-places-events, historical-figures, germany, resistance-efforts, danger, historical-research, ww2
This book dresses some ugly history in the finery of fiction. That’s a good thing.
Natalya stands as the everywoman of the German peaceful resistance known as the White Rose of underground defiance of the Nazis. Her family fled the predations of Russia coming to Germany and becoming citizens, but it all went from bad to worse as the Reich rose in strength and cruelty. She undertook hazardous tasks, tried to comfort the despair of others, and even found time for a little romance. The characters and their situations are all too believable as are the lessons from the past. The book is very moving.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Kensington Books via NetGalley. Thank you!
This is a beautiful, well researched novel by #V. S. Alexander, about an area of resistance that I was unaware of. Based on real resisters and a group called White Rose, that operated under great risk, in an attempt to bring truth to the German people.
Natalya is a Russian born German citizen, living in Munich during WWII with her parents. As they struggle to survive and stay under the Nazi’s radar, Natalya is pursued by a handsome German that she finds attractive, but she is leery of his motives, and is conflicted by her attraction to him. She joins up with White Rose to spread propaganda and brings danger into all of their lives.
This the story of the brave men and women, risking their lives to fight the enemy. It shares their stories of hunger, loss, despair and the risk they faced, as everyone comes under suspicion and danger. It’s a testimony to those that fought, struggled and died, to save their country.
My thanks to #NetGalley #KensingtonPublishing for my ARC. All comments are my own, and it’s definitely a five star effort.
I liked that it was based on true, historical facts. Seeing what the main characters went through then makes going this current Covid pandemic seem trivial!
Always Inspiring when people stand Up against evil
It was so good, reminds everyone who reads it of the horror of WW2. I could not stop talking about it
What an amazing historical fiction story about the White Rose resistance group during WWII. I was not familiar with this particular aspect of history and am grateful to the author for sharing such an emotional story of bravery, fear, determination, relationships, and love.
I continue to be amazed at the strength, bravery, and resilience individuals displayed during the atrocities of the Nazi regime.
You will be waffling whether or not to believe who is telling the truth, and you will find yourself gasping as revelations are made. My words cannot do justice to the horrors the characters experienced. Their efforts and willingness to face such evil without flinching is beyond admirable.
V. S. Alexander weaves a tale that will have you invested in the lives of the White Rose resistance. His words create a vortex that draws you in and will have you flipping through the pages as fast as you can. You will not be able to put the book down until you’ve read the last word and closed the book with reverence. This book will stay with you long after you’ve finished.
Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to read such a wonderful book and can’t wait for the author’s next book to readers.
As war rages across Europe, a series of anonymous leaflets, criticizing the brutal Nazi regime, appear on the streets of Germany. Their message, written in secret, is a daring act of defiance.
Natalya Petrovich, a student, knows more than she should. As a member of the secret resistance group, the White Rose, Natalya is risking everything.
But even among those she trusts most, there is no guarantee of safety. The Gestapo are everywhere and Natalya knows that falling into the hands of the secret police means torture–and almost certain death.
At times harrowing, at times uplifting I found this to be an intriguing, compelling read. It started slowly with Natalya not joining the White Rose until about a fifth of the way through. I didn’t love Natalya but did admire her. I loved the mix of fact & fiction & loved the amount of research that had gone into the book to marry the two. Not a comfortable read but it had me often at the edge of my seat
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read
Stories about World War II have always fascinated me, especially those that are based in fact and tell the stories of ordinary people forced into extraordinary circumstances. Sometimes it seems like it was all of Europe. The Traitor by V. S. Alexander fits right into that category and I enjoyed it very much.
Natalya Petrovich is just a student when things begin to get ominous in Germany. Her family comes from Russia but they have done their best to assimilate themselves into the German culture. However, as Natalya and her family – and many, many others – soon find out, assimilation for all isn’t part of the Master Plan. Purges and concentration camps appear, and many Germans just don’t understand how this can be and resolve to try to do something about it.
Natalya joins the White Rose, the resistance movement of young Germans against the Nazi regime. Her job is to participate in writing and distributing a series of anonymous leaflets hidden in public places or mailed to addresses selected at random from the phone book denouncing the Nazi regime. Author Alexander does an excellent job of portraying the fear and danger, the dedication, the loss of friends and the betrayal of others.
Thanks to One More Chapter Books Harper Collins for providing an advance copy of The Traitor via NetGalley for my honest review. I enjoyed it and recommend it. All opinions are my own.
I was a bit disappointed in this book. The first half of the book dragged on and I honestly pushed myself to continue reading it. I stopped for a while then picked it up again. I still had to force myself to continue reading. I do not like to give up on a book and not finish it. I always have the hope that the story will improve and I will find that I liked it in the end.
I was at 51% read on my Kindle when the story finally took a turn and started becoming interesting to me. The second half of the book almost seemed like it was written by a different author. The excitement of the plot was definitely amped up.
While I understand and appreciate background to a story before the actual story can unfold, using half the book to lay the groundwork is too much in my opinion. I am glad that I finished the book and read this historical fiction of the students in The White Rose, a non-violent resistance group. I was not very involved in the characters themselves, but I was interested to see where the story would end up. The students in The White Rose were so brave and I am glad that their memory lives on.
Overall the author’s style is just not for me. I would rate the first half of the book 2 stars and the second half 4 stars, so I will blend them to an overall 3 stars for this book.
I was given the ARC for this book through the publisher, HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter. I want to thank them and NetGalley for allowing me to read the advanced reader copy. My review is my own opinion, not influenced by receiving the ARC.
As I have read other books written by this author, I admit to keeping an eye for books by them. Though I have to say it was the book cover that initially caught my eye. I have seen two different covers for this title and do like both. Both covers could easily be taken from scenes within the book. After noticing the cover, I read the blurb and knew it was a book I had to read. I find the World War Two era fascinating and humbling and think it is a period in history that should never, ever be forgotten.
The book is historical fiction, though it is based on real events.
This book is slightly different to others I have read set in this period of history as it is from the point of view of someone living in Germany. Someone who before Hitler came into power with his different ideas on genetics and the human race would have been considered a German. The more I read from this point of view the more interested in it I become.
The book tells of Natalya’s experience of Kristallnacht, which occurred on the night of 9th November, 1938 and translates into English as The Night of Broken Glass. Natalya and her friend go out on a shopping errand for Mary and see the remnants of a burnt synagogue and hear soldiers laughing and joking about the fact that the Rabbi had attempted to rescue the Tora scrolls and other items from the burning building. This is also the first time that Natalya’s life crosses paths with that of a man who will become an important part of her life. He approaches Natalya and Lisa and explains what has happened, the building has been set on fire and that the Rabbi has been sent to Dachau. The girls move on passing the broken glass of a Jewish owned pharmacy where her father works. When Peter notices his daughter and her friend, he tells them the streets are not safe and that they should return home immediately.
The main character and just one of my favourite characters in this book is sixteen year old, Natalya Petrovich who lives with her parents, Mary and Peter. They have already fled Russia and now live in Germany. Natalya volunteers to work as a nursing volunteer at the Russian Front with the German Red Cross where the fighting is and soon see’s the human cost of Hitler’s war. It’s whilst caring for soldiers that she meets those that end up introducing her to the White Rose. It is Alex that brings her into his social circle and takes her to see a local woman called Sina, with her children Dimitra and Anna, where they drink, sing and talk of their distrust and displeasure with Hitler. Natalya witnesses Sina, Dimitri and Anna rounded up with other people and see’s what happens to them, a vision which plagues her even after she leaves the area and is back home with her family.
This book tells the tale of a very real group of German teenagers and how they reacted to the changing world around them. The way they form a society of like-minded people to resist what is happening around them and become widely known as the White Rose. The White Rose write and distribute letters around Germany using the train system to travel around the area and drop the leaflets at addresses and shops etc, where they hope it will give others courage to make some sort of stand or resist what is happening around them in any way be it in a small or larger way. These missions become riskier, with the members being followed and the invitation to new people to join the group. The main, former members of the group are brother and sister, Hans and Sophie.
Natalya becomes braver and more determined to join in any act of resistance she can. She takes part in the leaflet drops with her childhood best friend Lisa Kolbe and then later in the book joins Alex, Hans and others in spraying and writing graffiti on local buildings.
The book goes on to reveal how Natalya becomes acquainted with the other members of the White Rose, how she becomes an active member. How the White Rose members are captured, tortured and some killed. Others that the Nazi’s hope to manipulate into revealing more about the resistance movement are sent to German prisons. Herr Garrett Adler, the man she first met the morning after the night of glass turns out to be a Nazi party member and he tells Natalya he was instrumental in her not being sentenced to death, and that he keeps an eye on her parents. He tries to blackmail Natalya into revealing anything she knows about other rebels by threatening her parents and when she doesn’t reveal anything Natalya is sent on to a mental asylum where medical procedures and experiments are done on the patients by one of the Doctors. Initially things seem like they are going to improve for Natalya when she comes across a Doctor there that is also part of the resistance movement and helps her and another patient plan an escape. Unfortunately, someone learns about the Doctor being a resistance member and he and the other patient are arrested and taken away. When the other Doctor taking Natalya to be sterilised as her kind should not be allowed to breed! Natalya knows she has to escape as soon as possible or she may die in this asylum. It’s when she escapes that she meets Greta who helps her disguise herself, create a new person to be and ends up being the one that introduces Natalya to the man who she eventually comes to love. Then just when you think Natalya has gone through the worst life can throw at her and she has a chance at happiness with a man with similar values as hers Herr Garett Adler rears his head again making it known to Natalya that though she now goes by a different name, and has changed her looks that he knows who she really is and can take everything away from her whenever he wants.
Then just when you think Natalya has gone through the worst life can throw at her and she has a chance at happiness with a man with similar values as hers Herr Garett Adler rears his head again making it known to Natalya that though she now goes by a different name, and has changed her looks that he knows who she really is and can take everything away from her whenever he wants.
It seems odd and wrong to have “favourite” character when the people depicted in this book are not totally fictional. Instead I will share with you the characters who represented real people whom I admired. Firstly, I admired both Natalya and Lisa “normal” everyday girls from normal families taking trips with highly dangerous reading material hidden in their luggage and clothes.
Though Greta seemed to lack emotions at time when she was dealing with Natalya you understand that she has to. If she became overly attached to those she is helping and knew their stories and she could inadvertently reveal something endangering themselves and others. Greta treats the risks she is taking in a very business like way. Even telling Natalya she will have to move on quickly if someone more important comes along and needs her help.
I went through a whole range of emotions whilst reading this book. I think it was made all the more poignant by the fact it is actually based on actual real events. It shows how, many people taking part in small acts of resistance and defiance can actually come together and eventually make a difference. Some of these characters do represent real people such as the founders of the White Rose, Sophie and Hans. Obviously, there were others in their organisation and the author has used fabricated names. This era of history is a very important one, and should never be forgotten. Many died because of one man and his new ideas of what he thought the future should look like. He sent millions to their death either in gas chambers, or worked to death. There were survivors who are now sadly dying of old age or complications due to what they suffered during this time. People rarely had any sort of happy ending, they lost family and friends. Even after liberation they had to rebuild their lives, search for family and friends and start to rebuild their own lives and what was left of their country all as well as coming to terms with what had happened.
At the very end of the book the author lists other books about Sophie, Hans and the White Rose as well as listing a film that was made about Sophie.
My immediate thoughts upon finishing this book were that the book was an
amazing fictional take on a real organisation the White Rose who existed in Nazi Germany.
To sum up this book gives a different point view of World War 2, in that it concentrates on Germans and how they were treated by the Nazi party in their own country. This book deals with another facet of an awful era in history that should never, ever be forgotten.
I have to add I didn’t think I would ever love a book from this point of view as much as I did The Taster, also by this author but I adored this one just as much.
The Traitor by V.S. Alexander is a great historical fiction taking place overall in Munich, Germany 1942 and focussing on the real-life resistance group, The White Rose, that comprised of young adult German citizens that tried to do their part in fighting the brutality of the Nazi regime.
The book focusses on Natalya, a German citizen that was born in Russia. Through living amongst the changes and atrocities, she is drawn into the resistance group of like-minded individuals in hopes that they can help fight back.
I enjoyed the plot, the pace, and the suspense. There were definitely some nail-biting moments that had me glued to my seat, yet antsy to turn the page again and again to find out what would happen next! I love plots that take a bite out of real people, groups, or situations and creates a fantastic and believable tale that enthralls me from beginning to end.
As far as characters go, Natalya was ok, but not as intriguing or magnetic as many I have read lately. However, she was still like able and did not detract from the book itself.
I have read about the White Rose resistance group a few times, and it was great to dive into a book that shed more light on how it would have felt being part of the group itself.
4/5 stars