The Plum Tree: An Emotional and Heartbreaking Novel of WW2 Germany and the Holocaust

I have read many of Ellen Marie Wiseman’s novels. She is a prolific author and able to draw the reader right into her novels. It’s almost impossible to quit reading once one begins. The Plumb tree, kept me guessing all the way through. I love reading novels in which I cannot guess the ending. This novel is heartbreaking at certain points and I found myself questioning how such evil could have existed? But as always love light, and good always wins; no matter the circumstance. I highly recommend reading any of her novels. I’m currently reading, “Coal River.” It is another great novel about mining in Pennsylvania. Highly recommend this author.

I love books set during WWII, and THE PLUM TREE is no exception. The lives of Christine, her family, her neighborhood, and the fate of her Jewish boy friend and his family drive the narrative. All the tension comes from externals, however, because the characters are not quite three-dimensional. No one has any flaws. And a lot OF what happens is hard to believe. Christine risks her life to meet Isaac, her Jewish boy friend, in a wine cellar even though they've just started to get to know one another when the Nazis impose Jewish restrictions. The reader learns in retrospect that Christine has pined for Isaac for a long time, but this ought to be shown in present action to make the risks she takes understandable. The villains are generic as well. The overweight SS officer, who Christine keeps running into, is right out of central casting as well as her girl friend's sadistic boy friend, who's a guard at Dachau. This character really needs more development because he figures into the plot, especially once the Allies arrive. The reader never finds out who betrayed Isaac's hiding place. And the last section in which Isaac and Christine help the American military sort out the SS from the regular German soldiers feels rushed, yet is the most unique part of this story. If ever a war needed war crimes tribunals, this one did. And the human need for revenge drifts into more complicated territory than the simplistic evil versus good theme that this book holds fast to most of the way. (I'm reminded here of the disturbing THE NIGHT PORTER, as well as Fassbinder movies.) Still I give THE PLUM TREE 4 stars. The descriptions of the lovely countryside, the daily life of an average German family in extreme circumstances, the yin and yang of village life--these are well-written and a pleasure to read.

"Christine, I want you to understand something. War makes perpetrators of some, criminals of others, and victims of everyone. Not all of the soldiers on the front are fighting for Hitler and his ideals. Just because a soldier is in the battle, doesn't mean that he believes in the war." The Plum Tree is a story of a young girl (Christine) and her family during WWII and the Nazi occupation of Germany. Beyond that, it is a tale of love and survival, of loss and strength, and a tale of hope. It is historical fiction, woven with a tale of romance between a young German girl and a young German Jew at the height of the terror in Nazi-occupied Germany. We have all learned about WWII, Nazi Germany, the concentration camps, and the horrors that befell Jews in Eastern Europe during Hitler's reign; however, this book brought this rich and terrifying history to life through the eyes of a young German girl and her family in ways that I had not experienced before. This is the first book that I have read from a German viewpoint rather than that of a concentration-camp or German Jew's perspective. And the story was chilling. Christine is a sympathetic protagonist who was easy to identify with. When the book opens, she is only 17 and is in love with a young Jewish boy from a well-to-do family. Predictably (although I don't mean this as a slight), their world changes when the war begins and Jewish families are targeted by Hitler and his men. We follow Christine through the changes in her hometown (including air raids, bombings, rationing of food, destruction, Jewish families being whisked away in the night to work campus, street shootings, and unspeakable violence). We often are not sure what has come of Christine's father (who was sent off to fight in the army) or Isaac, Christine's love who is likely sent away for being Jewish. Ellen Marie Wiseman writes this novel from personal experience- as a first generation German-American, Ellen Marie spent much of her life between Germany and America, and heard many tales from family members who lived during this time and experienced these unspeakable horrors. This gives the novel a freshness and a truthfulness that is easy to see. To say you loved this book feels wrong- it is haunting and heartbreaking and horrific- but it is also a lovely tale of young love and the heroism and spirit of a young German girl living in an unspeakably cruel world in a horrible period in Germany's history. That being said, this book is certainly a new favorite of mine and will be cherished forever. Although I thought I knew a great deal about this time period, WWII and Nazi-Occupied Germany, I was wrong. The perspective and the details from this story will undoubtedly stay with me forever.

I rarely review books on Amazon but I loved this one so much I had to. I read so many historical fiction novels that sometimes they run together, but this one stands out. First of all, the author did a fabulous job of keeping the story moving, covering pre-war through post-war with little to no lull in the action. Also, I'd been stuck in a rut of reading WWII stories from the Jewish perspective so one from an ordinary German girl's perspective was a nice change. Some outcomes of the story I guessed very early on, but even though some may have been predictable the author made the circumstances plausible, not just 'war is over, time for the fairytale ending!'. I appreciated the slightly more in-depth look at post-war Germany as it seems a lot of novels end with the liberation of the camps and gloss over the aftermath and PTSD-like symptoms of some of the survivors like one of the main characters displayed. All of the characters were beautifully portrayed and had a realistic depth, nothing contrived or too formulaic. My one tiny nitpick would be in the last quarter of the book one of the characters would constantly 'dig her thumb in her wrist.' I know why the author made it a point of emphasis but it started to stick out after being mentioned in what felt like every other paragraph trying to drive home a point. Other than that the writing style was natural and easy to read. Long story short, I'd recommend this to any historical fiction lover and now I'm going to go see what other novels this author has for me to read :)

This book was a bit of a disappointment when I finished it, because until the last quarter it was a 4-5 star story. It's not a particularly new story, that of Nazi Germany and the horrors both of the regime and war in general, but it was well told, and if not original it was touching. The story involves a poor German family, the oldest daughter is Christine, and their life during the war. At the beginning of the book Christine's mother works in the home of a rich Jewish family and is immediately let go, not allowed to work for Jews any longer. Unknown to her family, Christine and the Jewish family's oldest boy are secretly in love and planning to tell their families about it. It's heartbreaking of course that their only concern is regarding their class differences, not the fact that he's a Jew. All that changes very quickly as the Nazis become more and more powerful and their lives are turned upside down. The story is told from a German civilian's point of view, a Christian, which is different. We see the degree to which the town is caught up in the events around them, citizens who don't care what's happening to the Jews, citizens who do, and of course all the trials that affect the family. As the situation for Jews gets worse, Christine helps Isaac, is caught and sent to Dachau and the all too familiar scenes of concentration camps follow. Why only three stars? This is a well told, suspenseful story for the first 3/4 of it,but it ultimately let me down two ways. First, without giving too much of the story away, when the war ends it seems that the author wanted to take the story to a new level, tell the story of Christine's life, and Germany's after the war, but she rushes the entire thing into what amounts to a couple of pages. Things happen out of the blue, some make little sense, and come out of no where. It's as if she wanted to write another 100 pages but the publisher said no. She should have written the 100 pages, she was on a roll, the story would have been better for it. The second reason I was a bit disappointed is that the author, in trying to not lump in all Germans together and pronouncing them guilty, in my opinion, takes a few inexcusable liberties. The commandant of Dachau, who is opposed to what is going on in thought, but not free to oppose in deed, at one point says "brutal acts only become war crimes if you lose". That coupled with some scenes during the bombings by the allies made me feel as if the author went too far, and was comparing bombing of German towns to concentration camps. The former was caused by the latter and no amount of national pride on the part of a German American could or should erase that. I fully sympathize with the author wanting to dispel guilt by association, but I felt in some ways she made some stupid analogies and arguments that did not help her cause or her story.

At the age of seventeen Christine Bolz works as a domestic for a Jewish family in a small town in rural Germany. Her innocence and beauty - fair and blonde - capture the eye of her employer's son and as the story opens we find the two walking together through a nearby forest where Isaac Bauerman declares his love for her. Christine has been harboring a secret love for Isaac and when he claims her as his girlfriend she is on top of the world. As they make their way home, Christine's joy is unbridled but she begins to notice some flyers that have been put up in her neighborhood. They made the claim that associated with Jews or people of mixed lineage (one Jewish parent, one not) was strictly Verboten! Christine doesn't realize yet that her entire world will soon be torn asunder. What follows is the story of how Hitler and his War Machine insinuate themselves into even the tiniest crevasse of life for the German people and the spark of hope that burns in the young Christine's heart that she and her beloved Isaac will one day be together again. That spark is almost extinguished when she finds herself being shipped to the Dachau as a result of her trying to hide Isaac from the SS. The Plum Tree is a well-drawn view of what the peaceful German countryside once was and what it became thanks to the Third Reich. The gradual drying up of goods and services is in counterpoint to the verdant hillsides and nearby river where nature provides such beauty. When German troops arrive in Christine's small village, her father is drafted to serve his country thereby leaving Christine, her sister, two young brothers, her mother, and her grandparents to carry on. And when Hitler himself visits the village, Christine is one of a dozen girls brought on stage to meet him. He praises the girls for their Aryan looks and personally urges each of them to begin producing children in their own likeness. The touch of his hand does nothing more than repulse Christine. The characters we meet throughout the story are finely drawn and made me feel as though I knew them personally. The optimism that lives in Christine's heart is what carries the story along although there are several places where she almost gives up, sure that her beloved Isaac must have met his demise or that her father will not return from the Russian front where most German soldiers perished. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope to read Ms. Wiseman's other works.

A heartbreaking and relevant story for today. Please Americans, wake up and see the parallels to what is happening here in our country now.

Ellen Marie Wiseman's riveting debut novel allows the reader to peer into the life of a German teenager and her family in World War II torn Nazi Germany. The author states that the book was inspired by her own mother's actual experiences in Germany, and by the author's numerous trips to the Fatherland visiting relatives. This is a dynamite novel about a German girl falling in love with a Jew. The novel reveals three engrossing forms of terror during the years 1938 through 1945. The first was the ravaging of the Jews and ordinary German citizens by the SS Troopers. One of the books Wiseman read pertaining to this was 'Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich' by Alison Owings. The second torment experienced by the German families was the U.S. bombing campaign of German cities, backed up by the book 'The Fire: The Bombing of Germany, 1940-1945' by Jorg Friedrich. The third affliction in the story discloses how the non-Nazi German civilians were treated after the war's end. This was verified by James Bacque's 'Crimes and Mercies: The Fate of German Civilians Under Allied Occupation, 1944-1950' . This was an eye-opening trifecta of maladies combined in one novel. This reviewer wonders what Wiseman will do for an encore? The milieu for this novel is Hessental, Germany, an ordinary peaceful German village of mostly hard working poor families. The focus is on the Bolz family and their struggle to put food on the table. Our heroine, Christine and her mutti ( mother ) work on the estate of the Bauermans, a rich Jewish family. Christine and Isaac Bauerman are in love and plan to announce that fact at a December party at the Bauermans. Before that can happen, Hitler issues orders that Germans can no longer work for Jews, radios are taken away and replaced with propaganda channeled radios, Jews are no longer allowed in public buildings, and the mandatory greeting is now required to be "Heil Hitler". On page 54, Christine and Isaac wonder " Will we ever be allowed to be together, to live like everyone else, happily married, with a house and children, to enjoy the most basic human rights?" This is a very sad novel. Slowly but surely, The Jews of Hessental are shipped by train to Dachau. On page 150, Christine thinks she saw Isaac and his family on the Dachau train and thinks to herself " He can't be inside one of those boxcars, she thought. He's too smart and too beautiful to be carted away like an animal. His father is a lawyer, his mother an aristocrat." This where the story takes "the brakes off" and rumbles through 387 pages of breathtaking drama! For a fledgling author without any creative writing background, I thought her characterization was superlative. I had plenty of empathy for vater ( father ), oma ( grandma ), opa ( grandpa ), and even the reluctant Nazi, Lagerkommandant Grunstein of the Dachau Camp. The sprinkling-in of German words, titles, and names was expertly done, such as; scheissekopf ( s***head ), gruppenfuhrer ( group leader ), sonderkommandos ( work units of Nazi death camp prisoners ), and blockfuhrer ( a block leader in the death camps ). At one point in this marvelous novel, Christine wonders why prisoners would be shot at a death camp: " Why would they shoot those men when they have an efficient method of extermination right here?" The flavor of the novel is exactly how Wiseman states it is on her website: " I love reading and writing about ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Fiction offers us a rare chance to slip into the lives of others, and to ask ourselves how we would react under challenging conditions, be it during WWII, the witch craze in Europe, or the Great Depression." This is a love story, historical fiction, and sad drama all rolled into one tumultous story. I highly recommend this first time novel by Ellen Marie Wiseman. I guarantee her second novel will not be rejected 72 times!