Just Finished Reading: Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada (FP: 1947)

When their son is killed fighting in France a decision is made, Otto Quangel and his wife Anna will resist the Nazi regime that had brought them and others so much pain. But direct opposition is both futile a deadly leading only in one direction – to the concentration camp and the executioners block. They need to be more subtle than that, more indirect. After giving it considerable thought Otto decides on a plan. He will write out anti-Nazi propaganda on ordinary postcards and leave them in the stairwells of busy office buildings. As they spread throughout the population, being passed from hand to hand, they will create a groundswell of opposition and shorten the horrible war they are embroiled in. So it begins, a campaign that lasts three long years leaving the police and Gestapo without a clue of who is leaving the cards or what they hope to gain from their defiance.

At the end of this rather chunky book (at 568 pages) are two additions – one outlining the real story which inspired the author to pen this late 1940’s German classic, and the other telling the tale of the author himself in all its tragic detail. The one point of this narrative that really struck me was the length of time it took him to complete the book: less than a month! When you read something of this quality (and length) it seems incredible that he could have written it that fast. When you find out that the author was actually dying at the time – he died before the book was published – it becomes somewhat understandable but somewhat more impressive.

One of the reviewers (which you might be able to read on the cover above) calls the book ‘extraordinary and redemptive’. Considering almost ever main character failed to reach the final page still alive this could be a hard case to make – except that Otto, Anna and several other characters, despite what eventually happened to them, never actually gave up on their convictions and went to their ends with heads held high and with their integrity in tact no matter what the authorities did to them. But this is certainly no book for the faint of heart. You will, like me, get attached to several of the characters and feel their pain (and their fear) as they try to get through the war relatively intact – both physically and (more important) morally. Bad things happen – both to bad people and the good ones too. Rather inevitably, considering the times and the place, there is more than a little unpleasantness, especially where the police and the Gestapo are concerned. I don’t need to go into any great detail for you to know what I mean. Then, again inevitably, there is the position of the Jews in early 1940’s Berlin. Again I don’t need to outline some of the incidents that occur within these pages. The historical record itself is full enough of the facts to need them repeating here.

Whilst certainly not a cheery book this is incredibly well written. Though dealing with the minutia of daily life in Berlin during the first half of the 1940’s it is never dull and is populated with realistic characters, petty criminals, retired judges, confused and frightened Jews, sadistic bullies, idealistic young resisters, finally repentant police inspectors and, above all, the Quangel’s who are at the heart (in more ways than one) of the whole thing. This book will grip you and leave you haunted by the events seemingly unfolding before your eyes. It won’t be a pleasant journey that’s for sure but it will be worthwhile. Highly recommended and a deserved 20th Century classic.

Translated from the German by Michael Hofmann.