What actually happened in Munich in 1938?

This is a great novel. Its 1938 and everyone in Europe is scared that another war is coming. How to stop it?

It looks like no one in Europe wants or are ready for war except Nazis. WWI was such a shock to people in West Europe that they are willing to go to great length to "appease' Nazis as much as they can rather than to take a risk for another WW. 

But was it really an appeasement what transpired in Munich in 1938? Harris tries to show in vivid details that it is not what actually happened. It is true that Munich did not solve the problem of Nazi expansion in Europe but it gave 1 extra year that was essential to prepare the countries to fight Nazi in WWII. It is possible that 1 year saved humankind and led to defeat of Nazi Germany in WWII.

posted by David       

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Robert Harris' "Fatherland" - What if novel - 1964 - Awakening

After reading few books from Philip Kerr's detective Gunther's series it was quite easy to transition to Robert Harris' "Fatherland".

This is a serious book. Though it is set in an alternative universe where Nazi Germany dominates half of the Europe following WWII and competes with USA, almost all the major events described in this novel are historically correct in a sense that it describes how people in Nazi Germany and then in Soviet Union lived and interacted with outside world. The author simply combined two actual totalitarian regimes into hypothetical victorious Nazi Germany.  

We erroneously think that either Nazi Germany or Soviet Union were monolithic states when citizens were fully committed to its respective ideologies. In reality, however, vast majority of people in both states were lived in a state of fear and indifference, actively avoiding knowledge of what's been happening around them. But what if citizens become aware of real facts? How they will react to real facts individually or as a nation? This novel shows result of such awakening when one person is capable of altering the fate of the nation.

posted by David  

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"The Pale Criminal" by Philip Kerr - A Review

This is a second book in Bernie Gunther's series. This time Bernie is recruited by Nazis to investigate murders of German girls. There is a secret plan by some fanatics in Nazi party to blame these murders on Jews and provoke hatred and animosity towards them. Of course, we know from real history Nazis were successful in creating anti-Jewish sentiments in Germany in 1930s that snowballed into unimaginable, industrial-scale slaughtering of Jewish population in early 1940s.    

This novel is a the author's attempt to show remnants of humanity in Germany under Nazis. That there were some people who did not share anti-Jewish sentiments and wanted to stop the coming avalanche that would go to devour Jews and eventually German people and its identity.

Bernie is one of them. He uncovers the plot against Jews but he is too late to save them.

posted by David      

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Philip Kerr's "March Violets" - Detective story set in Germany in 1930s

This is a great book. A fictional account of private investigator, Bernie Gunther, working in Nazi Germany in 1930s. It nicely shows how totalitarian system is established in free country slowly, step-by-step. 

This book is a first novel in the series about Bernie Gunther. Bernie's character reminds me of Humphrey Bogart's character as private detective. Takes no bullshit. Although he tries to accommodate the regime to survive but he does it without losing his integrity. 

posted by David

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