I’ve read my fair share of WW2 books, but this one felt a bit different. Perhaps because it was during the aftermath of the Holocaust or told from a German point of view. Regardless, I was captivated. 

Eva Bruhns is a twenty-four-year old living a quiet life with her family in Frankfurt, Germany. The Bruhns own The German House, a once bustling restaurant, and live in the apartment above it. When she isn’t working as a Polish translator on business contacts and disputes, she helps her family around the restaurant. Eva is hopeful she will soon have a proposal from her wealthy boyfriend, Jürgen, that will whisk her out of the mundanity. 

To her surprise, Eva is tapped to translate Polish for the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials of 1963. The atrocities of Nazi Germany quickly become apparent as she listens to witness after witness describe their horrifying experiences at Auschwitz. And soon, her childhood memories begin to unravel out of a haze. How could her family turn a blind eye to what the SS officers did to the prisoners? Why do her parents refuse to talk of the war? 

The German House is packed full of a few different storylines, each interesting in their own right. I couldn’t put it down.