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For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a... read more

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For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuhrer of Buchenwald. Driven by the guilt of her heritage, Trudy, now a professor of German history, begins investigating the past and finally unearths the dramatic and heartbreaking truth of her mother's life. Combining a passionate, doomed love story, a vivid evocation of life during the war, and a poignant mother/daughter drama, Those Who Save Us is a profound exploration of what we endure to survive and the legacy of shame.

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “"It's like being in a sort of club, isn’t it? A bereavement club. You don't choose to join it; it's thrust upon you. And the members whose lives have been changed have more knowledge than those who aren't in it, but the price of belonging is so terribly high."”
  • “"She feels nothing except the certainty that she is the butt of a cosmic joke. Has she really dared to think happiness is for her? She has been a fool. Somewhere the gods are slapping their giant robed knees and laughing."”
  • “She should have known this would happen even with him; she should have know better than to tell him the truth. She can never tell him what she started to say: that we come to love those who save us. For although Anna does believe this is true, the word that stuck in her throat was not save but shame.”
    Anna
  • “You are such a young and childish country, believing that one can better understand the injuries of the past by wallowing in them and analyzing their causes. You do not know enough to understand that the only way to heal a wound is to leave it alone.”
    Rainer Goldmann

First Sentence edit see section history

The funeral is well attended, the New Heidelburg Lutheran Church packed to capacity with farmers and their families who have come to bid farewell to one of their own.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Prologue
ANNA AND MAX, WEIMAR, 1939--1940
Chapters 1 thru 7

TRUDY, NOVEMBER 1996
Chapters 8 thru 11

ANNA AND MATHILDE, WEIMAR, 1940--1942
Chapters 12 thru 17

TRUDY, DECEMBER 1996
Chapters 18 thru 21

ANNA AND THE OBERSTURMFUHRER, WEIMAR, 1942
Chapters 22 thru 25

TRUDY, JANUARY 1997
Chapters 26 thru 29

ANNA AND THE OBERSTURMFUHRER, BERCHTESGADEN, 1943
Chapters 30 thru 34

TRUDY, FEBRUARY 1997
Chapters 35 thru 38

ANNA AND THE OBERSTURMFUHRER, WEIMAR, 1943--1945
Chapters 39 thru 43

TRUDY, MARCH 1997
Chapters 44 thru 47

ANNA AND JACK, WEIMAR, 1945
Chapters 48 thru 51

TRUDY, APRIL 1997
Chapters 52 thru 55

ANNA AND JACK, NEW HEIDELBURG, 1945
Chapters 56 thru 58

TRUDY, MAY 1997
Chapters 59 thru 62

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Jenna Blum (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Country: United States
Publication Date: April 5, 2004
ISBN: 0151010196
Page Count: 496

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3602.L863 T47
  • Dewey: 813.6

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

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