“There are decent men among the bad. The evil ones will be punished, one day. I promise”
- Book: The Turn of The Tide (The Sturmtaucher Trilogy Book #3)
- Location: Germany, United Kingdom
- Author: Alan Jones
Wow! I am almost speechless, and believe me, that is a rarity!
Every once in a while, I come across a series which is truly exceptional and any review I could possibly write, even one which honestly comes right from the heart, couldn’t ever hope to even scratch the surface in doing complete justice to The Sturmtaucher Trilogy, which is undoubtedly a real tour de force. Surely an important work of cultural and societal fiction, based on and wrapped around, the reality of some well established historical facts, written sympathetically from the heart, with care and deference to the subject. The sheer volume of research and attention to detail is phenomenal and must have taken so many painstaking hours to complete and compile into a chronologically correct timeline of events, which is then knitted into the very fabric of a family saga of monumental proportions. It brings together a dark, troubling and shameful period of our modern history and gives it life, as seen through the eyes of the extremists, the moderates and the persecuted, who will all have their own personal perspectives about the unfolding atrocities and tides of change, inexorably heaped upon a nation by a cold, methodically calculating, dictator. Whilst the story throws the spotlight not only on the almost complete and total annihilation of all minority races within Germany, it also shows how events not only divided a country, but how they also had the potential to fracture and damage friendships and even tear family relationships apart, as individuals are forced to choose their sides in this terrible internal conflict, which spread like a poison and held almost everyone within its grip.
Maybe also a little bittersweet, given that I have been reading about the attempted annihilation of one race, almost eighty years ago; whilst watching events unfold in a conflict which has an equal potential for total devastation, should the world not pause, step back and take a good hard look at itself. The Germany of the 1930s/1940s, might well be the Ukraine of 2022. In either timeline, as we are witness to the pursuit of supreme power and domination by a crazed autocratic dictator, man’s inhumanity to man, never ceases to amaze me! However, this isn’t really a novel about the complexities of global politics, although of course those can’t be ignored, (especially as many of the locations close to and around the Russian border which feature in this final episode of the saga, also appear nightly on my television screen as part of the current conflict); it’s all about the humanity affected by them.
I just knew that this, the final instalment of The Sturmtaucher Trilogy, was never going to be a disappointment, yet I had no idea exactly how phenomenally moving it was destined to be. I even had visions that in a series of such vast proportions, the final episode might have seen a subtle ‘winding down’ as the many strands of the storyline began to converge. I should never have doubted Alan’s resilience and determination to document everything he set out to do, without ever compromising on detail. A fitting tribute to an amazing cast of characters; an authentic and meticulously researched storyline; and some genuinely glorious writing.
This three book, epic saga, each of over 800 pages, really does deserve to be read either back to back, or in timely succession, but definitely in chronological order, to become fully immersed in a storyline, in which once you are engrossed, you definitely won’t want, or be able to leave, until there is complete closure. That’s an awfully long time to be holding one’s breath, but that is exactly what I found myself doing, as the landscape of the storyline shifted and altered, twists and turns were added necessitating the characters to change and adapt, and ultimately, which of them would be left to witness this new world landscape of brave beginnings? For those readers who have yet to begin this magnificent and epic journey, to offer too much of an insight into this final instalment, without compromising the first two books or indeed the ending itself, is going to be rather a challenge… but here goes!
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Once again, author Alan Jones has thought ahead and broken this epic storyline down into short, fluent and digestible chapters, which are well-signposted and keep the pace moving along at a good clip, whilst still managing to make every single word count. We pick up the story in 1941, when we are now firmly entrenched in a war of ‘cleansing’ and the Nazi programme of implementing Endlösung der Judenfrage, the ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Problem’, is reaching its climax. Families and communities are being torn apart, not only in Germany itself, but in the further reaches of Poland, Russia and the Nordic countries, although the atrocities also reach across borders to encompass the much wider European theatre. In Kiel, Jews, minority groups and any sympathisers, are being rounded up by an enthusiastic and zealous Gestapo, some of whom are relishing their job more than others. Gullich, whose reputation as ‘The Black Wolf’ or ‘The Jew Hunter’ precedes him, and his side-kick Meyer, are on a personal mission and will go to any lengths, to capture every member of the Kastner and Nussbaum families, plus any of their friends and acquaintances, who have been thorns in the side of the authorities, right from the word go. However, their personal inter-rivalry and greed also knows no bounds and will be their eventual undoing, but not before they have personally witnessed, sanctioned and executed, the persecution and death of literally thousands of innocent and vulnerable people
The lives of the German Kastner family, have been intrinsically linked with that of the Jewish Nussbaum family, for three generations, almost to the point where the lines between them being employers and employees, have become blurred enough for them to consider one another friends. The Nussbaum’s live in the grounds of the Kastner house, with the children of both families having grown up alongside one another, any differences in culture and religion having always been respected and accommodated by both sides. General Erich Kastner, a decorated soldier of WWI, is not alone in his courageous and many would say foolhardy, underground, underhand attempts to save the Nussbaums and as many of their fellow countrymen as possible, from certain death, although he is fully aware that his attempts to slow down the Nazi machine, are but a mere drop in a vast ocean of despair. Operating clandestinely, often from inside the administration, only hones and sharpens their resolve to cause as much disruption to the Nazi machine as possible, by making every move count. Now that the storyline has reached outside the borders of the Fatherland, drawing more nations into its arena, small pockets of resistance are forming, adding their fledgling voices to the call for justice. However Erich’s scheming has not gone unnoticed and the sharks begin to circle in the water, as the Gestapo net closes in on him. The tension becomes almost unbearable as the Nussbaum adults are captured and their two children are pronounced ‘missing’, along with the two Kastner sons, who as serving military officers, are later traced to a POW camp in Scotland.
Unfortunately for Erich, his personal life and marriage has also reached crisis point, as Frau Maria Kastner does not share her husband’s liberal views, so she removes herself from the family home and their marriage, whilst vowing to bring about his downfall herself, should the opportunity ever arise. Over the course of four long years, one by one, Erich’s friends and allies are picked off by Gullich and Meyer, whilst Germany comes under attack from all sides, with both the Western Allies and the Soviets advancing on Berlin at a pace, although having witnessed Soviet brutality for themselves, the German government and the wider population are fervently hoping that the Allies, with their reputation for fair play, reach them first.
When the Allied advance reaches Kiel, their immediate challenges are to find and round up as many Gestapo officers and Nazi party members as they can lay their hands on, although many slip through the net. With an internment system which is stretched beyond breaking point by the sheer volume of suspects, it becomes sickeningly obvious that not all transgressors will be brought to justice. The problem of returning the many millions of displaced people, both civilian and military, to their scattered homelands, is a mammoth task, which is likely to take years to complete, leaving families on all sides of the conflict, still adrift in a sea of confusion and doubt. Against all the odds General Kastner has survived many attempts on his life and a relatively short time incarcerated in a concentration camp. He now finds himself alone to wait and see if any members of either his own or the Nussbaum family, together with any of his friends, have survived and will manage to make their way back home. However the sheer number of displaced persons and family members desperate for any news is as heart-breaking for Erich as anything else he has witnessed, particularly with the knowledge that millions of his countrymen have been killed and that their final resting places will never be truly known. Some survivors are understandably seeking vengeance, others are only looking to see justice done, but all are craving closure.
Throughout the three books which comprise the series there have been occasional interspersions from an ongoing conversation between one of the characters and an unspecified second person, which takes place in 2001. As the elder narrator is named right from the outset, we immediately get to know the identity of at least one Holocaust survivor. However, right at the end of The Turn Of the Tide and as his closing shot, the author lets us into the secret of the so far anonymous second person, thus weaving all the loose ends firmly together, affording some closure on past events, which should never be forgotten, nor some would say, forgiven.
That is the scene, set in a very small nutshell, from which this chapter in the saga, rises and triumphs, as a supreme tour de force, towards its stunning climax.
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I can imagine that writing about the Holocaust in a work of fiction is always quite a risky strategy; too much detail might become gratuitous for the sake of an engrossing story; too little detail might be seen to be shining too comfortable a light on the atrocities. However, once again author Alan Jones seems to have managed that transition between fact and fiction, seamlessly and effortlessly, depicting life in the POW camps on both sides of the English Channel, with just the right mix of reality so as not to make life appear too sanitised, yet not in so much vivid reality that the sheer level of violence and atrocities if documented, might appear gratuitous. The research is impeccable and so thorough, that it is almost impossible to say where fact and fiction begin and end, or indeed where they converge and overlap.
This intensely compelling and evocatively compassionately written storyline is definitely not to be rushed, but is one to immerse yourself into and savour slowly, as its textured, multi-layers unfold, as difficult as that might often be. Set against vividly described and richly detailed backdrops, there is a really perceptive sense of time and place, particularly for me within the confines of the British POW camp, located in the Highlands of Scotland. Camps which I know of course existed, but about which there is relatively little featured in the world of fiction writing. The humanity and decency with which German prisoners were treated was in stark contrast to the concentration camps of their home country, although the brainwashed Nazi fanatics amongst the men were still wont to wreak vengeance on those of their fellow countrymen considered not to be loyal enough to the Nazi regime. There was also a brief insight into the treatment by Britain of the Jewish refugees who arrived on our shores, seeking asylum from the atrocities back in their homelands. Their unquestioned acceptance and inclusion into a society which was already reeling from deprivation and nightly bombing, was something of which we should be justifiably proud.
I was also surprised at the attitudes of many of the wives and female members of the German military families. The reverence in which they held the Nazi high command was quite sickening and the lengths to which they would go in their social climbing efforts to attract and be seen with the highest ranking officers, were equally nauseating. Despite, or maybe because of, all the male testosterone and egocentric behaviour on display, the officers seemed like easy pickings for these single-minded, status driven women. Contrary to his wife’s low opinion of him, General Erich Kastner isn’t a bad German just because he doesn’t agree with the mass deportation of hundreds of thousands of Jews and minority groups to the concentration camps and hence for most of them a certain death. He simply doesn’t agree with the stance the Nazi party is taking, or their inhumane operational methods, believing in equality regardless of status or religion. He still at heart wants to help Germany win the war in Europe, but he wants any casualties to be those of war, not ‘cleansing’.
Alan has created a sprawling cast of core characters, who grew in stature with each passing chapter, whose voices became ever louder and stronger, demanding to have their stories heard by the outside world. Complex and emotionally driven, raw and passionate, often fragile and vulnerable; they are nonetheless completely genuine and believable, reliable and authentic, with a stoicism and loyalty born of necessity.
What makes reading such wonderful experience for me, is that with each and every book, I am taken on a unique and individual journey, by some amazing authors, who fire my imagination, stimulate my senses and stir my emotions. For a single author to achieve all that with one epic series, is surely testament to the sheer quality of the writing and storyline. So I recommend that you read The Sturmtaucher Trilogy for yourself and see where your journey leads you. You won’t be disappointed!!
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