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From Publishers Weekly
Blum, who workedfor Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation, takes a direct,unsentimental look at the Holocaust in her first novel. Thenarrative alternates between the present-day story of Trudy, ahistory professor at a Minneapolis university collecting oralhistories of WWII survivors (both German and Jewish), and that ofher aged but once beautiful German mother, Anna, who left hercountry when she married an American soldier. Interspersed withTrudy's interviews with German immigrants, many of whom revealunabashed anti-Semitism, Anna's story flashes back to her hometownof Weimar. As Nazi anti-Jewish edicts intensify in the 1930s, Annahides her love affair with a Jewish doctor, Max Stern. When Max isinterned at nearby Buchenwald and Anna's father dies, Anna,carrying Max's child, goes to live with a baker who smuggles breadto prisoners at the camp. Anna assists with the smuggling afterTrudy's birth until the baker is caught and executed. Then Annacatches the eye of the Obersturmführer, a high-ranking Nazi officerat Buchenwald, who suspects her of also supplying the inmates withbread. He coerces her into a torrid, abusive affair, in which sheremains complicit to ensure her survival and that of her babydaughter. Blum paints a subtle, nuanced portrait of theObersturmführer, complicating his sordid cruelty with more delicatefacets of his personality. Ultimately, present and past overlapwith a shocking yet believable coincidence. Blum's spare imagery isnightmarish and intimate, imbuing familiar panoramas of Naziatrocity with stark new power. This is a poised, hair-raisingdebut.
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of ReedElsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out ofprint or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

From Publishers Weekly Blum, who worked
for Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation, takes a direct,
unsentimental look at the Holocaust in her first novel. The
narrative alternates between the present-day story of Trudy, a
history professor at a Minneapolis university collecting oral
histories of WWII survivors (both German and Jewish), and that of
her aged but once beautiful German mother, Anna, who left her
country when she married an American soldier. Interspersed with
Trudy's interviews with German immigrants, many of whom reveal
unabashed anti-Semitism, Anna's story flashes back to her hometown
of Weimar. As Nazi anti-Jewish edicts intensify in the 1930s, Anna
hides her love affair with a Jewish doctor, Max Stern. When Max is
interned at nearby Buchenwald and Anna's father dies, Anna,
carrying Max's child, goes to live with a baker who smuggles bread
to prisoners at the camp. Anna assists with the smuggling after
Trudy's birth until the baker is caught and executed. Then Anna
catches the eye of the Obersturmführer, a high-ranking Nazi officer
at Buchenwald, who suspects her of also supplying the inmates with
bread. He coerces her into a torrid, abusive affair, in which she
remains complicit to ensure her survival and that of her baby
daughter. Blum paints a subtle, nuanced portrait of the
Obersturmführer, complicating his sordid cruelty with more delicate
facets of his personality. Ultimately, present and past overlap
with a shocking yet believable coincidence. Blum's spare imagery is
nightmarish and intimate, imbuing familiar panoramas of Nazi
atrocity with stark new power. This is a poised, hair-raising
debut. 
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed
Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of
print or unavailable edition of this title. 
 
From Booklist 
Family secrets of Nazi Germany are at the core of this powerful
first novel told in two narratives that alternate between New
Heidelberg, Minnesota, in the present, and the small town of Weimar
near Buchenwald during World War II. Trudy is a professor of German
history in Minnesota, where she's teaching a seminar on women's
roles in Nazi Germany and conducting interviews with Germans about
how they're dealing with what they did during the war. But her
mother, Anna, won't talk about it, not even to her own daughter.
Trudy knows, she remembers, that Anna was mistress to a big Nazi
camp officer. Why did she do it? Was he Trudy's father? The
interviews are a plot contrivance to introduce a range of
attitudes, from blatant racism to crippling survivor guilt. But the
characters, then and now, are drawn with rare complexity, including
a brave, gloomy, unlucky rescuer and a wheeler-dealer survivor.
Anna's story is a gripping mystery in a page-turner that raises
universal questions of shame, guilt, and personal responsibility.
Hazel Rochman

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内容简介

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.

作者简介

JENNA BLUM is of German and Jewish descent. She worked for Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation for four years, interviewing Holocaust survivors. She currently teaches at Boston University and runs fiction workshops for Grub Street Writers.

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Those Who Save Us（ISBN=9780156031660）

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