The German House is Annette Hess’s first novel and I thoroughly enjoyed the story. It was translated from German and I feel that it must have been a difficult book to translate, but it was done excellently. The story takes place in Frankfort, Germany in 1963 during the Auschwitz trials. The main character Eva Bruhns is a Polish translator for the trials. I loved her character. She was sensitive and independent during a time when women were not very independent. She did not let her fiancé or family make decisions for her. She did not pick her wealthy fiancé over translating for the trials. She forged ahead on a mission to see justice done. I always enjoy reading about the German side when it come to the war even though many times I find myself shaking my head and saying, really. The question that always arises and that doesn't have a good answer to is what would we have done in those circumstances to save our families, our neighbors our loved ones? I can’t even imagine the horror and guilt the Jewish people experienced. To think if a percentage of the German officers and guards refused to follow orders the outcome could have been so different. To say what I didn’t like about the book I would have to say the relationship with Eva and her fiancé Jürgen. He was hard to figure out and I didn’t understand their relationship or want to be together. It did not make a difference to the storyline. Thank you NetGalley, HarperVia and Annette Hess for providing me this ARC for an honest review. I highly recommend this read and look forward to more books by Hess.

The book was very confusing to me. Eva and her relationship with Jurgen was disturbing. Usually, I find historical fiction about the holocaust interesting and enlightening but this wasn't. Maybe lost in the translation??

An interesting take on the aftermath of WW2 in Germany, inspired by the Auschwitz trials of the 1960s. Gets all muddled up with changing roles of women in mid-century, and deals with a variety of different conscious and unconscious reactions to a feeling of collective guilt. Would recommend.

Just an ok read for me. Nothing really grabbed me about this book, set amidst a background of other books like it currently out. Our protagonist is a translator during the trials, and she finds herself pulled between what she wants out of life, what her reluctant fiance wants out of life, and terrible secrets that she uncovers about her own family. Nothing really struck me about this book, it all felt very surface level, but still enough for me not to DNF it.

Sorry, I just couldn’t get into this book. Grim tone with no relatable characters. I gave up about 20% of the way in.

This book was very confusing at times. It goes back and forth between characters often and was tad confusing. Eva is hoping her boyfriend Jürgen asks for her father's permission to marry. It is 1936 in Germany and Eva takes a job as a translator for a war crimes trial. Her own parents won't speak of the war and Eva finds out more about the war and what secrets her parents are hiding. Eva's life will be changed by all she learns. I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

Talk about slow build done right!!!i love how Annette Hess slowly starts this book, she covers all the much needed detail with a slow burn and then BOOM she throws you some crazy twist that will have you glued to your kindle!

The German House was an amazing read and I look forward to reading more from Annette!

“The German House” by Annette Hess is the story of Eva Bruhns who lived in Frankfurt during the war and who, in 1963, has been asked to be a translator during the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials. Her family will not talk about the war, nor acknowledge what truly took place during that time. What was their involvement at that time?

Now the city of Frankfurt has been reinvented. New buildings have been built the ravages of was and bombings have been erased and Eva’s parents expect her to marry her wealthy suitor. But the longer the trials go on, but more Eva questions what really happened at Auschwitz and Germany during the war. Her goal is to bring the accused Nazis to justice.

I felt at times that the justice system was not fair to those who had endured the horrors of the prison camp and the smugness of the accused officers and Nazi personnel just infuriated me. I know that this is a fictional account, but I’ve no doubt that much was overlooked after two decades. The desire to just “move on” was too great.

I downloaded a Kindle copy of this book from NetGalley.com in return for my personal review.

Well after WWII in Frankfort Germany 1963, Germany struggles to move on from a devastating war but many in the world haven't forgotten nor forgiven the atrocities that happened there. A young woman signs on as a translator to help an investigator with the Auschwitz Trials. She does this against the wishes of her old fashioned fiancee and others but soon finds herself hopelessly drawn into the trial, victims and the defendants. Eva has to confront her own past in order to understand her country's and family responsibility to make amends for the past war. This is a timeless look at tradition and modernism for women as well as a country and people still struggling with the past and their role for the future. Not the usual WWII historical fiction and a must-read for
anyone interested in the German perspective of the war. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A young woman translates during a trial for Nazi war crimes and finds out much about the pasts of people that she loves.

This book was slow to start but once I got into it, it was a fascinating read with a crazy twist. I could have done without the boyfriend story line as it didn't really seem to serve much of a purpose other than to show they had both grown. It made her seem like a spinster but it always went on about how beautiful she was. It was a really good subject to write about.

Eva Bruhns is a young women in post-war Germany who is anxious to become engaged. She sees her future as a woman married to a well-t0-do businessman until an opportunity as a translator during a war crimes trial presents itself. Eva is discouraged from taking the job by her family and her suitor, Jurgen. Something within Eva makes her defy convention and take the job anyway. As she continues to hear of the atrocities that occurred in the camps, Eva starts to remember bits and pieces of her childhood that don't quite make sense given her family life. When she discovers the truths of her past, her world is turned upside down. What will people do to survive and what SHOULD people do to survive are not always the same thing. Eva has to decide if the betrayal she feels is something she can forgive.

Translated from the German printing. Set in the early to mid-1960s Auschwitz Trials in Frankfurt. The main character is a young translator at the trials, coming from a background of denial of what happened in the camp, she comes to realize its horrors and her family involvement. Well written with good character development and interesting subplots. In my mind while reading was the Bible verse “the sins of the fathers visited upon the children.”

Set in 1963, this book follows translator Eva Bruhns through the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials. Naive and innocent, Eva is shocked to hear the horror and atrocities that occurred in Auschwitz. Eva finds herself struck with guilt and horror for what happened, while her fellow countrymen did nothing to speak up or save those who were lost.

This was an engaging and interesting story. It was fascinating to watch Eva grow and develop throughout the story. I also found the culture, and lack of accountability and awareness particularly telling. Although this book was a translation, it read seamlessly. Overall, highly recommended.

The German House by Annette Hess and translated by Elisabeth Lauffer is a complex, fascinating, thought-provoking historical fiction with a bit of mystery mixed in. This book is definitely not an easy read in regards to the heavy subject matter, but it was breathtaking, and I was able to devour it in 2 days.

This book mainly features Eva Bruhns, a 24 year old German living with her parents and siblings in a house/restaurant literally called The German House in Frankfurt, Germany. It mainly takes place during the 1960s with the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials. Eva becomes entwined into the trials by being hired as a translator for the Polish speaking witnesses for the Prosecution.
This book delves into the human psyche in so many ways, that it is even difficult to explain in that I do not want to give any of the spoilers or twists, and also not to do it justice.
I loved being able to get into the heads of not just Eva, but Edith (her mom), Jurgen (her s/o/fiancé), David, Ludwig (her father), and her sister Annegret (whom honestly I was not a fan of at all and am glad she received her own justice).

To have a front row seat at the Frankfurt trials was fascinating, as well as devastating. To hear more of the torture and shear horror that the witnesses had to testify to, hurt even now after knowing about the atrocities that occurred at Auschwitz-Birkenau for all my life. Every “new” story I hear, just digs the knife deeper about what was done to our people (the Jewish people), as well as many others.

It was interesting to hear the German people’s “side” and thoughts concerning the trial and the subject matter, as well as the social and political climate there at that time.

To say that this is a coming of age story by itself is not enough. This story sheds a light on what pure evil can be and look like, what hit humanity has taken, a story of overcoming the literal worst to become a survivor, and to find and define oneself despite social expectations, customs, and the fact that you cannot pick your family, nor do you have to agree and accept your family.
I enjoyed Eva and liked her character. She is flawed, yet strong, and intelligent. She has a mind of her own and deep down wants to do the right thing, and does her best to achieve that. And while the ending was sad over all, I also enjoyed certain parts of the ending that did leave the reader with an overall positive image for Eva and her future life, one cannot delude the reader into thinking that everything will be all right and that everything is black and white, because it just isn't. And for the sake of the Bruhns family characters specifically (and not the outcome of the Frankfurt trials because that is another story all together) that is enough and ok.

5/5 stars A must read.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

This is posted to my GR account immediately and will be posted to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication.

The German House
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. It is a novel translated from German. The German House is a restaurant owned by Edith and Ludwig Bruhns. Their daughter Eva is asked to be a translator for the 1963 Frankfurt Auschwitz trials. Eva accepts in spite of her family’s and her fiancee’s opposition. What she hears from the witnesses shakes her to her core, she was not aware of what happened during the Holocaust. As she becomes more involved in the trial, she questions her family’s silence on what happened during the war and later discovers their possible connection to the atrocities.

I have read many Holocaust novels and this one approaches the events from a different perspective. The perpetrators are on trial twenty years after the fact , still walking as free men and getting away with minimal sentences. I give credit to the author for addressing the subject. However, I can’t give this book more than three stars for several reasons. There are some side stories, that have nothing to do with the main subject, such as Eva’s sister’s poisoning, than curing infants as a nurse in a pediatric ward. If this behavior might be due to what she was exposed to as a child is not developed at all. I also found David Miller’s role and disappearance confusing and not fully developed.
Since this was an unedited advanced copy, I hope in the final edition, there will be chapter markings, as the lack of chapters in this edition and completely unrelated events without even a paragraph separation added to the reader’s confusion .
Thanks NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the advanced copy.

The German House is a five star read. It is a powerful and impressive novel, well written and meticulously researched.
The story takes place in Frankfurt, Germany in 1963 at the onset of the first Frankfurt Auschwitz trial which charged 22 defendants under German law for crimes committed as SS officials in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Eva is a young and naive woman whose main goal in life is to get her wealthy beau Jurgen to ask her father for her hand in marriage. She lives with her tightly knit family in an apt above The German House, a quaint local restaurant that her parents own and operate. Eve works as a Polish translator for an agency. Her life changes forever when she is tapped to be the translator for the Auschwitz survivors who are to give their heartbreaking testimony against the defendants on trial for their war crimes.
Eva’s family and fiancee, both voice their displeasure at her acceptance of the job. However, she accepts the position. Eva has not even heard of Auschwitz, nor the horrific events that occurred there. As the trial progresses, Eva struggles to cope with the realization of the magnitude of the crimes against humanity committed by the Nazi regime. She cannot believe the general attitude of the populace in economically booming post war Germany which is to suppress the depth of the atrocities which occurred in the concentration camps as well as the reluctance to contend with the reality of the crimes committed. After Eva uncovers painful secrets about her own family during the war period, she makes life changing decisions in order to remain true to herself and her own conscience.

Eva thought she knew where life was headed until the trial that sparked her curiosity and her conscience. Now get goals have changed and she wants nothing more than bringing Nazis to justice.