An intriguingly complex man, Karl Gönner was Burkhard Bilger’s grandfather. He was also the Nazi party chief of the town of Bartenhelm and the local schoolmaster. Bilger wrestles with the idea of who his grandfather was in an honest and open manner. The book is thoughtfully written…a fascinating look into what ordinary people faced with extremism might do. Bilger does a thorough job of bringing his painstaking research to a narrative that tells the story of his grandfather in such a way that we see the humanity in ordinary citizens living extraordinarily stressful lives. Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Wow, I am determined to get as many people as possible to read this memoir. It is truly unlike anything I've read in YEARS and will move you in multiple ways. How would you react finding out your father was a Nazi? This book tells you an answer to this question and it will make you think hard.

Burkhard Bilger is an American born German whose family came to America after the end of World War II. With an obviously German name, Burkhard was sensitive to his family’s participation in Germany’s war effort, particularly his grandfather Karl, his mother’s father. Because he speaks fluent German, Burkhard was able to read primarily documents and conduct interviews with survivors. This book is the result of his research. Berkhard was born in the US after his parents emigrated in 1962 so speaks English as a native language but speaks German at home.

The Bilgers lived in Alsace which put them central to the conflict between Germany and France where two languages were spoken. Changing nationalities was more then a matter of swapping street signs. It reached down into society's smallest gears. Sermons had to be rewritten, labels reprinted, and anthems relearned. Farmers had to change their crops (out with grapes, in with hops), restaurants rework their menus (in with wurst, out with foie gras).

Karl was a teacher and his job for the Germans was to teach young Germans how to be good soldiers, to ready them for service. It was America's Jim Crow laws that the Nazis used to create their laws. In 1937 forced sterilization was legal in 32 states. And when the first German eugenics research was done in the 1920s, the Rockefeller Foundation helped to fund it. When the French reclaimed Alsace Karl was imprisoned for his role.

Karl's letters to his son Gernot from prison were to encourage him with bracing optimism to look at job opportunities in customs, finance, teaching, vocational instructor, or in the chemical industry. Bilger thought of that letter again and again these past few years, as the world has seemed to spin to pieces around him - "war, mass shootings, and climate disasters, racism, pandemic, and a deepening gulf between rich and poor." Karl told his son that he could land a job, find a vocation, and help piece his country back together. That the world the Nazis had nearly destroyed was worth inheriting."

Can we ever look objectively at our own family's history? I'm not sure, and this book doesn't lend much evidence to it. I'll give Bilger credit - he at least went to the places where his grandfather lived and worked as a Nazi and actually talked to people and looked at document archives, so he tried. But ultimately this book seemed like a rose-colored glasses attempt at explaining why <i>his</i> grandfather wasn't a "bad" Nazi, like all those other Nazis. Why he was one of those who just "go along to get along." Newsflash - that's a huge part of the problem! If people don't stand up against this type of thing, if everyone's a "good German" and just looks the other way, it makes it easier for this to happen. You. Are. Complicit.

Family history is a hazardous thing, footpaths through a darkening wood.
from Fatherland by Burkhard Bilger

In fall of 1969, my senior year of high school, my family hosted an exchange student. Soon after school began, the four exchange students at my school and their American sister or brother were invited to meet together.

There was my sister from Finland, a boy from Japan, a girl from Chili, and a statuesque girl from Germany. She had a presence that intimidated girls and boys alike. I became her best American friend. At that meeting, someone hesitantly asked her about her country’s Nazi history. I don’t recall her exact words, but in effect she said that many people were not aware of the worst. She seemed dismissive, as if it were ancient history.

There’s a sense of the past floating quietly in the wings, still too close for comfort.
from Fatherland by Burkhard Bilger

My German friend and I were born in 1952 and WWII seemed a long time ago when in reality it was all too recent to our parents. Our American history class didn’t get past the Civil War. The Modern History class I took was a mere semester squeezing in everything after the Ancient History class. It wasn’t until our teenage son delved into WWII history that I began to learn about that war, and over the decades since I have been filling in my understanding.

My first impression of Fatherland was the masterful, gorgeous, writing that immediately caught my interest. Bilger begins with the climax: Bilger’s grandfather, Karl Gonner, on trial as a war criminal, accused of murder. Called ‘a perfect Nazi,” yet villagers claimed he had shielded them, was a ‘good Nazi.”

Was Bilger’s grandfather a villian, or a hero? Or just a man trying to survive in horrendous times, trying his best to be a good man while forced to be the arm of hate? “Each of us carried the seeds of murder and mercy within,” Bilger notes his mother telling him; “What takes root depends as much on circumstance as character.”

I understand the confusion. My beloved grandfather, a polymath, with numerous grandchildren named for him, had a secret that I discovered in my genealogy research. A stain that I can’t reconcile with the man I knew. My second great-grandfather spent time in the Confederate Army. The family, with Swiss Brethren roots, owned no slaves, but I will never understand if he had no choice or volunteered, or what the South meant to him.

Bilger interviewed those who remembered his grandfather, found forgotten records in dusty archives, traveled in his grandfather’s footsteps. This is also the history of Alsace and its people, a vivid and heartbreaking revelation of suffering, resistance, retribution, justice, and even grace.

I was shocked to learn about the 1945 Hungerwinter, and to understand that in 1948, a mere four years before my birth and the birth of my German friend, Germany had double the infant mortality rates of its neighbors. The horrors of the past were too awful to remember, so swiftly repressed.

Karl Gonner was an idealist who at first embraced Nazism for its promise of a just society, and was later tasked with turning the Alsace children into good Nazis. He cared about the villagers and protected them when he could have wielded his power to terrorize and punish. He nearly lost his life in the retribution against war criminals, saved by the people who benefited from his protection.

Can we ever understand our ancestors, the choices they made?

I appreciated this book as a family memoir and as revealing history.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

Sometimes family history lies hidden in the memories of the people who lived it and then do not speak of it. In the case of Burkhard Bilger, his curiosity and drive to find out more about his grandfather's role as a Nazi official during the terrible times of World War II took him to the Alsace area between France and Germany. From his research and dogged determination, he is able to write this fantastic memoir. Was his grandfather a despot or a pragmatic and compassionate man? Where were the facts, in stories told by villagers, in archives, in the accusations of a striving politician to enact revenge? All of this comes out in the telling, along with lots of interesting history of the area and its vacillating control by French and German rulers. I learned a lot about a piece of Europe and wartime that I had never heard of.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is an extremely well-written, thoughtful, unsettling book that holds a very dark mirror up to some of the ugly thinking that is trying to overturn democracy today.

After the discovery that his maternal grandfather, Karl Gonner, was not only a member of the Nazi Party, but also party chief of the town of Bartenheim in occupied Alsace, the author decided to delve for the truth. Like many descendants of survivors of that war, on both sides, he'd run into the brick wall of silence, but persisted, to the point of traveling to the area, and investing not only extant records, but interviewing every living Bartenheim resident he could find. Then doing even more research, to discover, if he could, what kind of man his grandfather was.

Karl Gonner was, eventually, cleared of all charges related to his actions as party chief. Bilger comes by degrees to the conviction that his grandfather was not culpable in perpetuating the horrors, that he walked a very difficult line at a time when so many people were finding themselves capable of acts that that would shadow them for the remainder of their lives, just to survive.

This book is not just for those of us who find similar skeletons in our family closets, or for WW II history buffs, but for all thoughtful readers who want a look at what makes human beings do what they do in extremis--and how we get there. All the while, the clock is ticking now, as hate mongers rant, rave, lie, just as Hitler did a century ago...

This was absolutely outstanding. I always say I'm burnt out on WWII history/memoirs, but what I'm really burnt out on is ones that rehash the same angles or tell very similar stories (I know that can sound unfair, since of course these stories are important). But this was exceptional and it really did something different. I felt uncomfortable at first that it seemed he was establishing sympathy for someone who was a Nazi, but that was the whole point: showing how much was actually at play during this time and how much nuance there actually was. Gorgeously written, tells the history in an extremely accessible way, and an incredible personal story. I can't believe he actually managed to even piece all of this together! Such an amazing undertaking and right in the nick of time, as people from this period are aging and already struggling to remember. One of the best of the year for me for sure.

This is a very thorough and detailed look at the author’s grandfather and his life and position in Hitler’s Nazi regime. If you were looking for a textbook-like read and are in search of details about life during those times, then you will enjoy this book. If you are used to lighthearted, historical fiction, books about World War II, you won’t find it here. Through very laborious and thorough research the author delves into past family secrets, and the behavior of his grandfather throughout the war. He is both looking for redeeming qualities and the truth, and fines both. Thank you to NetGalley for this advance read copy.

The author researched his grandfather’s life and activities during World War II. Karl Gönner was a school teacher and Nazi Party chief in the Alsatian village he was assigned. At war’s end, he was imprisoned in France and accused of causing a villager’s death. Many villagers courageously defended him for preventing deportations or getting people out of prison.
Learning what happened during the war isn’t easy. Germans tried to forget the war. Now, there is interest, but that generation is dying off. How could they have supported Hitler? They were gradually conditioned to the Nazis. Bit by bit, each occasion a little worse, but never a truly great shock that would cause resistance.
Alsace was in a difficult position. Now French, now German, back to French. Each side tried to wipe out any trace of the other. At the end of WWII, the French were bent on revenge against Germans and French who they thought might have collaborated.
Karl Gönner knew the Alsatians were French at heart and that they played along with the Germans. He didn’t retaliate against them.
The author wrote often about American ills: forced sterilizations, the Rockefeller Foundation funding Mengele, the Harlem hellfighters of WWI. That doesn’t mitigate Germany’s actions.

A fascinating exploration and what must have been a painful book to write. Bilger doesn't dodge the ethical questions posed by his grandfather nor does he sugar coat. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Well written, thoughtful, and thought provoking.

A Memoir of War, Conscience and Family

10 years in the making “Fatherland” is a griping tale of encounters and discoveries. The author explores the life of his grandfather Karl Gönner who was posted as a school principal and Nazi Party official to the village of Bartenheim in the province of Alsace during WW11.

What follows is a suspenseful story of encounters and discoveries in dusty archives across Germany and France. He asked searching questions about the extent to which his grandfather was guilty of the war crimes he stood accused of. Arrested in 1946, was he guilty or innocent? Tracing one family’s path through history is a long task. Beautifully written this thought provoking book is not only a family memoir but a fascinating history lesson. The research is intricate, exhaustive and meanders through the recollections of acquaintances and witnesses who kept records. Told through the eyes of Germans it shows us that even among the Nazis there were decent people. There is another side of the coin, describing how the same war devastated the lives of millions of Germans.

I was totally captivated knowing the history of the Alsace how it switch from being part of France then part of Germany again back to France, back and forth they went through the times and by law changed their names and those of public places to conform to the new government they happened to be part of. Why change names of streets, topple monuments and harass people for speaking another language even another dialect....

A lot happens in this multi-faceted story. While the author did not mince his words he remained guarded through his narrative and gave us an excellent account. Well said, well done.

Whether you’re a World War I and II buff, a genealogical researcher, or simply a person who likes a well-told non-fiction story, New Yorker staff writer Burkhard Bilger’s Fatherland: A Memoir of War, Conscience, and Family Secrets may well be one of your favorite reads in 2023.

Born in Stillwater, Oklahoma to Hans and Edeltraut Bilger, 1962 immigrants from Germany, Burkhard Bilger grew up hearing their stories of daily life during WWII. By five years old, he was spending time in Germany with his parents and siblings. He came to know the country and its people. However, for many years, the family kept one big secret.

When Burkhard was twenty-eight, his mother first revealed that her father, Karl Gönner, had been imprisoned for war crimes. As a young man, Bilger was not yet ready to go searching for his Nazi grandfather. He had left his German heritage and his home state behind, moving east for university and a journalism career, reporting stories from around the world, but never Germany. The horrors of Kristallnacht and the concentration camps were too recent, too close to home. Many older Americans remained skeptical of German Americans’ loyalty, and many German Americans still suffered from a sense of collective guilt.

In 2014 at roughly age 50, Bilger moved his wife and youngest child to Germany, the older children already in university and scheduled to arrive in the summer. “Moving to Germany was a way to both wrestle with my heritage and reclaim it. I was there to gather stories about my grandfather,” he explains,”but also, I hoped, to show my children something of the country I had known as a boy.”

Conducting extensive archival research and interviews in Germany and France, Bilger began piecing together the story of a complex man—son, husband, father of four, caring teacher, Nazi Party member, Nazi Chief in village Alsace, German prisoner of war in eastern France, war criminal in solitary confinement in Strasbourg, Alsace--a region that had passed back and forth between the two countries throughout history, been captured by the Nazis during WWII, and reverted to France after the war.

Karl Gönner’s life will captivate readers, but so will Burkhard Bilger’s stories of his research process. Although an experienced journalist and researcher, he still had much to learn about on-the-ground genealogical research as well as many adventures ahead as he traveled place to place, retracing family history, seeking those people who could provide insights, vague memories, tidbits of knowledge capable of contributing to the big picture. Occasional findings put Bilger in a difficult spot, creating a conflict between the demands of objective journalism and a grandson’s sense of family.

The multi-faceted story Burkhard Bilger tells encompasses his parents’ immigration, family history going further back than his grandfather, and his grandfather’s life, including WWI trench warfare experiences, family life, teaching in Germany, teaching in Alsace to change French children into patriotic Germans, and so much more.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an advance reader copy of Bilger’s highly recommended narrative history.

I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley.
This memoir makes you think about how one's actions could be construed as either positive or negative depending on where you look. It was quite interesting with the personal touch. It made me think about all of the narratives and lives lost during those years.

Overall, an interesting read concerning a man trying to trace the history of his grandfather during the second world war. While the story was inspiring, the author tended to meander all over and the book was hard to follow at times. Still, it was a good book, and one worth reading.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book details the search by the author of his grandfather’s place as a well placed Nazi on the local level during World War II. It is well written helping to make it a fairly quick read. The subtitle of the book gives a clear description of what occurs in the book. Well worth the time to read.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook page

Burkhard Bilger’s book, “Fatherland: A Memoir of War, Conscience, and Family Secrets,” (Publication Date 02 May 2023, Random House Publishing Group, EPUB ISBN 9780385353984), earns a strong three-star rating.

This book is about a once unknown and now uncomfortable history in which the author Bilger examines his grandfather Karl Gönner’s life during WWII. The story begins with Bilger listening to his parents speak evocatively of growing up in Germany in the Black Forest, along the Rhine, but eventually realizing there were many missing pieces in those stories that seemed to surround his maternal grandfather Karl Gönner, who was an elementary school teacher. Then, a bundle of old letters arrived from Germany.

Bilger learned his grandfather was posted to the Alsace region where as a Nazi Party chief, he was responsible for reeducating the children there. During the war, Gönner was charged with giving an order that led to a farmer’s death. Decades later, Bilger faced the issue of whether his grandfather was a war criminal, or a normal person who was struggling to be righteous within a regime known for its inhumanity.

This is a richly researched, ten-year look into morality directly affecting his family, and thus, himself. At times, the pace moves with appropriate speed as Bilger pursues the truth not yet uncovered, but there are times when the narrative lags, causing this reader to want to pause from the book. Still, it’s a fascinating book, a terrific detective story, and a thoughtful piece of work…well worth the read.

Thanks to the publisher, Random House Publishing Group, for granting this reviewer the opportunity to read this Advance Reader Copy (ARC), and thanks to NetGalley for helping to make that possible.

Do you watch Finding Your Roots, with Dr. Henry Louis Gates? As he explores guests’ ancestry with them, sometimes they find out about an ancestor who was a criminal or other sort of wrongdoer, like a slaveowner. Watching the show, you just get the initial reaction of the guest. I’ve often wondered what happened later. Did the guest try to find out more? This book is my ideal of what would happen afterward if a guest found out his grandfather had been a Nazi. In this case, Bilger’s grandfather, Karl Gönner, a member of the Nazi party, was commissioned to go across the Rhine to a village in occupied Alsace and convert its education system to indoctrinate the children with the Nazi mentality. Karl was later made to take responsibility for instilling National Socialism into the entire village.

Bilger, a successful journalist, realizes that there are many aspects to an individual, and that who he is—or appears to be—in one role may be very different from another role. Bilger organizes his chapters to reflect these different aspects:

Suspect
Subject
Father
Ancestor
Son
Soldier
Casualty
Ghost
Teacher
Believer
Invader
Occupier
Party Chief
Traitor
Prisoner
Accused
Defendant
Grandfather

Bilger also paints a vivid portrait of his own parents, born in the Rhineland in 1935, and of the history, dialect and customs of the people living in the area of Alsace, long contested between France and Germany. Though his parents moved to the US as young parents, they continued to speak German (their particular local dialect) in their home, so that their children all spoke the German dialect too.

Not surprisingly, Karl never wanted to discuss the war or the immediate postwar years. But when she was in her 40s, Bilger’s mother went back to school and graduate degree in history. She began looking into Karl’s past, and Bilger kept the project going. Knowing the local dialect helped to gain the trust of the residents of the area where Karl had been stationed, many of whom knew Karl or whose parents had known and spoke of him. They led him to archival records not examined for decades, which added so much of the detail that the Bilgers never knew.

What Bilger discovers is that Karl’s history was far more complex than the easy characterizations most people wanted to apply in the aftermath of the war. Bilger’s study is thoroughgoing and insightful.

Summary:
"Fatherland" paints a realistic picture of what it was like to be German during WWII. The author recounts the history that lead up to the second world war in order to show how history and circumstances affect decisions. The dates and events described may surprise you. For example, back in 1930, the Nazis were the second largest social party in Germany. I think many of us don't realize how far back this party goes.

Application:
Overall, I think this book addresses some key questions each of us should ask ourselves: How can I recognize the past without justifying it? What has happened in my own family lineage/history that I need to come to terms with? How can I accept my genealogy and avoid repeating mistakes? Is there anything I've learned from the past that I can avoid or stop doing today?

The recurring theme which comes up in "Fatherland" is the warring within one's self when it comes to learning about a connection/part of history you don't want to be part of.

Final Thoughts:
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in WWII themes. This book provides insight from a perspective we don't often see (i.e. being German during the war). Beyond this direct connection to the war, I agree with the author that these prejudices and divisions are still occurring in today's society. We have to ask ourselves: Have we changed or are we repeating the past? As this book shows, problems with race and prejudice can start in small, subtle ways that are often overlooked, but the fire is building. Thanks to Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book!

Many, many thanks to NetGalley for their ARC of this new work. The author was new to me so I jumped at the chance to read this. Wow. This is brilliant. Absolutely stunning. Haunting. I will never forget this one. The tale of Nazi Germany and the many secrets of a family. This was nearly impossible to put down (but I had to... to work on my day job!). Highly recommended. Fans of history will relish this.