Fear comes to me three times a day, always without knocking. It sits beside me and if I stand up it follows me, by now it’s practically a constant companion. World War II. Death could arrive at any moment, particularly when your city is being targeted by enemy bombers. In a way, a sudden violent end becomes the expectation. One to be avoided if at all possible, of course. Rosa Sauer flees the Allied bombing of Berlin in Autumn 1943. Though married, her husband had joined the army. She goes t Fear comes to me three times a day, always without knocking. It sits beside me and if I stand up it follows me, by now it’s practically a constant companion. World War II. Death could arrive at any moment, particularly when your city is being targeted by enemy bombers. In a way, a sudden violent end becomes the expectation. One to be avoided if at all possible, of course. Rosa Sauer flees the Allied bombing of Berlin in Autumn 1943. Though married, her husband had joined the army. She goes to stay with her in-laws in the town of East Partsch, in East Prussia. But, in a classic case of out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire, she finds herself in a situation every bit as perilous as the threat she had fled. Soon after her arrival, members of the SS arrive at her in-laws’ house and inform Rosa that she has been selected to serve her country in a most unusual manner. It seems the Fuehrer’s base of operations (Wolfsschanze, aka The Wolf’s Lair, now Parcz, Poland) is only a few miles away, and, among his other psychiatric challenges, he is terrified that his food might be poisoned. (Well, maybe not so crazy about fearing assassination) She will be one of fifteen young women drafted to become Hitler’s food tasters. The upside, of course, is that she will be eating much better than most Germans. The downside is well…you know. Rosella Postorino - image from Globalist In the beginning, the story alternates between her experience as a taster and the time immediately leading up to that. We get a look at Rosa’s personal history, and some of the events in Germany. There is a dark tale of 1933 book burnings led by Goebbels that seemed even a bit much for his own followers. It is particularly chilling. Most of the story is about the interactions among the women forced into this job. (Guess all the men were too scared?) They run a gamut, with a few Hitlerian true believers among the more usual range of humanity represented there, telling dark, racist tales that the eagerly gullible relish as wantonly as fans of InfoWars do today, with about as much basis in reality. There are perils this forced sisterhood face together, including mistreatment by the guards, and being forced to remain in the facility all the time instead of being bussed back and forth between home and work, after a failed assassination attempt on you-know-who. We learn some of the tasters’ secrets, and see their relationships evolve with the impact of shared misery. Rosa becomes friends with one taster who is shielding a particularly large piece of information. When she is generous with a younger taster the others give her a hard time about it, as if generosity were somehow a sign of weakness. Their relationships with the guards get complicated. Are they on the same team? Or are they prisoners? There is considerable sexual tension, as well. During the time when the tasters are still able to live outside the compound, Rosa is befriended by a local Baroness, eager for conversation with an educated, if untitled, woman from Berlin. Attending gatherings at the Baroness’s place comes with complications of its own. And there is the ever-present need to make the most of a bad situation. Margot Wölk at 95 – image from Der SpiegelRosa is a thoughtful Virgil leading us through this particular ring of hell, offering consideration of underlying moral questions. Why, for some time now, had I found myself in places I didn’t want to be in and acquiesced and didn’t rebel and continued to survive whenever someone was taken from me? The ability to adapt is human beings’ greatest resource, but the more I adapted, the less human I felt.
She must cope with the probable loss of her husband, reported MIA. Is he gone? Should she hold out hope or accede to the likelihood of his demise? When push comes to shoot will you find yourself on the flat or pointed end of the bullet? Will you be able to decide for yourself or will you leave it to others to decide for you? I could have known about the mass graves, about the Jews who lay prone, huddled together, waiting for the shot to the back of the head, could have known about the earth shoveled onto their backs, and the wood ash and calcium hypochlorite so they wouldn’t stink, about the new layer of Jews who would lie down on the corpses and offer the backs of their heads in turn. I could have known about the children picked up by the hair and shot, about the kilometer-long lines of Jews or Russians—They’re Asian, they’re not like us--ready to fall into the graves or climb onto trucks to be gassed with carbon monoxide. I could have learned about it before the end of the war. I could have asked. I but I was afraid and couldn’t speak and didn’t want to know.
Pastorino offers up some darkly comical tidbits about the not-so-fearless leader, including reference to his considerable problem with flatulence, (I can only imagine what Mel Brooks would have done with that) being afraid to go to sleep, becoming a vegetarian after visiting a slaughterhouse, keeping his aides up all night regaling them with stories, the late nights rich with Hitler humiliating his staff at length, which sounds uncomfortably familiar. They appeared to enjoy being the focus of his dark attention, like sycophants today. We learn that Eva Braun hated Blondi, the singing German Shepherd that Adolph doted on. And for all you white nationalists out there, you will also learn the proper way to deliver a Nazi salute.Margot Wölk is the actual person on whom Rosa Sauer was based. Wölk was interviewed on the occasion of her 95th birthday, in 2012. (links in EXTRA STUFF). Postorino happened cross the article in 2014 and thought it ideal subject matter for a novel, throwing together issues of daily mortal terror, sacrifice, adaptation, destiny, love, survival and guilt. Trying to relate to this person, whose life was so different from her own, Postorino gave her characteristics of herself, a particular appreciation for clothes, vanity, chattiness, her hair color and her name. Margot Wölk in 1931 – image from BZ-BerlinAnother novel about Frau Wölk, by V.S Alexander, The Taster, was published in the USA in 2018, a few weeks after Postorino’s book was published in Italy. Alexander’s book was released later in the UK under the title Her Hidden Life. A weird coincidence, but it seems likely that both were inspired by the same late-life revelations by Frau Wölk.At the Wolf’s Table, originally published in 2018 in Italy, was a big hit there, winning the Premio Campiello Literary Prize. The translation by Leah Janeczko is smooth. It reads as if written by an English speaker. My only gripe about the novel is that I found the romantic element less than persuasive. The strength of this novel is in giving us a character we can feel for, trying to survive in a time and place in which one’s continued existence could not be presumed from day to day. She is an intelligent, feeling person, who considers more than just the usual externalities, but offers an awareness of larger, deeper considerations. It also gives us a look at a little-seen aspect of Nazi Germany, a rare item indeed. And finally, it presents perspective (while written by an Italian) from a regular-person German, neither Nazi nor resistor. Postorino has served up a filling and delicious meal of a novel. Bon Appetit.Review posted – February 1, 2019Publication date-----USA – January 29, 2019-----Italy – January 11, 2018=============================EXTRA STUFFLinks to the author’s GR, Twitter, Instagram and FB pagesItems of Interest-----Polpettas Magazine - In Conversation with Rosella Postorino - by Margherita Visentini - a very worthwhile interview with the author, despite a less than perfect translation from Italian-----Reading Group Guide-----Revolvy - a bio of Margot Wölk - with some detail on her pre-taster life-----Spiegel Online - Hitler’s Food Taster: One Bite Away from Death - by Fabienne Hurst-----NY Times - What if the Powerful (and Paranoid) Started Using Official Tasters Again? - by Ligaya Mishan-----Wiki on The Wolf’s Lair-----Triumph of the Will - Although I had seen clips of this, I had never seen the entire film. Have now. The tasters, among others, are made to sit through it while at the compound. Remarkable film-making. What a waste of talent in promoting such a dark cause.
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