‘Inge’s War’ by Svenja O’Donnell is a truly engaging, honest and enlightening book about Svenja’s grandmother’s life in Germany under Hitler’s regime. This personal story is an important one in terms of how did the German people cope with this life at that time?

I instantly connected with Inge and her family just because they were so well drawn. This immediately made me need to find out what happened to them and I couldn’t put the book down. It was eye-opening to read about Inge’s life and her real reluctance to speak of the war.

My own grandfather served in the second world war and until the day he died, he never uttered one word of what he saw or how he felt. I still do not know even which regiment he served in, to this day. I empathise with Svenja so much at this level and am happy she could retrace the steps of her grandmother’s life.

The book describes Inge’s family as not being Nazi supporters, so the people who stayed quiet or never spoke about the matter. Then as the story evolves Albert even gets a house of one of the thousands of Jews still residing in their town in 1933. Inge carried the guilt of not being able to remember the Jewish girls name as the Jews were being displaced, forced out of education, and taken away eventually to be murdered in cold blood.

Svenja has woven a story that is partially her grandmother’s actual memories and also her own journey of retracing her grandmother’s steps, all the while using her investigative journalist abilities. I feel very highly honoured to have read this story as I feel the voices of the people left in Nazi Germany, adrift and scared by this regime need to be heard. Not every German was a Nazi and sometimes people do not want to hear that! A poignant, memorable story I shall always carry with me. I was given a copy of the book by Random Things Tours for my honest review today.