young love and nazi's.

 

 

Hitler. What an asshole. Moving on...

The Seventh Gate by Richard Zimler is an historical thriller that explores the Holocaust from the point of view of a fourteen-year-old German girl named, Sophie. The setting is Berlin, it's 1934 and the rise of the Nazi's to power rocks young Sophie's world. Although she is not Jewish, she has friends that are, and when her father and brother step up to join Hitler's Nazi movement, Sophie cannot choose a side. So she is forced to live two lives, one with Isaac Zarco and other underground activists, and one in the Hitler Youth movement.

I travelled to Germany two years ago and visited Dachau, where one of Sophie's friends were sent in this novel. I have never felt so much sadness underneath my feet. Although I was unable to travel to Berlin, I feel as if I had after reading this tragic, yet well-researched historical novel.