Pandora’s Box
When The World Went Silent by Ellie Midwood is a powerful, harrowing historical novel that consumed me from the start.
The novel is set in Germany during World War II but opens and closes in Hiroshima in 1946. The whole novel surrounds the topic of the nuclear bomb, as we join and follow a young girl with a passion for physics. Deaf since measles aged five, Mina has immersed herself in science. “The world outside is hostile, filled with prejudice and intolerance. But precise sciences are her sanctuary.”
Following the Nazis rise to power, Mina was excluded from school and seen as ‘undesirable’, and has been home-schooled. Her superior talent within nuclear physics has brought her to the attention of the Nazis at the highest level. Mina is sent to Berlin to work on the development of the nuclear bomb but she is determined to never make a bomb. She wants to heal not harm. “We’ll all have to face the choices we made today.”
Mina has a conscience, a heart and much courage. “The courage of those who dare to stand against the darkness.” As a young girl, she stood up for the marginalized except for one time when she ran, and this haunts her dreams. “Still has nightmares… she was just a young girl whose only fault was walking away when she should have stayed.” The guilt remains even though she knows there is nothing she could have done. Later she is told “Sometimes running away is the only logical thing to do.”
The reader witnesses the prejudice against women at university in 1939. “Dear, would you stand up and tell us… why you… occupy a student seat which could otherwise have belonged to a man?” This from her tutor is in sharp contrast to her friend who urges Mina to “go and make a difference.” Mina is like a sponge, soaking up knowledge. “All she craves is physics – the science of nuclear power.”
Nuclear power will destroy or heal. Mina wants to use it for healing.
The power to heal has been instilled in Mina as her mother was a nurse, and the person to whom all Mina’s friends came with their cut knees as children. Her mother has a conscience too, standing up for what she believes is wrong. This brings her to the attention of those high up in the Nazi party. As Mina notes “Before the Nazis only detested her handicapped kind. Now they are outright killing them.” (On the subject of euthanizing handicapped newborns in December 1939).
All the characters were well drawn. The leading lady was incredibly brave and very likable.
We see that not all Germans were Nazis. And not all Nazis agreed with the Party, some tried to sabotage and disrupt from within.
When The World Went Silent is a powerful tale about bravery in the darkest of times. We see the courage taken to stand up for what was right. To put the human race first.
We need to read this book in memory of all the brave souls who took a stand, and also in memory of the six million innocents who perished.
JULIA WILSON