The Deepest Pit

The Good German Girl by Erica Marie Hogan is a very powerful historical novel that will consume you as you read.

The novel is set in 1944 alternating between the voices of an American soldier and a German girl. The reader travels from Omaha beach eastwards and from Berlin to Auschwitz. An invisible thread unites the two main characters.

Not all Germans were Nazis and not all Americans were honourable. Berlin was a terrible place to live. It was a place of fear, suspicion and ever decreasing liberties. The atmosphere of terror was palpable. The Germany of the leading lady’s childhood was gone. They were “drowning in the fear of what Germany has become.”

Within the novel there were close friendships. “If you stay, I stay… I will always be with you, as you promised you would always be with me.” This echoes the bond between Ruth and Naomi in the Bible.