Review: The Berlin Wife's Resistance by Marion Kummerow*

*I received a copy of this book in eBook format via NetGalley in return for this review. All reviews published on Yours, Chloe are completely honest and my own, and are in now way influenced by the gifting opportunity.

Title: The Berlin Wife's Resistance
Author: Marion Kummerow
Genre: Historical Fiction

Trigger warnings:  Antisemitism, War, Guns, Suicide Attempt

Rating: ★★★★   

The soldier looks her dead in the eye, his weapon raised. “You must leave now,” he warns. But this is her last chance to save her husband, and she won’t be silenced…

1943. Fleeing Germany had been Edith Falkenstein and her Jewish husband Julius’s last hope, selling their remaining precious possessions to make the gruelling journey. But to their horror, they are turned away at the Swiss border. Devastated, they return to the tiny Berlin apartment they share with other Jewish families, with its peeling wallpaper and bare kitchen cupboards. It is a world away from the heady glamour of their lives before.

Edith’s worst fears come true when Julius is brutally arrested and imprisoned alongside thousands of other Jewish men, destined for the camps. When she hears the news, Edith feels her heart crack wide open with unbearable grief.

But then she hears of women gathering outside the prison in their hundreds—wives and mothers from every walk of life whose relatives have also been taken. They are united by a single, desperate wish. She links arms with the woman next to her and takes up the chant.

Standing among these brave women offers Edith a flicker of hope. But can they really save their loved ones? And as Edith faces the lines of German soldiers with cold savagery in their eyes, will she pay the ultimate price for this small act of courage?

The Berlin Wife’s Resistance is the latest powerful historical fiction novel by Marion Kummerow and the third book in her ‘German Wives’ series. I read and reviewed the first two books in the series ‘The Berlin Wife’ and ‘The Berlin Wife’s Choice’ in 2023 and rated them very highly so was eagerly anticipating the release of The Berlin Wife’s Resistance and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

The Berlin Wife’s Resistance follows on directly from the end of The Berlin Wife’s Choice, opening in 1943 as Edith Falkenstein and her Jewish husband Julius try to flee Germany. Our story is told through a fantastic fast-paced narrative, covering a much shorter time period than the earlier two books but still packed full of action. Marion Kummerow perfectly portrays the constant state of fear the characters would have been living in and her captivating writing style immerses the reader into the story, capturing your emotions and leaving you on the edge of your seat.

The German Wives series is definitely a very history intensive series, with each book taking a deep dive into the time period and covering many key events in great depth. This is something which I really think sets Marion Kummerow’s work apart from other historical fiction authors as there really is so much history packed into each novel and it is all clearly meticulously researched.

The primary focus of the narrative is the Rosenstrasse Protest. This was a public demonstration in February and March 1943 where thousands of the non-Jewish wives and relatives of Jewish men and their half-Jewish children staged a nonviolent protest outside of the site where their loved ones were being held awaiting deportation. This mass public protest received national and international attention, resulting in German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels ordering the release of the prisoners and largely permitting ‘intermarried’ Jews to stay with their families. Although the Rosenstrasse Protest was a really significant event in 20^th century Germany history, as the only mass public demonstration against the deportation of Jews that took place in Nazi Germany and an indication of what could have happened if more public opposition to the Nazi regime had been voiced, it is not a topic I’ve seen covered in Second World War historical fiction before so this was fantastic.

One aspect of the book I really enjoyed was the blossoming relationship between David and Roxi, a young Roma woman introduced within this book. I would have liked this to have been explored in more depth, as we’re largely told about their romance retrospectively and in quite a brief way, but I’ll be interested to see how this is further developed in the next book in the series.

Overall, The Berlin’s Wife Resistance is yet another fantastic historical fiction novel from Marion Kummerow and a brilliant continuation of the German Wives series.

Click here to read my review of the first book in Marion Kummerow's German Wives series 'The Berlin Wife' (previously published as 'The First Spark of Fire')

Click here to read my review of the second book in Marion Kummerow's German Wives series 'The Berlin Wife's Choice'