My Brother’s Secret
12-year-old Karl Friedmann is proud to be a German and wants his country to win the war. He fully believes in Hitler’s vision for the German youth and like other boys his own age enthusiastically joins Deutches Jungvolk (meaning “German Youth”, a section of Hitler Youth). Excited, because they get to play war games and learn about real weapons, he nevertheless begins to have doubts about the Führer’s ideology when he is forced to participate in the bullying of another boy.
When his father is killed fighting on the Eastern Front and his grief-stricken mother cannot cope, Karl and his older brother Stefan go to live with their grandparents in a village outside Cologne. Here he meets Lisa, who makes no secret about her hatred for Hitler and the Gestapo and, as it slowly becomes clear to Karl that his family share Lisa’s views, he discovers that Stefan is involved in illegal activities and may be in real danger.
This is a story of the seductive powers of wanting to belong, and of disillusionment and lost innocence. The systematic dehumanisation of children and young adults, thinly disguised as patriotism, is truly shocking, and even more so the sense that betrayal is everywhere. Parents fearing their children will report them, and siblings mistrusting each other, creates an undercurrent of unease and a feeling of claustrophobia, a core thread throughout the novel. The indoctrination in schools with subjects such as Racial Science on the curriculum was a real revelation, and getting a German perspective on WWII through the eyes of children was especially poignant.
My Brother’s Secret is a well-written page-turner and a must for both boys and girls aged 10 and over. Adult readers will learn something too. Highly recommended.
