Two Necklaces
In Germany in 1933, Christa is part of the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM), a Nazi organization set up for young girls to aspire to Aryan motherhood and further the Third Reich. However, she secretly doesn’t agree with everything they say and does not agree to report on her loved ones, especially her brother Jürgen, who is eventually in trouble, merely because he has a Jewish friend. There are struggles in the home as her mother is grieving a loss and her father seems to be trapped into working for the Third Reich. Then Christa falls in love with Paul, who is Jewish and is soon in hiding for his life. As Christa, with the help of her grandmother Helga (Oma), tries to arrange for Paul to leave Germany, the reader is shown the escalating evil in 1930s Germany and the rising persecution of Jews and those who would help them.
The major events of the 1930s prior to the war are shown to the reader, although through the point of view of Christa, who is sometimes naïve to what is unfolding around her for a good portion of the book. Oma provides the eyes of wisdom in this story and helps Christa to see past her youth and the pinings of first love at a time when any false step or errant word can get someone killed. The way Germans are manipulated by fear and brainwashing as Hitler’s power grows is well portrayed. The construction of Buchenwald concentration camp is also brought to light by Christa’s friend Gertrude Hess, whose father is a cousin of Rudolph Hess. The ending is tied up a bit quickly, but this story does a good job of showing how intimidation, discrimination, and fear can quickly spread hate in a country and throughout the world.
