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March 9, 2018 - Booked Solid by Terri Schlichenmeyer

Cover of Berlin 1936 by Oliver Hilmes, translated by Jefferson ChaseBerlin 1936, by Oliver Hilmes
Translated from the German by Jefferson Chase c.2016, 2018, Other Press;
$25.95; 320 pages

You are not alone.

While you may be the only person in the room, you are one of many. Every word you’ve written was written before. Every place you’ve visited has been seen by other eyes. The things you experience have been done elsewhere. You’re not alone: in Berlin 1936 by Oliver Hilmes, an entire city rushes to an end.

On the first day of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, composer Richard Strauss is impatient. He hates sports and he hates the tax that’s been enacted for this sporting event. For the hymn he writes on behalf of it, he demands 10,000 reichsmarks, and it rankles him that he ends up taking less.

Tom Wolfe has been to Berlin many times, and he couldn’t pass up a chance to see the Olympics there. Berlin is vibrant, friendly, and Berliners love the American novelist. He loves them…until a society matron whispers secrets in his ear.

On the second day of the Olympics, Toni Kellner is found dead in her apartment. She was not a social woman—in fact, she was not a woman at all, and Nazi-enforced edicts made her afraid to seek help for her bad heart. Berlin used to have a thriving gay community, but the Third Reich is über-aware of gay men and people like Toni now.

Joseph Goebbels can’t stop thinking about the trouble his wife put him in. Not only did she have an affair with a swindler some years ago, but something else recently came to light: the Nazi Minister of Propaganda’s wife was the child of a Jewish man.

Jesse Owens won gold. And again. And again. And again.

By the eighth day of the Olympics in Berlin, the city’s Roma and Sinti populations are taken from their apartments and moved to a sliver of land near a sanitation field. Most of them will die in concentration camps similar to the one being built just forty minutes away by local train.

And by the end of the Olympics, Hitler “is already determined to go to war.”

It may seem trite to say that Berlin 1936 reads like a novel, but it does. It’s nonfiction that reads like a horror novel, with a swirl of unaware and innocent victims, ruthless killers, and a stunning, invisible stream of ice just beneath its surface.

The compelling thing about that is it’s not one large tale of the Nazis and the Games; instead, it’s as if author Oliver Hilmes starts with major historical figures and adds little Advent-calendar windows with real people inside: here’s the Roma child, snatched from her bed; there’s the terrified, ailing transvestite; here’s the American woman who kissed Hitler; there’s the Romanian Jew who owns a thriving nightclub; all in the middle of an international story that readers know is only the beginning...

How could you resist?

Don’t even try. Instead, just take Berlin 1936 to a corner and don’t count on coming out for a good, long time. Start this book, and you’ll want to just be left alone.

Email Terri Schlichenmeyer

‹ March 9, 2018 - Volunteer Thank You up March 9, 2018 - CAMP Dates - March 9-April 14 ›

Past Issues

Issues Index

  • November 16, 2018 - Issue Index
  • October 19, 2018 - Issue Index
  • September 21, 2018 - Issue Index
  • August 24, 2018 - Issue Index
  • August 10, 2018 - Issue Index
  • July 27, 2018 - Issue Index
  • July 13, 2018 - Issue Index
  • June 29, 2018 - Issue Index
  • June 15, 2018 - Issue Index
  • June 1, 2018 - Issue Index
  • May 18, 2018 - Issue Index
  • May 4, 2018 - Issue Index
  • April 6, 2018 - Issue Index
  • March 9, 2018 - Issue Index
    • March 9, 2018 - The Way I See It by Steve Elkins
    • March 9, 2018 - Speak Out - Letters to Letters
    • March 9, 2018 - In Brief
    • March 9, 2018 - CAMPmatters by Murray Archibald
    • March 9, 2018 - CAMP Out by Fay Jacobs
    • March 9, 2018 - CAMP Stories by Rich Barnett
    • March 9, 2018 - Biggs Museum by Brent Adams Mundt
    • March 9, 2018 - CAMP Feature by Chris Azzopardi
    • March 9, 2018 - It's My Life by Michael Thomas Ford
    • March 9, 2018 - The Outfield by Dan Woog
    • March 9, 2018 - Women's FEST 2018
    • March 9, 2018 - CAMP Rehoboth Chorus Concert
    • March 9, 2018 - CAMPshots Gallery 1
    • March 9, 2018 - CAMPshots Gallery 2
    • March 9, 2018 - Eating Out
    • March 9, 2018 - Straight Talk by David Garrett
    • March 9, 2018 - Before the Beach by Kim Butler
    • March 9, 2018 - CAMP Arts by Doug Yetter
    • March 9, 2018 - View Point by Richard Rosendall
    • March 9, 2018 - Volunteer Spotlight - David Wade
    • March 9, 2018 - Volunteer Thank You
    • March 9, 2018 - Booked Solid by Terri Schlichenmeyer
    • March 9, 2018 - CAMP Dates - March 9-April 14
    • March 9, 2018 - Out and Proud by Stefani Deoul
    • March 9, 2018 - Pre-Fest Songwriter Showcase
    • March 9, 2018 - Short Story Contest
    • March 9, 2018 - We Remember
  • January 26, 2018 - Issue Index

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