I just finished The Auschwitz Twins by Roberta Kagan (not to be confused with The Twins of Auschwitz by Eva Moses Kor), about the horrific twin experiments performed by Dr. Mengele during the Holocaust. This historical fiction alternates between multiple perspectives but follows the lives of a few main characters. First, there is a Jewish family of five, made up of 8 year old twins Bluma and Perle, their older sister Shoshana, and parents Herschel and Naomi, who are separated from the girls when boarding a train in the Warsaw ghetto. Herschel makes a deal with a Nazi to let Naomi escape, and she manages to survive for a while with a former Nazi who has defected and is hiding in a cabin in the woods. Meanwhile, inside Auschwitz, Shoshana and the twins meet Dr. Mengele and his assistant Dr. Ernst Neider, a newlywed who hopes to impress his new wife with his prestigious job, but despises working for Mengele. Finally, we have Ernst's wife Gisele who is actually Mengele's daughter, witnessed murders in France and is being hunted by the murderer, and is striking up an affair with one of Mengele's other assistants. Ie. She's bad news.
Ernst really struggles with his job, he became a doctor to help people but knows that Mengele's experiments are torturous and not designed to protect his subjects. I'm glad that Kagan showed this side of Nazis and how they coped (or struggled) with the atrocities they committed. That being said, Ernst tells Shoshana that he is staying only because he is trying to help her and others, but he doesn't really do very much to help Mengele's victims, until he helps them in a very anticlimactic and way too easy escape. I, myself, am torn because too many recent historical fictions portray resistance fighters as being a much larger and more active percentage of the population, so I'm not sure whether to commend Kagan for downplaying his role, or be disappointed that this idea was even included in the story, as I'm not sure there were very many Nazis willing to help victims of torture while in Auschwitz. I think that his reluctance and internal conflict is a pretty well done, the escape was not my favourite part, but I am glad that he was able to get away from Auschwitz.
I also wished there was a bit more of a focus on Mengele and the twins. I wonder if maybe the second book focuses on that a bit more since it is called Mengele's Apprentice, but I can't say for sure since I haven't read it. I definitely was hoping for a bit more of a look at this awful "doctor" and the terrifying experiments he conducted. I also felt that for a book with the word "twins" in the title, the story was much more about all of the other main characters, Bluma and Perle were barely even in the story. Their role was important, especially because it was the only way to fully connect the two stories, but it certainly wasn't the main story of this novel. I also may have confused this book with The Twins of Auschwitz (hence my caution at the beginning...), which appears to be a survivor's memoir, so I may have expected a slightly different storyline than what this book ended up being...
As far as the writing style, I think it is fairly easy to follow and broken into several short-medium length chapters. Despite alternating perspectives frequently, the storylines are well developed and easy to navigate between. I did not realize until I began writing this review that this is actually the final instalment in a trilogy, but it does make sense. Kagan gave a fair amount of detail about the first two novels within this story without having to be too explicit. I did wonder at times about some of these very detailed backstories (like the affair between Naomi and her lover or how Ernst got his job with Mengele and met his wife) but didn't think too much of it. Now I realize that was probably hinting at stories that were more developed in prior books. Either way, it worked fine as a standalone but I also think it might be nice to read them in order if that is possible. My only problem with the writing style was the excessive use of character thoughts in italics. Let me give you a little example:
"I'm glad it's dark and he can't (see) my face. He would be angry that I am crying. But I can't help myself. I know it's a sin, but I can't help myself, I wish Eli were beside me instead of Herschel. He would understand my feelings. And even though he, like the rest of us, would be powerless against these guards, he would at least hold me and comfort me, she thought. Then she reminded herself, These are selfish thoughts; I should be glad he is in Britain with his wife. He is safe there. Our love for each other was a sin....." (end of Chapter 1), and it continues on for a few more sentences. I just felt that there were other ways to include these thoughts without having to use this writing pattern which is used several times in each chapter, sometimes for multiple paragraphs.
Overall, this book is relatively well written, easy to follow and the fact that it is the third in the series does not affect it being read as a standalone, which is great. At times, the writing style was a little slow and I felt the ending was especially anticlimactic. It is not my favourite WWII historical fiction, but there were also a lot of elements that I felt were fairly well done so it is still a 4 star for me and one I would likely recommend. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read and review this novel!
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