THE ARCHITECT OF AUSCHWITZ

In this historical novel, a young German man loses his beloved father during World War I and gradually transforms into a fanatical Nazi.

Gerhardt Stark enjoys a privileged existence growing up in Germany—his father, Wilhelm, is among the most esteemed architects in the country and lovingly dotes on his son. But Gerhardt’s happy childhood is shattered when his father dies fighting in World War I, his life sacrificed to the Battle of the Somme. Gerhardt is utterly devastated, and his discontent is only deepened when his mother marries a coarse businessman, Otto Schoenfeld, with whom he is at perpetual loggerheads. While Gerhardt remains devoted to his studies—he plans to follow in his father’s professional footsteps—he finds himself “drifting emotionally and without a sense of purpose in his life.” Despite his initial misgivings about Nazi ideology—particularly its hostility toward Jews and civil liberties—he finally comes to believe that his father’s death was the result of some grand Jewish conspiracy. He joins the Nazi Party, within which he finds a renewed sense of purpose: “Before his Nazi life, he was going nowhere personally or professionally. That all changed when he embraced the mantle of National Socialism.” Tagliareni chronicles Gerhardt’s profound transmogrification from apolitical skeptic to Nazi ideologue with impressive meticulousness—he tracks the slow but extreme march with thoughtful restraint. In addition, the author’s deep knowledge of the historical period and the culture of Germany at the time is beyond reproach. But he ultimately offers not much that is original to the enormous genre—this is literary ground that has been well mined for insights. Furthermore, the book’s conclusion crescendos with a dramatic confrontation between Gerhardt and his Jewish cousin Micah—as children, they were “blood brothers”—that seems cinematically contrived. And while Tagliareni’s writing is unfailingly clear, it often lacks a poetical verve.

An intelligent, well-researched but familiar tale about a fervent Nazi.