The End of Law by Therese Down – Review

Description: 

Berlin, 1933: as Hitler rises to power; the law–designed to protect and serve–becomes twisted to the will of those who dream of a pure Aryan race.

SS Officer Walter Gunther is intensely loyal to the Third Reich. His readiness to kill without question or remorse would seem to make him the ideal candidate to lead the T4 euthanasia programme. SS officer Karl Muller, a trainee doctor and engineer, is also brought into the programme, and assured that his work is consistent with the Hippocratic oath he’s due to take.

Their mandate: to kill the “unworthies”–not just the Jews, but crippled children, the mentally ill, homosexuals. Hedda, Walter’s wife and old acquaintance of Karl, has no idea of what their work entails. Until, that is, the fate of their families is at stake, and each must confront afresh the choices they have made.

This dark, tense novel is a compelling story of human tragedy, and man’s potential to revel in, or fight against, the evil actions of a corrupted nation.

Review:
The End of Law is a heavy, heavy read. I tend to shy away from wartime fiction. In my thought process there is no sense in reading something depressing when life can be so heavy all by itself. And I don’t like the omniscient point of view where the narrator knows the inner thoughts of every character. Two strikes for The End of Law, but once I got past the first couple pages I just couldn’t stop. I found so much horrific history buried between the covers, but I also saw the wonder of people sacrificing and fighting against the encroaching evil of the Nazis. The characters are mainly members or attached to members of the Nazi party, many are protected from the horror of reality, others’ hands are so dirty that all sanity seems to be gone. When a little bit of truth leaks out, a powder keg blows within one family. The results are tragic. However, the thread of hope is not lost. God was not silent during that period of insanity. And the proof is in the good of the people who fought against the ideas of a few mad men. I so recommend this novel to anyone interested in this time frame.

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