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Auslander
by Paul Dowswell

Release Date: 2nd Mar 2009
Publisher: Bloomsbury
ISBN: 978 0 7475 8909 9
RRP: £10.99

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Teenage historical-fiction about World War II

Ausländer means 'Foreigner' in German. Peter Bruck is one such outsider. Born in Poland with a Germanic heritage, he was in Warsaw when the Germans invaded. With his parents killed abruptly in a road accident, Peter finds himself snatched from the comfort of his family's farm and placed in the austerity of a local orphanage. With German scientist looking for potential children to reclaim as Germans, he is one of many orphans shuttled to a non-descript location to be measured and scrutinized by doctors to determine his racial value. For Peter, being blond, blue-eyed and having the correct cranial measurements means that he is considered a prize specimen and is quickly snapped up by an influential German family, the Kaltenbach's.

Peter's immediate gratitude for being taken in by his well-to-do family soon descends into conflicting feelings as he struggles with the Nazi training that he must attend. Amongst the Germans he is never quite accepted and he can never quite forget his Polish roots. As the Second World War swings into its fiercer stages, attitudes towards anyone none Germanic deteriorates - with a hatred of Jews being propagated amongst the impressionable youth - much to Peter's discomfort and dismay. Meeting Anna Reiter, a beautiful German girl from good parentage, Peter could hardly have expected to find a cohort with whom he could share his disillusionment with the Nazi regime, nor could he have expected just how far Anna's rebellion would take him. For in the middle of this terrifying war, where everyone's words and actions are being watched, Peter must make a choice - does he conform as his adoptive parents wish, or does he dare to defy the power of the Gestapo and offer aid to those who need it most?

Ausländer is a slow burner, where factual events are intertwined with fiction to recreate the subtle fear and paranoia experienced by ordinary people living in Berlin during the early 1940's. Gradually building up in pace and tension, Dowswell has produced a fine piece of fiction that explores the Nazi way of life from a familial perspective. Educational and thorough, Ausländer gives gravitas to the predicament of many impacted by the Nazi regime, whilst attempting to remain relatively neutral, a feat not easily achieved.

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