In January I travelled to Germany in search of the places Hans and Sophie Scholl had lived and studied. They were arrested, tried and executed for their part in the anti-Nazi White Rose resistance group that was active in Germany in 1942-43.
The White Rose was a resistance movement founded by a group of student medics in Munich during the Second World War. Hans Scholl, Alexander Schmorell, Christoph Probst and Willi Graf were all united in their opposition to the Nazi regime. They were a minority who dared to speak out against Hitler and the Nazi Party. Their resistance took the form of pamphlets – sometimes quite intellectual – in which they sought to convince people of the injustices of the Nazis and the duty of all Germans to oppose Hitler. Sophie Scholl, Hans’s younger sister, joined her brother in Munich in 1942 and soon became a committed member of the White Rose. Tragically, they all paid the ultimate price for their bravery.Continue Reading
A Long Way From Warsaw is a novel that tells the story of Poland in World War II through the eyes and experiences of the fictional Nowak family living in Warsaw. I’m interested in the way that ordinary people are forced into extraordinary circumstances when confronted with traumatic events, such as war. Although the family in my story is fictional, what happens to them happened to many such people in Poland during this turbulent time.
I first started reading about the Hungarian Uprising in 2013 and I very quickly decided that this was a great subject for a novel. The Cold War period, an oppressive Communist regime, Soviet tanks, a brutal Secret Police, and ordinary people rising up in their quest for freedom. What was not to like? (From a novelist’s perspective at least.)