A review by ifollowedthatrabbit
People Like Us by Louise Fein

5.0

A heart-wrenching story, told from the perspective of an SS officer's daughter. The story begins with Hetty being rescued from drowning by Walter, her brother's best friend. The three of them used to spend a lot of time together, until one day Walter stopped going to her house, because Karl, her brother, didn't want to be friends with him anymore. Hetty was only a child, and she didn't understand why her brother wanted to stay away from his best friend.

The truth came suddenly when they were at school, and the new literature teacher asked a girl and Walter to stand in front of the students. He started explaining how to recognize a Jew, telling the rest of the students that sometimes they could get deceived by their appearance, as was the case of Walter. After humiliating them, the teacher expelled them. Hetty couldn't believe that Walter, so kind, so honest, was a Jew, but she knew, deep inside, that what she felt for him would never go away.

The rest of the story is mainly focused after Hetty and Walter meet again. She's almost 16 and he's 18, and the feeling they had for each other turned into love.
I think it's quite interesting and original to read such a story from another perspective. Hetty was raised to be a perfect German citizen, from the Nazi point of view. To hate the Jews, see herself as a member of a superior human race, and to follow all the atrocious Nazi's ideals. Therefore, when she meets Walter again, all this world starts to fall down.

I really liked this book, although it's been hard to read, because it's such a sad story, and worst of all, it was real. All those people, hated because of their blood, mistreated and condemned to the most barbarous and unforgivable acts. How heinous people can be!

Finally, I'd like to highlight the author's words about how “the lessons of the past must never be forgotten” and how mass media can be a way of propaganda, how the word is widely spread and its consequences. It shouldn't be this way. Mass media is supposed to inform in a neutral way, but we all know that's not how it works. Therefore, we must be critics.

I just hope we have truly learned the lesson. It's quite disturbing to see how the thoughts of the extreme and radical right are flourishing again. Please, don't forget all these people running away from wars, trying to find a better place to live and raise their children, and what do they find? Walls.
We must not forget. We are all the same, it doesn't matter where we come from. It's our behaviour, our acts that differenciate us. There's good and bad in all of us, but we can always do the right thing.

Thanks to Aria / Head of Zeus Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.


USA and Canada edition / UK edition