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Wolfram
On sale
15th September 2011
Price: £10.99
Genre
The Aïchele family were decent, cultured, peace-loving Germans trying their hardest not to get swept up in the madness of Hitler’s Third Reich. But by the time war came, for civilians on all sides, there was nowhere left to hide.
The conflict took Wolfram, the family’s gentle, 18-year-old son, to the Russian Front and the Normandy beaches. It also engulfed the town of his childhood, obliterating its inhabitants in a devastating firestorm.
Wolfram is a powerful story of human survival. It is testimony to the fact that even in the darkest times there remains a spark of humanity that can never be totally extinguished.
The conflict took Wolfram, the family’s gentle, 18-year-old son, to the Russian Front and the Normandy beaches. It also engulfed the town of his childhood, obliterating its inhabitants in a devastating firestorm.
Wolfram is a powerful story of human survival. It is testimony to the fact that even in the darkest times there remains a spark of humanity that can never be totally extinguished.
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Reviews
'As an Englishman writing about a German destiny for a non-German public, Milton avoids the pitfalls. Instead he renders a service to his father-in-law's generation by reminding readers about the sheer physical, mental and spiritual effect it took to stay true to oneself in a vicious regime.'
'idiosyncratic and utterly fascinating'
'a truly remarkable story . . . a tour de force.'
'a compelling account of 20th-century darkness.'
'Giles Milton is one of our most engaging writers of non-fiction. In Wolfram, he writes with deceptive simplicity, matching his effortless style with a fascinating subject to create a page-turning and thought-provoking book.'
'a remarkable narrative of [Wolfram] Aichele's life during the Nazi regime, written by his son-in-law Giles Milton.'
Engrossing . . . Milton's book celebrates the heroism of individuals who put lives before ideologies
'as a portrait of how these civilised individuals were able to survive, this is invaluable.'
'Besides being moving and readable, Milton's social history provides a sympathetic counterbalance to the idea that all wartime Germans were "Hitler's willing executioners".'
'a delight to read.'
'Milton's book is no apology for the Third Reich - rather it is the very human, horrifying story of an ordinary German boy and his family of free-thinking artists, none of whom supported Hitler's politics and all of whom suffered great hardships.'
'Giles Milton looks deeper into family history with Wolfram, the story of his father-in-law's childhood under the Third Reich.'
'Milton's writing, too, is first-rate. Engaging, poignant and vivid, he wrings just the right amount of pathos from his story, and shifts seamlessly between the varying "voices" of his narrative. . . . a very valid and interesting book'
'idiosyncratic and utterly fascinating'
'. . . the story of the Aichele family reveals an undercurrent of passive resistance that existed among ordinary Germans. . . . In considering what Germans went through during the war, Milton's book shows that our understanding should not be so clear cut. . . . Milton's close analysis of the experiences of Germans demonstrates that they too could be victims of the war.'
'Nazi Germany becomes three-dimensional in Giles Milton's touching study of a boy from a decent family which practised its own form of passive resistance.'
'affectionate account'
'a valuable record of what it was like to be sucked into war, and a vivid evocation of the fear and bewilderment of living in the Third Reich.'