My Brother’s Shadow

Berlin. 1918. World War I is in its final days. World War II is in the future. Is it possible to see the threads of anti-Semitism and the problems of crushing poverty that led to the rise of the Third Reich?

This is the question Monika Schroder successfully asks and answers in My Brother’s Shadow. 16-year-old Moritz’s life epitomizes the rifts in German society. His father died in the war and his brother was maimed for life. Yet, like his brother, he still feels patriotic, and is sincerely angry with Germany’s enemies, believing the war propaganda churned out by the very newspaper he works for. His mother, meanwhile, has become a committed and outspoken anti-war activist and socialist. Even as she goes into hiding to escape arrest, Moritz’s brother returns, his anger and bitterness palpable and dangerous. Moritz is torn between loyalty to his dead father and his disabled brother on the one hand and his mother, on the other. Meanwhile, as his boss at the newspaper begins to offer Moritz writing gigs, Mortiz begins to recognize the lies in the government’s propaganda. His work also puts him in the path of a beautiful girl, a Jew, also part of the socialist, anti-war machine. As he develops romantic feelings for her, Mortiz begins to question his blind patriotism, especially when he sees his brother begin to bully Jews in the neighborhood.

Schroder’s book is grounded in history but effectively shows the way a young person is torn apart by social tensions during times of war in any time and in any place. This is a great read not only for its historical content but for its commentary on young people’s experiences of war.