 |
| Welcome to my Blog! Wander through worlds real and fictional, meet interesting people, visit exciting places and find good books to enjoy along the way! |
.png) |
Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/4ND1x8 |
 |
| About the Book |
 |
| Read An Excerpt |
Since
the Nazis came to power in 1933, there had been many bad days for Alice. Max’s
suicide, Kristallnacht, the forced closure of her business. But as Alice
crossed the threshold to her empty apartment, she thought to herself that today
was one of the worst.
When
Alfred was arrested after Kristallnacht, he was gone for nearly two months.
That time felt like forever to Alice. As she put down her purse on the table
near the door, she thought, “What if, this time, he never comes home?” She knew
about men who had died in Buchenwald. Alfred could have been one of those men.
He could be beaten in jail, or could be sent away to one of the camps she had
been reading about. But as quickly as she thought of those horrible
eventualities, she shook her head and said to herself, “No. I will not dwell on
‘ifs’ or ‘maybes.’ It would not help me or Alfred.” Instead, Alice went into
the kitchen, made herself a quick dinner and then sat down at the dining room
table. Yesterday’s paper was on the table, and she decided to read it while she
was eating. That should calm her down.
The
Frankfurter Zeitung had been founded by a Jew and had been a great
supporter of the Weimar Republic, but was now little more than an arm of the
Nazi Ministry of Propaganda. Still, Alfred liked to read the paper, trying to
ignore the more troubling articles, and Alice often skimmed the headlines after
Alfred was finished. Alice sat down with her dinner at the table, opened the
paper, and scanned the articles. Nothing really interested her as she turned
one page after another. And then she came to an article titled “Degenerate Art
Exhibit Opens Today in Frankfurt.” The article included a picture of Government
officials attending an exhibit that had been travelling through Germany. Alice
had read about this exhibit when it was first announced in 1937. Joseph
Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda, had ordered the confiscation of over
twenty thousand works of art from Germany’s art museums and had created this
exhibit with some of those works. It had taken about two years to reach
Frankfurt. According to the article, the exhibit included the “degenerate”
paintings of Pablo Picasso, Edvard Munch, Vincent Van Gogh, and the “Jew” Marc
Chagall. Alice had seen the works of all of these artists at Frankfurt’s Städel
Museum. It was actually the first time she had ever seen a work by Chagall. She
loved the way he used color and structure in his Jewish-themed paintings. The contemporary
art rooms at the Städel Museum had been closed in 1933, but the works had sat
in a warehouse until they had been confiscated by Goebbels in 1937. These are
the great masters, she thought to herself. Alice wanted to open and window and
yell, “There is no such thing as degenerate art!!!” She was so angry that she
could no longer sit. She got up from the table and started to pace. Back and
forth, back and forth, back and forth. After a few minutes, she could feel
herself calming down a little. And then she had an idea.
Alice
took out her design folder, the folder where she kept all of her favorite purse
and dress designs. She found a few blank sheets of paper. She thought about
Chagall’s unique images, Picasso’ unusual shapes, Van Gogh’s bold textures. And
then she thought about dresses she would like to design, incorporating all of
those ideas. And then she started to draw those designs. The designs flowed
from her pencil. It was as if the designs had been stuck behind a dam and the
dam had just burst. She could not stop her pencil from moving. She could not
stop herself from drawing. She was barely aware that time was passing. She kept
drawing and drawing and drawing until her hand finally cramped and she could no
longer draw. She looked up and saw that it was after 1 am. She had been drawing
non-stop for five hours. She was exhausted. But she was also feeling calmer.
She put down her design book and turned off the lights.
Alice went into the bathroom and reached for her metal curlers. For the past few years, she had put her hair in curlers every night, so that she would have her waves in the morning. Previously, she had gone to a hairdresser, who used a permanent wave machine to give her the waves that were so fashionable. And while she could no longer visit the hairdresser, she was not ready to give up her waves, and so she set her hair every night. But what was the point now? Alfred was not home, and who knew when he would be home? And so, for the first time in a long time, Alice went to bed without her curlers, abandoning yet another part of her life.
You might also like
books written by Helen Hollick
Website: https://helenhollick.net/
Amazon Author Page: https://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick
 |
| https://mybook.to/AMemoryOfMurder |
 |
The Jan Christopher Cosy Mysteries set in the 1970s |
 |
| Coffee Pot Book Club Bronze Award2022 |
 |
| The story of the events that led to The Battle of Hastings in 1066 Harold the King (UK edition) I Am The Chosen King (US edition) 1066 Turned Upside Down an anthology of 'What If'' tales |
 |
| The Forever Queen (US edition) a USA TODAY BESTSELLER A Hollow Crown (UK edition) |
 |
THE PENDRAGON's BANNER TRILOGY |
 |
| US editions |
 |
Historical Stories of Exile by 13 popular authors Cryssa Bazos, Anna Belfrage, Elizabeth Chadwick, Cathie Dunn, J.G. Harlond, Helen Hollick, Loretta Livingstone, Amy Maroney Alison Morton, Charlene Newcomb, Elizabeth St.John, Marian L Thorpe, Annie Whitehead. With an introduction by Deborah Swift |
 |
| Amazon: FREE ebook! |
 | |
|
Thank you very much for hosting Bonnie Suchman today, with an excerpt from her fascinating novel, Stumbling Stones.
ReplyDeleteTake care,
Cathie xx
The Coffee Pot Book Club