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Spanning a century and three continents, Even in Darkness tells the story of Klare Kohler, whose origins in a prosperous German-Jewish family hardly anticipate the end of her long life in a loving relationship with Ansel, a German priest half her age. In between lies a harrowing saga of families, a lover, two world wars, and the Holocaust. Based on a true story, Even in Darkness highlights the intimate experience of Klare’s reinvention as she faces the destruction of life as she knew it, and traces her path not only to survival, but to wisdom, meaning and most unexpectedly, love. It reminds us that it’s never too late or too hard to find ourselves anew.
Readers who look for depth of historical detail woven into narrative will find that this meticulously researched novel combines a fascinating view of Germany in the first half of the twentieth century, with a vivid portrait of the characters’ inner lives as they navigate the shocking realities they must face. Even in Darkness is based on 15 years of interviews, on-site investigation, and translation of letters from the people on whom the primary characters are based, in Europe, Israel and the United States.
Barbara Stark-Nemon's Even In Darkness makes personal the German Jewish experience of the twentieth century. From the comforts of prewar Germany through the turbulent years of the First World War, the Weimar republic and the Third Reich, from living in fear to brute survival in the camps to the rebuilding under American occupation and the new West German regime, Even In Darkness is also a the story of a real person. Following Klare's story makes the history our own. Stark-Nemon offers an important corrective to more standard Jewish narratives, painting a picture of complex German Jews who navigated their way through prejudice and privilege and struggled to find a place for themselves in the various Germanys of the last century. Crossing religious and geographic boundaries, this is a story about family, commitment, loss and love, sacrifice and survival. Ultimately, we learn how humanity triumphs Even In Darkness.
David J Fine, PhD, author of Jewish Integration in the German Army in the First World War
