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A review by piedwarbler
Some Girls, Some Hats And Hitler by Trudi Kanter
5.0
Well, this is a remarkable book. I loved it. It has a totally misleading cover design. It looks like some kind of Mills and Boon novel. In fact, it’s a remarkable story of courage and resilience in World War II, by a woman called Trudi who is a successful milliner in Vienna in the 30s.
She manages to evade capture by the Nazis and also to escape to London, and also, incredibly, to save her husband and parents too. She then settles in London and goes into business as a milliner once more.
The really striking thing is that this book sank into obscurity, as did Trudi. I suppose alongside Holocaust accounts by men, this account may seem on the surface rather trivial and quotidian, with its beautifully observed descriptions of clothes and interior design.
However, the surface beauty of the Vienna of the 30s gives way to the murderous activities of the Nazis. Trudi captures brilliantly the feelings of loss, fear, longing, and sense of belonging snatched away as she is forced to escape the German advance across Europe.
I would recommend this book to you with all my heart. It deserves to be so much better known. My copy is a library one. It’s been borrowed three times in the last ten years. This is a huge pity.
Thank you to Ariana Neumann for recommending this book in the bibliography to her own work: When Time Stopped, which is another stunning piece of work about the search into Neumann’s family history.
She manages to evade capture by the Nazis and also to escape to London, and also, incredibly, to save her husband and parents too. She then settles in London and goes into business as a milliner once more.
The really striking thing is that this book sank into obscurity, as did Trudi. I suppose alongside Holocaust accounts by men, this account may seem on the surface rather trivial and quotidian, with its beautifully observed descriptions of clothes and interior design.
However, the surface beauty of the Vienna of the 30s gives way to the murderous activities of the Nazis. Trudi captures brilliantly the feelings of loss, fear, longing, and sense of belonging snatched away as she is forced to escape the German advance across Europe.
I would recommend this book to you with all my heart. It deserves to be so much better known. My copy is a library one. It’s been borrowed three times in the last ten years. This is a huge pity.
Thank you to Ariana Neumann for recommending this book in the bibliography to her own work: When Time Stopped, which is another stunning piece of work about the search into Neumann’s family history.