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A review by timstretton
Winter Men by Jesper Bugge Kold, K.E. Semmel
5.0
Fiction about the lives of Germans in Nazi Germany normally falls into one of three categories: the Jewish experience; Germans implicitly or explicitly opposed to the regime (see Philip Kerr, Luke McCallin, Ben Pastor); or portraits of monsters (David Thomas's Ostland).
The Winter Men is closest to the third of these classes, taking us through the war experiences of two German brothers, both of whom are portrayed as reasonable men, and both of whom end up in the SS. The path each takes to end in committing unspeakable atrocities is set out with chilling plausibility. Both Karl and Gerhard end up, unquestionably, as monsters; but the strength of the novel is that they both remain recognisably human.
The Winter Men is a searing portrayal of evil, and how those who commit it were once like the rest of us.
The Winter Men is closest to the third of these classes, taking us through the war experiences of two German brothers, both of whom are portrayed as reasonable men, and both of whom end up in the SS. The path each takes to end in committing unspeakable atrocities is set out with chilling plausibility. Both Karl and Gerhard end up, unquestionably, as monsters; but the strength of the novel is that they both remain recognisably human.
The Winter Men is a searing portrayal of evil, and how those who commit it were once like the rest of us.