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Ordinary People Star In Powerful WWII Saga

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By AL HUTCHISON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 13, 2008

"Skeletons at the Feast," by Chris Bohjalian (Shaye Areheart, $25)

Books about World War II are so numerous and varied that it seems unlikely a new novel on the subject could generate genuine interest, but Chris Bohjalian has achieved just that by powerfully portraying ordinary people rather than the military and political figures who dominate so many war stories.

And this book about the forced marches that took thousands of refugees - as well as Allied prisoners of war - westward in the brutal winter of 1944-45 is exceptional in that it is essentially the true story of the daily horrors encountered by those who fled the advancing Red Army. Bohjalian based his narrative on the actual diaries of a survivor of just such a march, so it resonates with authenticity.

To read this story is to be reminded that humans have always been, and surely will always be, capable of incredible cruelty and, thankfully, remarkable bravery. And, upon reading this book, one may understandably wonder about future novels describing how the United States treated its enemies, real or imagined, in the war on terror and how ordinary Americans felt about that at the time.

None of Bohjalian's characters had anything to do with the decisions that led to war and beyond their own grim determination to survive, no power to affect the outcome. But the reader is forced to ask: How would I have behaved under the same circumstances?

At the center is a wealthy family that owns a prosperous estate in what once was Germany but, as a result of the Versailles Treaty of 1919, became part of Poland. The family, officially Polish but culturally German, consists of the father, the mother, three sons and a daughter. A Scotsman, one of several prisoners of war assigned to help with the harvest on the estate since all the able-bodied men in the community have gone off to fight, virtually becomes a member of the family. He and the daughter take a fancy to each other, and the family likes him, so when they flee, they hide him in one of their horse-drawn carts. Were he to be discovered, he and the entire family would be subject to summary execution, so it is imperative that he remain hidden most of the time.

A man who calls himself Manfred joins them. The reader knows him as Uri, a Jew who jumped off the train taking him to a Nazi concentration camp. He has no qualms about killing German soldiers or carrying out acts of sabotage, but as their wagons approach a military checkpoint, he flees, knowing he would face execution as either a deserter or an escapee.

There's also a group of Jewish women used as slave labor by the Nazis. As the Red Army approaches, their guards lead them westward, on foot, executing those who fall by the wayside or who otherwise annoy them.

Bohjalian allows the reader to know them and identify with them in a way that no photographs or History channel program can ever match.

Al Hutchison of Citrus County is a freelance writer

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