Yellow Rose

The events in Yellow Rose take us back to January 1943 and two locations thousands of miles apart, where fantasy and reality face off. Oscar, a 9-year-old boy from Dresden, is sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp although he only has a Jewish grandfather. Every day he sees new things as he walks around the camp: he meets a lion, he watches a circus tent being put up, sees yellow roses being planted, observes preparations for a fair, and hears an orchestra rehearsing. Oscar, an imaginative boy, grew up on children’s books written by his townsman, Erich Kästner, and dreamed of writing adventure stories. His mother had given him a notebook before he left, and told him to write. Now, Oscar feels that he is witness to a mystery that he needs to solve. The real explanation, however, is simple: a Red Cross delegation is coming to inspect living conditions at the camp, and Deputy Commander Niemeyer, a veteran SS officer, has been ordered to show them a model ghetto—clean, well cared for, lively, with plenty of cultural activity and— of course—fictitious.

At the same time, DC Niemeyer’s son Hans is in a bunker at Stalingrad. He and his comrades are struggling against arctic cold and hunger; their physical and mental condition is deteriorating. A few days before the final defeat, their division commander, who has lost touch with reality, announces that the Russians have been defeated. Hans naïvely believes him and steps out of the bunker, only to discover the painful truth.

The illusions, fantasies and deceptions portrayed in this clever and moving novel are very different from one another, but in extreme situations, deception, self-deception and humor are all mechanisms that help the characters to cope.