Reviewed by Emma Crowley
“We’re not moving until you release our men!” Margot shouts, her heart racing. In the snow, the Berlin streets dusted with white, she shifts from foot to foot with the small crowd of wives by the iron gates. She has lived in terror that this moment would come: Nazis have arrested her beloved husband.
Margot, a German seamstress, and Jochen, a Jewish artist, were madly in love. But this became a forbidden act in Hitler’s Germany. The days of Jochen filling their sixth-floor apartment with roses to surprise her vanished. Their friends started crossing the street to avoid them. They lost their jobs. And then they found themselves scrabbling for breadcrumbs on the cold cobbles outside the home that was once their own.
Yet even as their world came crashing down, they had each other. Until now.
Now, Margot risks her life to protest outside Gestapo headquarters. As days pass, hundreds are gathered. They refuse to move, even when enemy planes cross the clouds and bombs fall to the ground. Yet defying the Nazis is a death sentence…
Will this evil war ever end? Will she and Jochen survive? What will it take for Margot to see the love of her life again?
Many thanks to Bookoutre via NetGalley for my copy of The Wife Who Risked Everything to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Wife Who Risked Everything is another powerful and well written story by Ellie Midwood. It shows how in the face of evil - love is power, courage is infectious and the voices of many will not be silenced. These words sum up our main character Margot perfectly. Throughout this book she is a warrior and a strong courageous woman whose love for her husband knows no limits and she will do everything in her power to keep him safe. It was brilliant to see such a forceful and impressive female character who in the face of unthinkable cruelty and horrors remained steadfast and obstinate in her viewpoint and never once deviated from it. Based on a true story we follow Margot and her husband Jochen as they do their best to navigate their way through the war years in Berlin.
Jochen and Margot have been married for ten years and have a very strong and loving relationship. But all that is called into question when Hitler comes to power and with Jochen being Jewish his very existence is threatened on a daily basis. But Margot is steadfast in her love for him and she will do anything to prevent him being taken away. As more and more laws against Jews are introduced Jochen’s world shrinks and he loses his job as a set designer. It is Margot who must provide for them and stand against those in authority. There is a defiant streak in Margot and I loved this about her. She refused to bow down to pressure and abandon Jochen which would have meant her own life was safe and secure. She had been destined to be a star in the German film industry but with her marriage to Jochen now illegal she is reduced to being a seamstress. She suffers daily humiliations as does Jochen but she takes them on the chin and strives to make their world better in any small way she can. But knowing Jochen could have been taken from her at any point and with the sheer hatred, discrimination and persecution against the Jews only highly ramped up the more the war progresses she remains loyal and courageous in every thought and word and deed.
There is tension, unease and suspension with every turn of the page. You never know what fate has in store next for the couple and your heart is in your mouth that the worst will happen. Ellie Midwood skilfully builds up the overall picture of what the Jewish population of Berlin were enduring at the time but at the same time she showed how Margot’s family had the means to exist fairly well off during such troubling times. Her parents exist in a tricky situation in the fact they remain married but her father lives with his mistress, a Russian refugee with royal connections named Anastasia who at first I thought would bring nothing to the story. But in fact she goes on to play a very vital role. As their world shrinks around them Margot and Jochen cling to the love they have for each other and their strong bond is evident through all of Margot’s actions. It was unique to see the roles reversed and the woman defending the man and taking over his role in terms of being the provider for the house. It really was a case of stand by your man but it at all times felt genuine and real and never forced or contrived.
The book begins in 1935 and takes us all the way up to 1943. Seeing as it started several years before the actual outbreak of war the reader could see how life was once normal for the German population but through the rise to power of one madman that life for the Jewish population was forever altered. Jochen’s freedom was taken from him and all that he valued in the world apart from Margot of course was against the law. As their living situation changes and he is sent to work hard labour things get very tough for the pair but Margot was always on high alert, checking on him that he was making it through each day and could return safely to her. She was outspoken and refused to be helpless and she threaded a very thin line when it came to being out in the public. I feared that she would take one misstep and al her efforts would have been in vain.
The Wife Who Risked Everything is a quick read but it does convey its message very well. I felt the first half after the initial introduction of the characters and establishing their backgrounds and the situation in Germany things calmed down a bit and it was a bit slow just going through the years and the various laws that were introduced. Yes, we were shown how this impacted Jochen and Margot but I needed a little bit more to happen despite the tension that I did feel throughout. I wondered where was the book actually going and it’s when we reach the last quarter and a significant event occurs which was based on a true incident that the I thought the book got back on track again and Margot as a character showed her true worth and remarkable resilience and bravery. The Wife Who Risked Everything is a very good read and it makes a change to read a story that wasn’t set in a concentration camp as a light was shone on a new aspect of the war which I hadn’t heard about.
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