History is a pile of lies. It is based on perspective and told by the victors.
I have heard so many people say that history is boring and that they don’t care because it already passed. The truth is that we learn from history, seeing mistakes so that they do not happen again.
In Ruta Sepetys' "Salt to the Sea," she reminds us that history is not told from survivors but from those who no longer traverse the earth, for they are truly the keepers of history.
If you are only going to read one historical fiction novel in your life, make it "Salt to the sea." From page one you are hooked, there is no turning back, even when you put down the book, it haunts you.
The type of book that stays with you and until the end.
There is no shortage of books based on World War II. As an Avid reader, these books never cease to make me wonder about humanity and its cruelty. "Salt to the Sea" did not lack in this, it revealed events in history that people like to forget or classify as a consequence of war.
The casualties of this war in specific where to many and in the end there was no winner but suffering, suffering was the greatest winner of all, for land had never before seen such blood shed. Where does the evil that was shown in this war come from, it wasn’t just the destruction of an entire culture but it was the amount of hate that was shown in this war? One of the Nazis in the book reminds himself of everyone that he is better than through song:
Communists, Czechoslovaks, Greeks, Gypsies,
Handicapped, Homosexuals
Jews, Mentally ill, Negroes, Poles, Prostitutes, Russians
Serbs, Socialists
Spanish Republicans, Trade Unionists, Ukrainians and
Yu-go-slavs
Every word radiated such hate that seems inhuman. This thought provoking novels takes a new peek at the darkness of humans and what they are willing to do.
An example is the Nemmersdorf massacre, which was unveiled for the true monstrosity that it was in this novel. The Soviet Red Army, burned homes to the ground, raped women and nailed them to doors proceeding to mutilate the children.
They destroyed and destroyed as if the war had not taken enough from these people. My thoughts were provoked to think “Does war make us this cruel, or is it always inside of us, waiting for the right moment to come out.”
Ruta Sepetys decides to break the boundaries of history told through perspective and instead allows us into the life of four very different characters.
Joana: Lithuanian. Forced from her country. Hunted by guilt.
Florian: German. Art Thief. Hunted by fate.
Emilia: Polish. The lesser race. Hunted by shame.
Alfred: Nazi. Made of hate. Hunted by fear.
All on the run, all in search for freedom on the Wilhelm Gustloff. A story that history swallowed and that this author managed to bring back into the world.
This tragedy that the Nazis hid was unveiled, and the stories of these four will not leave you in tears, no it would leave you ransacked in sobs questioning how life could be so cruel.
This book will stay with me forever for the stories have changed my life. If you are only to read one book make it this haunting masterpiece.
