War Games: A Novel of 1936 Berlin by Alan Gratz
War Games: A Novel of 1936 Berlin by Alan Gratz is his newest historical fiction novel. This novel centers around the main character, Evelyn Harris, a gymnast competing in the 1936 Olympics. The story opens with Evelyn and the rest of the American team on the ship on their way to Germany. Evelyn is an outcast among the gymnasts because she bumped off one of their friends in her acceptance to the team due to her performance in the trials. Evelyn feels alone and desperate but also determined to win gold in the Olympics. In her mind, her family’s survival depends on it, and she doesn’t want to let down all the people who helped her get to this moment. Not entirely alone, Evelyn does have a friend and roommate, Mary Brooks, a famous actress and equestrian who she befriends on the trip to Europe. However, Evelyn has received a mysterious note for her to meet someone after the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. The note promises to help Evelyn take home the gold. Desperate to leave nothing to chance, she meets the mysterious person behind the note.
Walking along in Berlin may not be the wisest thing for Evelyn, but in order to meet the mystery person, she first has to shake off Heinz, her Youth Services Host. Once she has succeeded in doing so, she meets Solomon Monday and Karl Hühnerbein. Karl is a German weightlifter competing in the Olympics himself, but prior to his current commitments he worked construction in building a fortified German bank. Monday is the so-called Leader of the operation, and their plan is to rob the bank during the Olympics with Evelyn’s help, as well as a black French diver named Ursula. Evelyn cannot believe the proposition they have given her. Why was she chosen? Monday has done his research, and he knows Evelyn’s situation at home - homeless, jobless, and the recent death of her young brother. Evelyn’s family has faced a series of traumatic events due to the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in America.
While Evelyn at first refuses, she changes her mind when she doesn’t make the competing team due to coming in 5th place. She instead is the first alternate. With time now on her hands, she reaches out to Karl and the heist is back on. With limited time, Evelyn is quickly consumed with all the things need to happen within four to five days for their heist to be successful. Readers will encounter some twists, turns, and revelations in this part of the book. For one, Heinz is actually a Jewish young man that is mistaken as Ayran due to his appearance. He is essentially hiding in plain sight. If all of that isn’t enough, Evelyn ends up getting called in to perform for her team in the Olympics when one of the original four gets injured. All is going well, but right before her big performance she begins to question and worry. Monday had given her an ultimatum and she is unsure of how true he will be to his word. He threatens to expose her, Karl, Ursula, and Heinze to the Nazis, because he feels the heist and plan has been threatened.
Unfortunately, Evelyn fails in her performance due to a fall and the U.S. comes in 5th place. Dejected, she refuses to let every chance pass her by and during a final Nazi rally held at the Olympic Stadium, she rallies the members of the team, plus Brooks and Heinz to pull off the heist of a lifetime.
Fast forwarding a bit to the end for parents, the gold they think they will find in the vault is actually all the gold and jewels taken from the German Jews who had been relocated. They plan to steal the wealth and gold bars with German insignia in order to use it to help the Jewish people and the Resistance. In the end, Monday double crosses them in a sense, but they expected it (a big twist for readers at the end) and there was an alternate plan that allowed them to maintain some of the “goods” themselves. Evelyn ends up giving her part of the treasure to Heinz to help his family and others escape Germany. This is the culmination of Evelyn’s internal conflict throughout the book as she has been hoping that gold - one way or the other - would help her family through the desperate times they have been experiencing.
While all of this seems like a great story, full of twists and turns - and it is to a degree, there is cautionary material for families who seek reading material that align with a Biblical worldview. One of the key points of caution centers around Karl. Karl is a homosexual and his boyfriend, Paul, has been sent to a concentration camp. Karl explains that they used to be able to live their lives in the open, but Paul was taken away and the only reason he was not was because the Nazi’s needed him to perform in the Olympics. While the Nazi’s did persecute homosexuals and send them to concentration camps - a matter of fact and not a point of contention of this book for me, the book does present a message that there isn’t anything wrong with this type of relationship and it is brought up a few times throughout as Evelyn thinks on Karl’s relationship. Gratz also has a portion of his Author’s Note to address the persecution of homosexuals by the Nazis. As a person of faith, this is cautionary material as it presents what so clearly is sinful behavior in scripture as a permissible and accepted type of relationship.
Another point of caution is some of the underlying philosophical conversations between Evelyn and Monday. Given the state of politics and culture today in America, I can’t help but recognize an undertone in which Gratz might be trying to make a connection or parallel that supports some of the progressive ideological beliefs in America today that sets up a dichotomy of us vs them, victim vs oppressor mindset. Monday claims at one point that he admires the Nazis for just being takers and that is what he has to also do to succeed. He claims he sees that same mindset in Evelyn. However, as Evelyn gives her portion of the treasure away at the end, it is also presented as her rejecting Monday’s beliefs.
Noteworthy quotes/ mentions:
On page 18 there is a mention of pigeon crap, and on page 163 the word damn is used. On page 196, “Nazi bastards” is used.
There are mentions of prayer and faith, but Evelyn is bent against it because of her experience in praying for her family and brother in particular to survive his dust pneumonia. However, when he dies, she decides that her prayers lead to the opposite result. While others mention prayer and faith - Heinz and Karl , she stays against it and nothing regarding that element is ever resolved.
On page 68 Evelyn is trying to decide whether to join the heist or not. She ultimately decides that being a rule follower never got her anywhere. She has spent her life playing by the rules and now she would do the opposite.
On page 76, Evelyn learns that the Nazis burn books. Karl tells her “‘That was only a prelude [...] [w]here they burn books, they will in the end also burn people.’”
On page 79, Karl talks about his homosexual partner and Evelyn tells him “‘You’re braver than I could ever be.’” Evelyn mentions this relationship in her thoughts again on page 128, 229, and page 344.
Evelyn sees a statue to young German soldiers who died in a battle that they didn’t actually win, but the lie was that they did. In trying to grapple with her confusion, Monday tells her, “‘Everyone knows the truth [...] [e]ven the German people. But the Nazis choose to perpetuate the lie–to celebrate it, even–because it suits them’” (113).
In speaking of the Nazis, Monday says to Evelyn, “‘There are no good guys or bad guys, Evie. That’s a childish way to look at things. There are only people with power, and people without power’” (114). “‘This is the way the world works, Evie. The people in power take, and they take, and they take, leaving the rest of us by the wayside–destitute and broken if we’re lucky. Dead if we’re not’” (116).
Throughout the book, Evelyn sees connections between the way the Jews are treated by the Nazis and the way Black people are treated in America. While the discrimination and unfair treatment was certainly present in the United States and certainly experienced by people such as Jesse Owens at the Berlin Olympics, Graz should be very careful with this type of comparison. There were definitely bad actors in American history who killed Blacks and treated them unfairly due to prejudice, that treatment is not a fair comparision to the genoide and torture of the Jewish people in mass by the Nazi Regime.
Speaking of a political building left in ruins, Heinz tells Evelyn that the ruins are a reminder for the German people that there are “enemies inside its borders” and they are at war against them. “A war that requires its law-abiding citizens to give up their rights” (180).
On page 91, Ursula a Black diver representing France in the Olympics, shares with Evelyn that she was sterilized by the Nazis because she is Black.
On page 244-245, Evelyn is reflecting on Monday’s words and what she has been witnessing in Berlin. Ultimately, she decides the Nazis are bad and that there is a problem with people taking and never caring about who gets “hurt in the process.” She mentions that people in Berlin did not consider “who had to suffer for their good fortune” (245).
“When every other thing the government tells you is a lie, no one knows what’s real. And when you can’t tell fantasy from reality anymore, you’ll believe anything” (278).
While there is very little profanity and the story premise itself is compelling and intriguing, I ultimately would recommend giving this novel a pass. Ever since Gratz published Two Degrees, I have noticed more progressive messaging and characters presented in his novels. I probably won’t read more of Alan Gratz at this point, but I thought I would give him one more try.
