Chocolate Cake With Hitler (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
‘Chocolate Cake with Hitler’ by Emma Craigie is a gripping fictional tale of Helga Goebbels, 12-year-old daughter of the Nazi’s head of propaganda. During the final days of World War II, Helga is brought to Hitler’s underground bunker with her younger brother, four sisters and mother and father. She has always lived a sheltered life, and throughout the book tells of her memories leading up to those few days in the bunker. Helga tells us of her happy memories, while conditions in the bunker get worse. The adults become tenser, things are happening behind the scenes that Helga – and therefore also the reader – does not know about. Nevertheless, Helga is old enough to understand that behind the façade the parents are putting on for the children, the war will soon be over – and Germany will have lost.Helga is a lively and intuitive narrator, understanding far more about her situation than the adults around her realise. Her fear is heart breaking to read about, since she knows there is nothing that she can do. Slowly, people in the bunker start to leave. And, as the Russian army get closer and closer to Hitler’s bunker, Helga starts to wonder if she and her family will be able to get out alive. Her uncertainty never leaves her, and the way she notices the changes in the adults’ behaviour demonstrates just how intuitive children can be. Emma Craigie has done a tremendous job in not sensationalising or elaborating what happened, and in Helga she has created a realistic and empathetic narrator who draws us into the story of the last days of Hitler’s Reich. The great thing about this book is that, although Helga’s narrative ends on a cliffhanger, there is a postscript at the end that tells us about what happened from 29th April to 1st May 1945. I found it incredibly interesting to learn about what happened to the people mentioned in the book, and how they spent the rest of their lives. It was inspiring how much research Emma Craigie put into this book.‘Chocolate Cake with Hitler’ is a haunting book that stays in the mind of the reader for a long time after the final page has been read. We, as the reader, know that the war does not end well, and therefore there is a growing sense of foreboding as the book nears the final chapters. However, never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the horror with which the Goebbels children lost their lives. To me, it is incomprehensible how a mother could murder her own children. Emma Craigie illustrates the fanaticism so great and evil that a parent would kill her own children before allowing them to live in a world not governed by the Nazi’s. ‘Chocolate Cake with Hitler’ is an incredibly emotive and powerful short novel which demonstrates that in war, all children are victims. This book allows you to see WWII through a German child's eyes, and it's no secret as to how this book ends. I've read about how the Goebbels (father was the Nazi's head of propaganda) brought their six children to the Hitler's bunker in Berlin, where they were later killed in their beds after the Russians completely took over. I always found it horrifying that a mother could believe in a cause so much that she would kill her children rather than let them live in a world without it. "Chocolate Cake with Hitler" tells the story of the oldest of these children, Helga, a mere 12-years-old, and her brief life and family's relationship with Hitler. While her story isn't as horrifying as those in concentration camps or ghettos, it is important to acknowledge that Hitler made innocent victims even out of those close and important to him.
What do You think about Chocolate Cake With Hitler (2010)?
Very quick easy read but interesting take on one of the pivotal families in Germany in WWII
—mel
12 yr old Goebbels daughter shared cake with hitler sent to bunker 10 days and discovery
—DR_Hero
I loved this book so much that I actually emailed the author and she replied!
—Emily
OMG WHY! NO! It couldnt have happened! BUT IT DID!!! You evil little mom!
—nicki
