Innocent? – Or Not?

All The Broken Places by John Boyne is a powerful novel set over four different time periods that consumed me from the start. It is the sequel to The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas but can be read as a stand-alone. I recommend reading book one first as there are references to scenes in there. This is Gretel’s story who is the daughter of the commandant of Auschwitz, and therefore sister to Bruno, the lead character in The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas.

The story in set in London in 2022, and also in Paris in 1946, Sydney 1952, and London again in 1953. The chapters alternate between 2022 and the other time periods.

Gretel is ninety-one in 2022. She has had a lifetime of hiding and guilt consuming her, despite only being twelve-years-old when she first went to live at Auschwitz. She has been running from the truth ever since.

Blame is laid on her youth. She claims her youth equals her innocence – but she knew exactly what was going on, and she is only fooling herself.

We see the truth of Edmund Burke’s famous statement that for evil to flourish, it just needs good men to do nothing. “By doing nothing, you did everything.” People are complicit in the Holocaust by their inactivity.

There are Holocaust survivors. Their stories cannot be compared to Gretel’s. She chose to do nothing, to say nothing. She has guilty hands. The Jewish people had no choice in their fate.