A compelling historical drama on the meaning of family and the risks parents will take for their child
Last Key on the Ring explores the far-reaching impact of World War II through the intertwined lives of two families at one house.
In May of 1941, a young German couple, Waffen-SS officer Roland Adler, and his wife Sophia need a house in Cologne: he will return to battle shortly, and she must set up household. But it quickly becomes clear that their new home has recently been seized from a Jewish family. They are most likely in prison or worse. While the breakfast remnants and overturned furniture are a clue, the angry toddler girl in her back bedroom crib confirms Roland and Sophia’s suspicions. “Crushes of onyx curls wreath the soft, oval face of a baby standing unsteadily in a crib, its chest heaving with sobs, its dark eyes glistening… She backs off and turns to her husband. ‘Don’t just stand there… Run downstairs and look for milk.”
A decision must be made immediately, and they know that what passes as a “proper authority” to take charge of an “abandoned” Jewish baby will kill the child. They cannot bring themselves to turn in the little girl. Sophia embraces young Bebba as her own right away, and Roland quickly follows suit.
At first their fears revolve around being found out by the Nazis, which would spell not just the death of the little girl now called Olinda, but their own, as well. Later, the conflict becomes more nuanced: this child likely has an extended family. What to do if and when they come calling?
But apart from the conflicts surrounding Olinda, Sophia and Roland are traversing difficult circumstances on a daily basis. Sophia must deal with the Gestapo, black markets, and air raids, while Roland suffers the grueling trials of tank warfare and separation from his family.
In addition to the personal drama, Last Key on the Ring provides a fascinating portrayal and analysis of WWII, focusing on the wartime experience of the German city, Cologne, as well as Europe’s reconstruction after the end of the war. Front and center is the impact of the Nazi regime on Cologne’s Jewish population and Jews from all over Germany, its allies, and conquered territories. Also important are the day-to-day trials of the residents: scarcity, disease, separation from loved ones, and constant bombing by the Allies.
Last Key gives detailed historical insight into WWII, particularly the ways its conduct impacted Cologne and Germany. In the latter half of the book, Roland’s diary shares his first-person point-of-view interpretation of wartime events as well as the terrible post-war years. The book shows the parallels between the fraught days of the 1940s and our current times.
The novel is full of vivid characters who are put in one untenable situation after another. Sophia seems soft and emotional, but she reveals a spine (and nerves) of steel when she must make a cover story about the baby with the Gestapo. Sophia’s sister Elma is a marvel of underground resistance actions against the regime. Roland, SS officer or not, is completely devoted to his Jewish baby girl. He will do (and does) anything to protect her.
My favorite character may be Roland, especial in his diary entries. He’s quick to appreciate the irony of his situation and is a keen analyst of the political and historical forces at work around him. “I say to Messrs. Eisenhower, Churchill, Roosevelt, Clay: either kill the whole lot of us or let food in. The weaker we get, the easier it will be for that gentleman Joseph Stalin to bag us… The Soviets are observing what you’re doing to us and hoping their offers of prosperity will bag this grateful Aryan race, or what’s left of it.”
While the entire situation of the story is fraught with conflict—Will the Nazis catch them? Will the original family take Olinda away from Sophia and Roland?—conflicts on the scene level are sometimes resolved without generating a great deal of tension. What pulls the reader through the book is the fascinating and seldom-told history being presented and the question of how the family will ultimately resolve their quandary.
The story is primarily told in an omniscient voice in the present tense, with lovely wordsmithing and turns of phrase throughout. Sadly, the social and political issues at work during WWII haven’t gone away, just changed their names and faces. Last Key subtly but surely leads the reader to recognize that our present-day public environment marked by suspicion of “the other,” nationalism, and threats to democracy have all happened before. This thought-provoking and unique book on Holocaust history would make an excellent book club selection.
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