Tag: WW2

Book Review: A Countess in Limbo by Olga Hendrikoff & Sue Carscallen

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One remarkable woman’s experiences of living through turbulent times

CountessAbout the Book

Countess Olga “Lala” Hendrikoff was born into the Russian aristocracy, serving as lady-in-waiting to the empresses and enjoying a life of great privilege. But on the eve of her wedding in 1914 came the first rumours of an impending war—a war that would change her life forever and force her to flee her country as a stateless person with no country to call home. Her personal writings have been collected and translated by her great niece, Sue Carscallen, to form A Countess in Limbo: Diaries in War and Revolution.

Spanning two of the most turbulent times in modern history—World War I in Russia and World War II in Paris—Countess Hendrikoff’s journals demonstrate the uncertainty, horror, and hope of daily life in the midst of turmoil. Her razor-sharp insight, wit, and sense of humour create a fascinating eyewitness account of the Russian Revolution and the occupation and liberation of Paris.

Book Facts

  • Format: ebook
  • Publisher: Archway Publishing
  • No. of pages: 337
  • Publication date: 3rd November 2016
  • Genre: Memoir, Non-Fiction, History

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My Review

I found these journals absolutely fascinating and I was amazed how a woman could live through such upheaval, struggle, loss and privation and still provide such an objective commentary on events, managing to see the good – and bad – on both sides.

In the first section, the young Olga recounts some of her experiences living in Russia at the outbreak of World War I. There are touching scenes, such as when she and her mother witness the departure of her younger brother to join the army.

‘To the strains of martial music, the train, illuminated by the last rays of the setting sun, started pulling away from the platform and soon vanished in the evening darkness. With long-repressed tears flowing without measure, my mother and I stood on the platform for a few more minutes.’

Olga did not keep journals throughout her life – or at least, none remain – so there are gaps where only her great niece’s research can try to provide welcome answers. One such mystery is the circumstances around the ending of her marriage after only three years.

The sections of the book containing the journals Olga Hendrikoff kept during World War 2 – covering the onset of war, the occupation of France and its liberation – I found particularly compelling. Throughout there is a sense of incredulity that nations should so quickly repeat the mistakes of history.

‘Another war with Germany seems incredible to me when no-one has yet forgotten the last one.’

‘I often wake up in the morning thinking I have had a bad dream – the war, the departure of friends and relatives… The first few days after the war was declared, it was if I was stunned. I could not bring myself to believe that the country I live in is really at war.’

Olga documents the daily struggle to find food, fuel to keep warm and employment so that items only available on the thriving black market can be purchased. She vividly describes how the German advance into France provokes the desperate flight of people.

‘The route nationale is still clogged with refugees who make use of any means of locomotion: men on bicycles, women on foot pushing baby carriages, babies in wheelbarrows pulled like trailers by bicycles, mule- or horse-drawn carriages, strollers…in a word, anything on wheels, anything that rolls, has been mobilised for the exodus.’

The liberation of Paris brings no end to the food shortages, power cuts and daily struggle. It also brings something worse – reprisals against those deemed to have been collaborators.

‘In the troubled times we are going through, alas, the spirit of personal vengeance is naturally given free rein.’

Olga becomes one of hundreds of thousands stateless émigrés, in her case unable to return to Russia following the revolution and its transformation into the Soviet Union.  However, she never loses her affection for her homeland, which she looks back on fondly.

‘Would it suddenly be possible to go back to your own country and see Russian forests again, the rivers you knew as a child, the landscapes you still hold in your heart?’

In the end, economic pressures force her to leave France and, since a return to Russia is impossible, she embarks for America where she spent the remainder of her long life.

Countess Hendrikoff was clearly a remarkable woman with wit, intelligence, resilience, compassion for others and a relentless determination to survive. It is wonderful that her journals survive in order that modern readers can share her experiences and her admirable outlook on life. There is so much more that I could mention about this book but I will simply urge you to read it for yourself. One final quotation, should you need further persuading:

‘All war seems absurd to me anyway. The victors often lose in the exchange, and the vanquished think only of revenge.’

A lesson we do not yet seem to have learned.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author and publishers, Archway Publishing, in return for an honest review.

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In three words: Enthralling, moving, inspirational

Try something similar…The Past is Myself by Christabel Bielenberg

About the Authors

Olga Hendrikoff was born in 1892 in Voronezh, Russia, and attended the famous Smolny Institute. In 1914, she married Count Peter Hendrikoff just as World War I began. In the ensuing years, Hendrikoff lived in Constantinople, Rome, Paris, and Philadelphia. She spent her last 20 years in Calgary. She died in 1987.

CarscallenSue Carscallen spent 20 years with Olga Hendrikoff before her great aunt’s passing in 1987. Carscallen stumbled upon Hendrikoff’s diaries hidden in a trunk at her great aunt’s Calgary home. Over time she unraveled the mysteries hidden in the manuscripts, traveling to France and Russia to supplement her research into Hendrikoff’s life. Today, Carscallen resides in Calgary.

Find out more…

Read a fascinating interview with Sue Carscallen about her great aunt, the discovery of her journals and how this book came into being.

Website: www.acountessinlimbo.com

Book Review – The Ashes of Berlin by Luke McCallin

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About the Book

ashes

It’s 1947 and Gregor Reinhardt has been hired back onto Berlin’s civilian police force. The city is divided among the victorious allied powers, tensions are growing, and the police are riven by internal rivalries as factions within it jockey for power and influence with Berlin’s new masters.

When a man is found slain in a broken-down tenement, Reinhardt embarks on a gruesome investigation. It seems a serial killer is on the loose, and matters only escalate when it’s discovered that one of the victims was the brother of a Nazi scientist.

Reinhardt’s search for the truth takes him across the divided city and soon embroils him in a plot involving the Western Allies and the Soviets. And as he comes under the scrutiny of a group of Germans who want to continue the war – and faces an unwanted reminder from his own past – Reinhardt realizes that this investigation could cost him everything as he pursues a killer who believes that all wrongs must be avenged…

Format: ebook (450 pages) Publisher: No Exit Press
Publication date: 8th December 2016 Genre: Historical Fiction, Thriller

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My Review

The Ashes of Berlin is is the third in the series of stories featuring Gregor Reinhardt, now an Inspector in the post-war Berlin police force, and to my mind, it is the strongest so far.  Like its predecessors, The Man From Berlin and The Pale House, it is an extremely well-crafted detective story in which Reinhardt pursues a ruthless killer across the divided city of Berlin.

The meticulous research of the author is apparent in the evocative descriptions of the ravaged city, the orphaned children, the food and fuel shortages where a packet of Lucky Strike cigarettes is valued currency. The turbulent political situation in which each of the Allies is attempting to exert and protect their power and influence is realistically brought to life.

In Gregor Reinhardt, the author has created a compelling character with  believable doubts and flaws. A loner, shunned by colleagues suspicious of his allegiances and unsure who he can trust, in this book he reminded me of Alec Leamas in John Le Carre’s masterful The Spy Who Came In From the Cold.   Prone to almost obsessive introspection, Reinhardt once again questions himself and his principles, battling his inner demons – his capacity for violence (the “darker side of himself)”, his weakness for alcohol, driven by the desire to atone for perceived past actions (or inactions). However, he is also proud of his skill and experience and unwilling to “bend with the wind” like so many of his colleagues.

Widowed and estranged from his son who is missing on the Russian front, there is a touching scene in which Reinhardt is drawn to seek a connection with his past life.  Behind the search for the killer, which has plenty of satisfying twists and turns, the novel depicts the dreadful legacy of the war on individuals; the stories they cannot bear to tell but that weigh heavy on them and, in some cases, drive their actions.

I thought this was a terrific read and I was torn between wanting to find out what happened and not wanting it to end. My personal wish for Reinhardt (who I confess I’m a little in love with) was fulfilled in the last sentence.  Thank you for that, Luke.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of No Exit Press via NetGalley.

In three words: Atmospheric, gripping, satisfying
Try something similar: A Death in Berlin by Simon Scarrow

About the Author

Luke McCallin was born in England, grew up in Africa, was educated around the world, and has worked with the UN as a humanitarian relief worker and peacekeeper in the Caucasus, the Sahel, and the Balkans. His experiences have driven his writing, in which he explores what happens to normal people put under abnormal pressures, inspiring a historical mystery series built around an unlikely protagonist, Gregor Reinhardt, a German intelligence officer and a former Berlin detective chased out of the police by the Nazis. The Man From Berlin was published in 2013, followed by a sequel, The Pale House in 2014, The Ashes of Berlin in 2017 and Where God Does Not Walk in 2021.

He lives with his wife and two children in an old farmhouse in France in the Jura Mountains. He has a master’s degree in political science, speaks French, is learning Spanish, and can just get by in Russian. When he’s not working or writing or spending time with his family, he enjoys reading history, playing squash, and keeping goal for the UN football team.

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