DACH Geneva Book Club - October 2025

In October, we'll discuss two novels written in the early 1930s that describe the impact of the Nazis -- in real time, as it were. The two titles are:

• Crooked Cross by Sally Carson. From Amazon:

It is Christmas Eve 1932, and the Kluger family are celebrating at home. Their only daughter Lexa is excited about her upcoming summer wedding to Moritz Weissmann, a promising young doctor.

Lexa has many admirers, but her heart belongs to Moritz, who is initially welcomed by her parents and two brothers, Helmy and Erich. As the year progresses, Lexa enjoys skiing, swimming and going to parties with Moritz and her friends. But little by little Moritz is excluded from the pool, the library, and eventually his own home.

As support for the Nazi Party grows rapidly across the country, Lexa’s own brothers, now fervent members of the Nazi Youth, turn against Moritz. Under immense pressure and desperate to be together, Lexa and Moritz have to meet in secret.

• The Oppermanns by Lion Feuchtwanger. From Amazon:

Written in real time, as the Nazis consolidated their power over the winter of 1933, The Oppermanns captures the fall of Weimar Germany through the eyes of one bourgeois Jewish family, shocked and paralyzed by an ideology they cannot comprehend.

In the foment of Weimar-era Berlin, the Oppermann pothers represent tradition and stability. One pother oversees the furniture chain founded by their grandfather, one is an eminent surgeon, one a respected critic. They are rich, cultured, liberal, and public spirited, proud inheritors of the German enlightenment. They don’t see Hitler as a threat. Then, to their horror, the Nazis come to power, and the Oppermanns and their children are faced with the terrible decision of whether to adapt—if they can—flee, or try to fight.

Please join us even if you haven't read the books!

Additional information about this (and future) event(s) can be found here.

October's meeting will take place on Zoom and in-person in Geneva; RSVP or send an email to Sam to receive the meeting details. If you aren't already on the Geneva Book Club mailing list, you can send an email to Sam letting him know you'd like to be added.

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WHEN

Tuesday, October 07, 2025 at 06:30 PM Bern Time

CONTACT

Sam Carmalt
[email protected]

1 RSVPs