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All for nothing by walter kempowski5/27/2023 ![]() The local pastor has a plan that will cure that. Along the way we learn what she has done in the past when bored. Bored by her husband, bored by her life, and wanting some excitement. Katharina is bored, a bit too self-centered and bored. Not only have other aristocrats nearly succeeded in killing Hitler, but the Soviets are poised to pounce. It is the start of 1945 and their part of East Prussia, later to be part of Poland, is the wrong place to be. The household is run by a relative, Auntie, who is making due with two young Ukrainian women as maids and a Polish man doing much of the outdoor work. “No one had ever stuck stamps into a social security booklet for her: l ife insurance nor burial fund.” (p. Katharina is a loner, keeping to herself behind the locked door of her marital bedroom suite. Their young son, Peter, at about 12 is still too young for the Hitler Youth and has been sheltered from the Nazi younger children’s group. Eberhard von Globig, now a Wehrmacht officer stationed in Italy, and his wife, Katharina, do not have much of a marriage. The von Globig family is part of the East Prussian aristocracy and their home and estate, the Georgenhof, dominates the local area. World War II, aristocracy, a large estate–what wouldn’t interest me about this book? It was a natural pick for me. ![]()
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