Customer Reviews

Flames of the Tiger

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This wasn't a bad book, but the best part was towards the end, which was when you really get hooked onto the story. The story was told from the main character Dieter to a soldier dying beside a tank. Dieter tells, in this story, about all he has experienced growing up in the Third Reich.

The descriptions were very vivid; I enjoyed some of the metaphors and similes used in this book. The story was written very orderly, I thought - every sentence comes forth naturally. The author could try making the dialogue more real - more deliberate, more sudden.

This book has given me a better insight to the "other" side of the Holocaust - the Nazis' side, and the side of the people that just want to pretend everything was okay.

Beware the spoilers.

Published in 2003 by Kids Can Press Ltd. and written by John Wilson, "Flames of the Tiger" is a highly impressive book. 176 pages in length, it tells much of its story through flashbacks, briefly returning to the present from time to time and then staying there once the background on how the main character got to where he is has been fully explained. This is the rise and fall of Nazi Germany from the perspective of a German boy living in Berlin. Caught up in a whirlwind of Nazi rhetoric, flags, parades, and propaganda, he sees his older brother Reinhard proudly join the Hitler Youth and later on the Waffen SS. Dieter Hammer ends up in the HJ himself once attendance is compulsory, being kept from it earlier by his disapproving parents, Ernst and Eva, who never liked Hitler from the start, regarding him as brutish street rabble. The elder Hammers are an example of what many Germans did when Hitler came along- at first, they dismissed him, assuring themselves he would not last. When he did stay around and became Chancellor, soon starting a war Germany couldn't get out of, they blamed themselves for not doing something when they could have, because eventually they could do nothing at all. Reinhard is representative of the young men who eagerly embraced the new order Hitler brought, swept up by all the talk of German greatness and superiority, of making Germany strong and feared once more. His volunteering for duty in the Waffen SS seals his fate when the war goes bad- SS soldiers were given tattoos that were almost impossible to remove, and when the crimes of the SS came to light, both sides of the Allies, East and West, started hunting down the SS like dogs. And Dieter himself is caught in the middle, more enthusiastic about the Nazi regime, at least at first, than his parents, but not as unconditionally supportive as Reinhard. But even though he does not fully understand or support what Hitler and his government are doing, he is drawn into the war when conscription is dropped to his age, and volunteers for the SS so he can be placed in Reinhard's unit. Dieter does not receive the arm tattoo Reinhard does, and so is able to escape identification as a member of the SS later on.

The glory of the Nazi regime, all its propaganda, appealed most to young men, eager to be something more than just boys. At first, it seemed as though Hitler was doing what any German would have wanted- making Germany strong again. But as the war progresses and things get worse and worse, life in Berlin becomes less and less civilized by the day. The utter ruin Hitler has brought on the German people, and the horrible things it forces civilians and soldiers alike to do and see, become very clear. Eventually, there are no more grand blitzkriegs, no more glorious German soldiers sweeping all opposition before them while wailing Stukas dive down from the sky. All that is left is the battered, grim-faced German civilian population, and the even more grim-faced military. Every day becomes a struggle just to stay alive. Dieter sees combat with the SS several times, including street fighting in France during the Allied invasion of Normandy. He kills at least one Allied soldier personally, sees many more die on both sides, including Karl, a long-time friend from his days in the Hitler Youth. When the Battle of Berlin is grinding down to its final stages, Dieter and his sister Greta escape Berlin, leaving behind their ruined home and their shattered family. Reinhard, knowing he will be identified as SS even if he changes into civilian clothes, restrains a fellow SS soldier long enough for them to escape. Eva and Ernst are killed by artillery. Dieter eventually finds a wounded Allied soldier sitting near a destroyed Tiger I tank, knocked out by a lucky bazooka hit that somehow got inside. The crew is presumably dead, and the burning Tiger tank is the book's namesake. Once he has finished telling his story to the soldier, more Allied troops arrive, and the wounded man agrees to help Dieter and Greta flee to Canada, to a friend Ernst and Eva knew before the war.

The victims of Hitler and his gang were not just the men, women and children that the Nazis brought so much misery to. They were also the Germans, Austrians, Italians and all the rest who got caught up on the Axis side of the war, either dragged along or marching along voluntarily, their lives consumed by Hitler's powerful speeches and propaganda. The glorious image he projected, the grand, prestigious look the Waffen SS and Hitler Youth were made to have, made them all but irresistible. The German people, especially the ones who served in the armed forces, suffered deeply and paid a tremendous price for helping or simply allowing Hitler to come to power. Hitler himself once said, "Give me ten years and you will not recognize Germany." He was true to his word- about that many years later, Germany was unrecognizable from the nation it was, and the Germans who were lucky- or unlucky- enough to live through it were often unable to recognize themselves.

This is World War II, told from the German side of things, by a young man, part of the age group that Hitler and his regime tried to and certainly did corrupt the most. It is a gripping, fascinating tale from beginning to end, and I highly recommend it.

I felt this was a very good book. Not only did it keep me intrested till the very end but there was never a time I was able to figure iut how the book would end. The book talks about the war from the view point of a young , confused, German boy. The boy is trying to safely get from Germany to Canada with is young sister without getting caught by the Germans or the Russians. It is a very good book and I highly suggest it to anyone intrested in books about WW 1.