Synopsis:
Berlin, 1944 “It is a great honor to have you here, Herr Hitler.” Lili Rodenberg doesn’t stumble over the lie, her hand steady as she pours champagne. Everything must be perfect, no one can suspect a thing . . .
Lili and her husband, Marius, operate the Edel, Berlin’s most glamorous hotel. For its wealthy guests, it is an escape from the destruction outside of its walls, with its elegant piano bar and fine amber brandy. But Lili is Jewish, a secret she is terrified will end in tragedy for her and their beloved daughter, Gabi.
Lili’s only choice is to hide in plain sight. Her heart races each time uniformed officers step through the Edel’s grand entrance. As Berlin becomes an increasingly frightening place, Lili pleads with Marius to help her shelter those in danger, but Marius is adamant. He will not risk the lives of his wife and daughter. But as a loyal German, he is expected to serve in the military and is called to the frontlines. Lili is devastated when she is informed he is missing in action.
Left in charge of the Edel, Lily smiles as she serves the men who would have her killed in an instant if they knew the truth. She must fight back, so she hides Jews in the hotel’s wine cellar, serving as just one link in a chain of brave resistors transporting them to safety. She is seized with terror . . . but her determination and commitment supply the strength to carry on.
Her courage and success impress the Resistance. But what they ask of her is surely impossible.
Thus far, Lili has protected her daughter by living a life of secrets. Can she risk everything, and put her child in danger, to help reclaim her country?
Review:
Most of author Catherine Hokin’s books are set in Berlin, Germany, during the period of 1933 to the fall of the Berlin Wall. She finds that time period “endlessly fascinating” and enjoys examining “the long shadows left by war.”
In The Secret Hotel in Berlin she returns readers to the fictional Edel hotel mentioned in The German Child. Hokin notes that prior to World War II, Berlin boasted some of the grandest hotels in the world, most of which were built in the early twentieth century. She modeled the Edel after and pays homage to, among others, the Adlon, which was plagued by “scandal and intrigue, including a thwarted bomb attempt” during the society wedding of the then-Kaiser’s daughter. None of those hotels still exist today. But Hokin says she has always loved the grandeur of luxurious hotels “because there is nowhere like a hotel when it comes to keeping secrets. They really are places where different worlds can exist.”
Less glamorous than the real Adlon, Hokin fashions the Edel as Hitler’s favorite hotel In Berlin. There, he presides over meetings with his top leaders and closest advisers. The stages of the hotel’s existence mirror those of Berlin itself. It is depicted before and during World War II, as well as in 1990, following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Having long languished in a state of decay, the Edel is about to undergo a major renovation and reopen. According to Hokin, over the years, the Edel houses beauty, fear, darkness . . . and secrets.
At the heart of the novel is “a story which has been told so often it has become the truth and, in the telling, has ruined countless lives probably because nobody ever thought to ask who told the story in the first place or why they told it.” The “quest” for the truth compels Hokin’s fully formed and engaging characters, whose lives are transformed when long-concealed and forgotten answers are finally revealed.
The story opens in 1929. Lili Krauss arrives in Berlin from her native Leipzig. She lost both of her parents – her mother succumbed to Spanish flu in 1919 and her father, an elder at the Leipzig synagogue who endeavored to be the “very best German he could be” and raised his daughter to do the same, was tragically killed. Just eighteen years old, she is a young woman with sufficient means to purchase a flower shop and procure papers granting her a new identity and name, Lili Falck. Intent on building “a life no one can touch,” she quickly realizes how naïve she was to believe that she could escape danger.
She soon meets Marius Rodenberg who, at twenty-three years of age, already manages his family’s hotel, the storied Edel. At first, Lili’s only interest in him is strictly professional – she has a lucrative opportunity to supply flowers to the hotel and its guests. But their relationship deepens, and she cannot bring herself to tell Marius who she really is and gives him no reason to suspect that she is Jewish. They marry, have a beautiful daughter, and Lili settles into a life of comfort and safety.
But as the political climate in Germany grows increasingly treacherous, Lili lives in terror as the Edel hosts Hitler; Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief; Heinrich Himmler and Herman Goring, architects of the Holocaust; and other party leaders. Marius is a proud German intent on protecting and preserving both his family and they successful business they have created, but Lili is horrified when he salutes the officers, oblivious to the threat they pose to his wife and child, along with many of his employees. “Marius had saluted the officers back without thinking – that was the problem. His arm had shot up and her jaw had dropped. . . . The encounter had left him as untouched as it had terrified her. Because he didn’t see the threat – why would he? He’s never lived in a world where you can lose your footing overnight.” Gradually, life in Germany becomes exponentially more dire for Jews as the Nuremberg laws are enacted and complete Aryanization is mercilessly implemented.
A second narrative begins in 1990, four months after the Berlin Wall falls. Lucy has traveled to Belin for the first time, assigned by her employer to oversee restoration of the Edel hotel and bring it back to life. As she walks through the door, she feels the structure’s magic. “This place has lived through so much history, the past is soaked through its walls. There’s a story here waiting to be uncovered,” she observes. When she meets the lead architect on the project, Adam Wendl, she is surprised to learn he is the grandson of Marius Rodenberg. Adam was raised by his mother, Gabi, in East Berlin, who told him little about his family, including his grandfather who went missing in the 1943 battle for Stalingrad and has for many years been presumed dead. Lili, Adam’s grandmother, gained a reputation during World War II as not just a devoted Nazi, but a close friend of the Fuhrer and his closest advisors because of their frequent patronage of the Edel. When the war ended, she was reviled and classified as a Belastete – a person who profited from their connections to the Nazis. Adam’s relationship with Gabi is fractured for reasons that Hokin discloses as the story proceeds, and he dreads telling his mother that he is the architect in charge of revitalizing the Edel. Gabi grew up believing in the communist philosophies of the German Democratic Republic and has lived an austere life adhering to its principles. Lucy close relationship with her parents was shattered and caused them to become estranged. She is haunted by that development, as well as other circumstances that brought her heartbreak as a young woman that have thus far prevented her from entering a healthy and satisfying romantic relationship.
Alternating the two narratives, Hokin takes readers on Lili’s journey, showing the truth about it that has been lost to history. Spurred by outrage over the growing atrocities and guilt-ridden about successfully concealing her identity and living a comfortable life inside the Edel – while so many others are losing everything, including their lives – Lili becomes determined to provide share her haven, even if only for one night. Lili could “no longer live with being powerless. She could no longer pretend that the world outside the Edel couldn’t impinge on their lives as long as she kept the world inside it safe.” So she joins a secret network transporting Jews to safety. After all, what better place could there be than a than a hotel to hide someone for a night or two before they continue on their way? With Marius away, she begins journaling as a way of “unloading the secrets she can’t voice,” and communicating with the husband she misses desperately. She plans to ask him to read her diary when he returns home after the war so that he will understand why she had to act when Jews were “being erased, and the city papered over the gaps as if we were never here.” She writes that her father “would be proud of me for making this stand,” even as the Resistance demands that she engage in increasingly risky efforts.
Hokin has crafted a uniquely inventive and gripping tale. In one narrative, she reveals to readers exactly what is happening in Lili’s life. She is a sympathetic, fully developed character and Hokin compassionately illustrates how she reacts to a world gone mad. Initially fueled by a youthful desire to protect herself, time passes, and she matures, falls in love, and becomes a mother. She fully comprehends the duality of her life. She is both sheltered and fed, and in grave peril should her past and true identity become known. She loves her husband and daughter fiercely, as is loyal to and protective of the hotel’s employees. As the Nazis carry out unthinkable atrocities, Lili is repulsed by having to host the architects of those vile acts, and her revulsion, guilt about hiding in plain sight, and moral convictions compel her to join the Resistance. “I’ve been a coward, living my safe life while so many others have had that right stripped away. It’s not enough. I owe my father more than my silence,” Lili says. But Lili is not experienced in espionage. Is she courageous and convincing enough to carry out the dangerous mission into which the Resistance presses her?
Hokin’s more modern characters are equally fascinating. In 1990, as Lucy and Adam grow closer, sharing details about their respective pasts, Ludy discovers Lili’s journal among many abandoned items in the hotel basement. Lucy becomes entranced and, as she reads the entries, it becomes clear that Lili’s legacy has been misrepresented. Intent on piecing together, to the extent possible, what really happened to Lili, Adam joins her in the search for evidence. He also helps her take steps to reconcile her past, while hoping that learning more about his grandparents will facilitate healing in his relationship with Gabi. Adam and Lucy both carry guilt about choices they made as young adults have reverberated in their own and others’ lives. For Adam, his inability to accept the limitations of a life in East Berlin had far-reaching consequences not just for him, but also for Gabi, “a dowdy and functional-looking woman,” is bitter and ailing. She grew up feeling abandoned by her parents and ashamed of being the daughter of a woman condemned for aligning herself with and profiting from Nazis. “Everything Gabi’s done in her life was to redress the shame of having a Nazi for a mother,” Adam notes, even though that characterization of Lili has always been at odds with the loving mother who resides in Gabi’s early childhood memories.
The Secret Hotel in Berlin is well-researched, set against the backdrop of actual events and depicting historical figures, although, as noted, the Edel is a fictional counterpart to the real hotels of the era. Hokin’s riveting story is moving, poignant, and thought-provoking. She explores the various ways in which childhood beliefs impact decision-making and how choices fueled by self-interest have the capacity to profoundly affect those we love. She also examines how the discovery of new evidence disavowing matters previously believed to be true can be life-altering in myriad ways.
The Secret Hotel in Berlin is another beautifully constructed, richly emotional, and memorable work of historical fiction from the exceptionally talented Hokin. She again challenges readers to consider how they would react if placed in challenging circumstances such as her characters face. In the case of Marius and Lili, their contrasting responses merit consideration. And as in The German Child, Hokin invites readers to explore the extent to which one’s identity is derived from family and how much of one’s self-concept is independently formed by acquired beliefs and values. It is definitely one of the best volumes released in 2024.
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