Michael Rosenheim is in Florida visiting his father, Heshel Rosenheim, who is dying. Heshel is a holocaust survivor as well as a recipient of many awards and recognitions for his volunteer work. Heshel has done a lot of work on behalf Jews, which is an important detail. One day Michael receives a box of journals that detail a story in which a German officer, Heinrich Mueller, assumes the identity of a prisoner at a concentration camp. The name this Mueller assumes is Heshel Rosenheim. The journals tell how the officer, Heinrich Mueller, stole the identity of the prisoner and then how he goes on to be war hero for the Jews as the State of Israel is established. Much of the book deals with Michael trying to discover if the story from the journals is true, or a work of fiction made up by his father.
The main theme in this story is atonement. Is it possible for someone to atone for their sins, no matter how heinous the sins? For example, if a German officer, guilty of participating in genocide, steals the identity of a victim of the concentration camp in which he works, but then goes on to do a nearly countless number of amazing things for the benefit of the Jewish people. Does that person atone for what they have done?
Certainly Heshel Rosenheim would like to think so. Repentance is mentioned in the book, the idea that one turns completely from an old way of life and into a new one. Heshel converts to Judaism, and takes his faith very seriously. He fights bravely for Israel in their conflict against Egypt. He raises a lot of money for the Jews. He rescues many children who were orphaned by the Holocaust, etc. Does any of this absolve him? Lavigne leaves it up to the reader to decide.
Another theme in the novel is deception. Yes, Heshel has done many things, perhaps enough things to atone for his previous actions. However, part of atonement is confession. Heshel continually deceives those around him as to who he is and what he has done. Like so many other Germans from that time period, Heshel lies to cover up the truth, and his role in it. One could almost say, if Heshel is truly sorry for his actions he would be honest about them, he would not lie about them.
Michael is searching for answers. He does not know what to believe at first though in the end he finds the answers he is looking for. In the end he decided to forgive his father. At least, that is the impression with which the reader is left. His search for answers is something with which the reader can truly sympathize. Of course he wants to know what happened. Heshel is his father. The reader cheers for Michael, in a sense, because the reader wants Michael to have that peace from closure.
Michael, I think, is what makes the book work. Because he is personally very connected to the story that makes it all the more necessary for the answers to become clear. If Michael were, say, just a reporter, his search for answers would be less sympathetic. However, because Michael wants to know who his father is and what his father has done, so he can figure out who he is and what his life means, the reader can willingly follow Michael as he digs for the truth.
This book, like so many other Holocaust literature, is important because it reminds the world of one of the darkest times in history. Due to what happened in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s not very many people want to talk about it. The world needs to be reminded, so that the same kinds of things do not happen again.
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