Book review: 'Ensnared in the Wolf's Lair: Inside the 1944 Plot to Kill Hitler and the Ghost Children of His Revenge' made me cry

In 1944, a group of men who were trusted by Adolf Hitler created and carried out a plan to kill him via explosive. The only problem was that while four of Hitler's men died, he did not. As you can imagine, the egomaniac German ruler was incensed at knowing people close to him had tried to kill him, so he did what he did best; he enacted revenge. But his revenge didn't stop at the perpetrators. Oh no. He had his secret police and various government rulers reach out and make the lives of everyone connected to those who had risen against him; wife, child, sibling, parent, grandparent, aunt, and uncle, made miserable. The story of the assassination plot, its actors, and their families are told in Ensnared in the Wolf's Lair: Inside the 1944 Plot to Kill Hitler and the Ghost Children of His Revenge. But, instead of ending with the deaths of the brave men who tried to overthrow Hitler, this book tells what happened to their families. And those stories are sadly fascinating.

I cried at the end of Ensnared in the Wolf's Lair. However, unlike so many other books about World War II, this book had a decently happy ending. But it still made me sad. 

The first half of this book tells of the details and short biographies of the men who planned the assassination attempt. Author Ann Bausum also shares a bit about each man's family. This information is important, because after the men were quickly killed, their families were cruelly punished and Bausum details what happened to many of those people. It was reading about those punishments and how the survivors' lives were forever haunted by what they lived through that is difficult to read.  

Many of the children of the assassination leaders were abruptly taken from their families and spirited away from their mothers and any other trusted adults. Cloistered in cabins in the mountains and separated even from their siblings, the children were watched over by people belonging to the Nazi regime. This book uses diaries and personal interviews to tell the stories of their stay, the terrors of wondering if their families were alive, living through air raids, and then being freed by American soldiers. However, once the children were reconnected with their loved ones and started going back to school, their lives were still tremendously difficult because they were continuously regarded as the children of traitors, thanks to the strong propaganda of the Nazis.

Ensnared in the Wolf's Lair isn't an easy book to read, but it's an important reminder that, despite how horrific parts of the world are, there are always those who are courageous enough to stand for the right against all odds. This book tells an important part of the history of Nazi Germany and is one that can both instruct and inspire; it does so in a civil manner, without gruesome details or profanities.

Book Breakdown:

144 pages with black and white photographs

Best for ages: 14 and older

Educational factor: Medium

Moral content: This book briefly mentions concentration camps, children being separated from their families, the killings of many people, and an attempted assassination.