Do you ever wonder what stories your house could tell? What sights they have seen? What history they have witnessed?
The House By The Lake is a story of a home and a hundred years of history. The little wooden house was built in 1927 by the author’s Jewish great-grandfather. They spent happy weekends and holidays there beside the lake on the outskirts of Berlin. Following the rise of the Nazis the family were forced to flee to London. The house was seized by the Gestapo. The next family lived in the house during the war. Their sons became part of the Hitler Youth. The family eventually fled to Austria. They let a Jewish couple shelter their through the end of the war. After the war the house changed hands again.
A new family lived in and loves the house. They lived there when a fence was built between the house and the lake. They lived there when the fence became a concrete barrier, The Berlin Wall, and they lived there still when the wall came down. In 2013 our author went to visit the now empty house and together with friends and family and the local community restored the house that had seen so much, sheltered so many. The little wooden lake house is now a centre for education and reconciliation.
This book is incredible. It shares a hundred years of German history through the windows of a house and the movements of the families that lived there. It is written in beautiful lyrical prose & the unmistakable artwork of Britta Teckentrup adds depth & emotion. The two powerfully combine to make this a poignant true story of the house by the lake. We learn a little of the lives of the families and how they were affected by the war. We see happy families swimming in the lake and reading stories by the fire, we see the same families fleeing from the house in the dark of the night. We feel their joy and their worry, their confusion and fear. We follow the ups and downs of their emotions and of the years. We see the seasons come & go, the light and dark of the years and the different families change and grow, come and go. This is a beautiful book & a story that promotes lots of discussion around the events of the Second World War & life in Germany after the war.
I lived in Germany when the wall came down. This is a part of history I know well. I find it hard to read this book without tears. Growing up in Germany the history of the country has always fascinated me. War stories have been a huge part of my growing up. This book is incredibly powerful and a feeling lingers after reading of sadness but also of hope. The history of a little house who was, In it’s own quiet and forgotten way, on the frontline of history has had a huge impact on me.
I wonder what stories our houses could tell, what history they have witnessed, which families they have sheltered.
This is a stunning way of talking to children about the outbreak of the Second World War and the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall.
Lest we forget x