Mit dem Rücken zur Wand

The second book in this series takes place fifteen years after the revolution, during the fall of the Weimar Republic. It’s haunting and gives a face to dissidents, to jews, to communists, and of course to nazis and collaborators. I was already emotionally invested in the series, so I didn’t see the big turncoat coming (which my mother spotted from a mile away). The book didn’t teach me many new things, if I recall correctly, but it cemented a sense of oppression and violence and the general social situation at the time.