Erica’s Experience

Title: The Plum Trees

Author: Victoria Shorr

Genre: Historical Lit

Page Count: 254

Publication Date: March 9, 2021

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Review

Have you ever bought a book for its cover? I know, I know, the old adage is to NOT do that. But I feel like every true bookworm has been enticed by a perfectly designed dust jacket. The Plum Trees by Victoria Shorr did just that to me. I spotted it during the Barnes and Noble closing sale I went to in March, thought “PRETTY!”, and added it to my haul (I DID read the book synopsis in the front cover fold before buying it, I promise.)

I have read my fair share of World War II fiction, but it had been a minute since I’ve entered the horrors of the 1940s. At first, I was a bit detached from this book. Shorr’s flowery writing style, on top of the unavoidable repetitiveness of historical fiction, made it hard to connect with this novel right off the bat. However, I was very intrigued by the unexpected connection I had with this book. The main characters of this novel are Czech. While their town was on the opposite side of the country from my family’s village, the references to the culture and the plum trees brought back memories of my grandma telling me her mother’s stories.

Picking Czechoslovakia was a nuanced decision Shorr’s made. Picking this particular Slovak country over Germany, Poland, or France shows the continental impact of the Holocaust (not to mention the global impact of the war itself). Hitler left no stone unturned in his destruction and this novel makes that impossible to forget.

I learn about monsters in the Nazi party I had never heard of before in this book. Their actions were so deranged, I thought they were fictional characters Shorr had made up at first. Then I Googled the names. Don’t Google the names. Or maybe do. Their heartless transgressions are etched in my brain, but I would rather know and be able to share about their wrongdoings than watch them be forgotten.

Often times, writers of World War II fiction try to close on uplifting notes, with people reconnecting with loved ones or marrying for love. Shorr doesn’t. Her approach feels much more realistic; a more accurate ode to the people who came out of Hitler’s death camps alive–but only just. This book was 254 pages of disappointments and trauma—which should not come as much of a surprise from a book about the Holocaust. There was no sugarcoating and no happy end. No surprise reunion. Not a single true answer to a large sea of whys.

But it does show the strength, bravery, and spirit of the people who managed the unthinkable and lived. I keep avoiding the word “survived” because of a line in the final pages of this book.

“Because she had come to see them all as heroes, […]”

pg. 252, “The Plum Trees” by Victoria Shorr

History books like to create personas that can often weaken future generations’ perceptions of the past. Take World War II as an example. The Allies, are often depicted as Prince Charming, the Axis the Wicked Witch, and the enslaved, Snow White. Shorr brings to light a missing factor that is frequently overlooked. The people who were kept in concentration camps like Dachau and Auschwitz were not simply waiting to be saved. While survival during the Holocaust had a lot to do with some twisted take on luck, these people had to try. They were soldiers in their own right, fighting for their lives and the lives of future generations.

The Plum Trees has the power to harden your heart, but can also show you how the survivors of the Holocaust should be seen as heroes and not victims.

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You can purchase The Plum Trees here.