As Herr Boch finished the last lecture of the school year, I sketched one final caricature of him into the margins of my notebook.
His mom is agnostic, his father is atheist. Fourteen year-old Karl Stern grew up in a secular household; he has no religious background or education. Living in Berlin in 1934, Karl and his family are Jewish.
Karl, a gifted cartoonist, is a student at Holstein Gymnasium. He doesn't look Jewish with his light hair. There is a group at his school who Karl calls the Wolf Pack; the Wolf Pack likes to terrorize the five Jewish students who attend the school.
Up until that moment I had managed to avoid them, assuming that I had kept my background hidden.
Unfortunately the Wolf Pack eventually caught up to Karl and beat him up. Karl is tall and skinny, terrified of fighting, terrified of people finding out he is Jewish. Later that same evening Karl meets Max Schmeling, der Meister, the champion boxer, hero of Germany.
Max and his wife buy two paintings from Karl's dad who owns an art gallery. He pays for one, but offers a barter for the second. He offers to teach Karl how to box.
"Surely you can't put a price on private boxing lessons with Europe's greatest heavyweight?"
Max offers boxing lessons because he believes every boy should learn to defend himself. And thus begins Karl's transformation, beginning his training on the three hundred. Then, he trains at the Berlin Boxing Club.
Karl is in love with Greta Hauser and she wonders why he wants to fight.
"Then what's it for?"
"To prove something."
"What...but why does that matter?"
"To prove to myself that I'm not afraid."
Germany is not a safe place for Karl and his family. As the Nuremberg Laws go into effect, Karl's life is forever changed. The Berlin Boxing Club is a gripping novel that explores what Berlin was like in the early 1930s as the Nazi government rose and started to dominate Europe. Boxing helps Karl reinvent himself, but in the process he learns what's worth fighting for.
Rating: 10 out of 10 stars
*Issues of religion, circumcision, Nazi Germany, Holocaust
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