Germany, 1929.

When Max, a Jewish architect, and Bettina, a beautiful and celebrated German avant-garde artist, meet at a party, their attraction is instant. In love with each other and the art they create, their talent transports them to the dazzling lights of Berlin.

But Germany is on the brink of terrible change, and their bright beginning is soon dimmed by the rising threat of Nazism.

When Max is arrested and sent to the Dachau concentration camp, it is only his talent at making the exquisite porcelain figures so beloved by the Nazis that stands between him and certain death. At first, Bettina has no idea where Max has been taken but when she learns of his fate, she is determined to rescue him whatever the cost.

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Now, a lifetime later, Bettina’s daughter, Clara, sets out on a journey to uncover the truth about her identity. As she weaves together the fabric of her past, she discovers the terrible secret her mother wanted hidden forever.

Two lovers caught at the crossroads of history. A daughter’s search for the truth…

Powerfully moving and beautifully written, The Porcelain Maker is a testament to enduring love and courage.

My Review

Hard to believe this is a debut novel. It’s so beautifully written and often heartbreaking. It’s not just the characters of Max and Bettina, but also Clara and Holger who stood out for me.

It’s a dual timeline novel, starting in 1929 and into WW2 itself, and then in 1993, when Bettina Vogel’s daughter Clara is trying to find out who her father was. Having travelled alone to America to bid for a selection of porcelain from the factory at Allach (which later moved to Dachau), she returns with a number of items, including the celebrated The Viking. The Nazis, particular SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, adored the porcelain, believing it to be pure, and loved pieces that showed German soldiers and animals in perfect representation. They did not like anything ‘degenerate’, as they called it, particularly expressionism. Unfortunately, Bettina, having attended the Bauhaus, is an expressionist, her hero and mentor being Wassily Kandinsky (see below).

It’s at an artists’ party that she meets Max, a Jewish architect from Vienna. They fall in love and remain together until Jews like Max find themselves in danger of being sent to a concentration camp. Bettina also realises that in order to survive, she must start painting more ‘representational’ art. Max has found that he has a talent for creating beautiful figures from porcelain, and it is this ‘that stands between him and certain death’ in Dachau. And it is there that we meet director Holger, and fellow prisoner Ezra.

I learned so much from this book. I had never heard of Allach or the Porcelain Factory, so I did some research of my own. It’s all real of course and you can still buy the figures, even on eBay. Most are worth well over £1,000. I am not sure though whether I would want to own any, in the same way that I would feel uncomfortable displaying any Nazi memorabilia. Every piece has Allach and the SS insignia on the back. Knowing its provenance, even holding it would be chilling.

I was so moved by this book. I have read numerous novels about the holocaust – my Jewish mother having escaped from Vienna in the late 1930s often makes it personal – but it still amazes me that people could treat others in this way. Only by dehumanising Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and others could they ‘justify’ the things they did.

In Dachau, we are introduced to Gudrun, Himmler’s 11-year-old daughter, who loved the rabbits that were kept there in cages. Gudrun’s story is fictional, though 65,000 rabbits were bred to provide the angora fur sewn into jackets to keep the soldiers warm. I hoped that young Gudrun would grow up to be a post-war hero, but was saddened to see that she remained a Nazi sympathiser and defended her father up until her death at the age of 88.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours

About the Author

Sarah Freethy is first time novelist. She has been writing for television for the past three decades. Freethy has worked as an Executive Producer in factual TV and series as varied as Big Brother and Country House Rescue, to Clive James’ Postcard from Havana and TFI Friday. In 2020, she was a Script Consultant on two broadcast drama series, Before We Die (Channel 4) and Professor T (ITV) for Eagle Eye Drama. Sarah is a keen artist and photographer, as well as being a collector of vintage ephemera and odds and sods.