The End of Law: A Novel of Hitler's Germany

By Thérèse Down

Berlin, 1933: as Hitler rises to power, the law - designed to protect and serve - becomes twisted to the will of those who dream of a pure Aryan race.

SS Officer Walter Gunther is intensely loyal to the Third Reich. His readiness to kill without question or remorse would seem to make him the ideal candidate to lead the T4 euthanasia programme. SS Officer Karl Muller, a trainee doctor and engineer, is also brought into the programme, and assured that his work is consistent with the Hippocratic oath he's due to take. Their mandate: to kill the "unworthies" - not just the Jews, but crippled children, the mentally ill, homosexuals. Hedda, Walter's wife and old acquaintance of Karl, has no idea of what their work entails. Until, that is, the fate of their families is at stake, and each must confront afresh the choices they have made. 

This dark, tense novel is a compelling story of human tragedy, and man's potential to revel in, or fight against, the evil actions of a corrupted nation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lion Fiction
• Release date: Jan 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781782641919

Thérèse Down

Thérèse Down retired as the Head of English in a Sixth Form College, in 2018, and taught English Literature and Language for almost thirty years, in a range of schools and colleges. Presently, she is a full time PhD student at a Russell Group University, while continuing to work as a novelist. She is the author of Only with Blood and The End of Law.

Reviews for The End of Law

[welsh_eileen2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fictional chilling account covering the planned annihilation of those that the Third Reich deemed not fit to live in Hitler's Germany.I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Lion Hudson Plc., via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.

[alekee_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The End of Law is not for the faint hearted, it is not a happily ever after, and there is no one riding off into the sunset. It is a true story with fictional characters, and the worse part of the story is that it is real and did happen.The horrors that happened in Hitler’s Germany are beyond reason, and yet people followed merrily along, and for what? The “Jew problem”, and then it went from there to gypsies, homosexuals, imperfect children, mentally ill individuals, and they were headed for everyone but the pure Aryan, if there was such an individual.We have names and word pictures of what these characters looked like, and Satan must have been smiling on the atrocities that were committed here. Hedda Schroeder grew up wanting for nothing, her father was a famous German chemist. She ends up marrying Walter Gunther, who ends up high in the Nazi SS, and the one who picks who lives and who dies.Can you imagine such work, you chose which child shall not see tomorrow, and in the end no one is safe from the evil perpetrated under this regime. Maybe this should be a must read in school, as there are people out there that don’t believe any of this ever happened. Once I started reading I had to keep on, even though you might want to have tissues or a bag for nausea, the things you are about to read about are horrendous and never should have happened.Bringing this story to light, the author did an amazing job, and can’t imagine it was easy to do.I received this book through Kregel’s Blogger Program, and was not required to give a positive review.

[srazz-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this book from librarything in exchange for an honest review.I love everything about history, so I was very happy to have won this book. When I first started reading it, I wasn't too sure if I was going to like it. It took me a few pages to catch the rhythm and really start getting into the book. I loved it! It is a fast read and I felt emotions about the characters. I really appreciate an author who can write like that. This book was, as I said, easy to read, but so heartbreaking. We forget that things from Hitler's era really did happen, so reading about them, at least for me, makes me so mad that so many people went along with it.Overall, a really interesting, great read!

[cherylefisher · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In Berlin, Germany in 1933 three very different people are swept into the National Socialist (Nazi) regime. Walter, the ambitious SS officer seeking approval and promotion, becomes a fanatic. Hedda, his wife, embraces naivety and does her best to ignore the atrocities both around her and being done to her, until suddenly they can't be pushed to the side. Karl, an intelligent and emotional man, struggles to balance his conscience and his involvement in the new Nazi party. Their lives become tangled together through the T4 initiative, a systematic and secretive program designed to eradicate "unworthies" from the ideal Aryan society. As the years go by and evil spreads, they must come to terms with their choices.While I've read many book about the Holocaust and WWII, it's rare to read a book that truthfully explores the world of and early Nazi Germany. This book was as informative as it was dark and emotional, and I got swept away into the trepidation of each characters life. I felt myself, while not totally sympathizing with them, understanding what made them make the choices that they did. Most importantly, I remembered that they were humans

[liz1564 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was sent to me by the publisher Lion Hudson via Net Gallery. Thank you.“The death of an individual is a tragedy. The death of a million is a statistic.” These words, or words similar, were attributed to the other European monster Stalin. If he truly said this, he knew, as did Hitler and his henchmen, that the human mind can reject the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Nazi regime as just too heinous and unbelievable to intellectually or emotionally process. It is so much easier to believe that victims died naturally or were punished because they were enemies of the state. In The End of Law Therese Down writes about the institution of T4, the department in Nazi Germany responsible for ridding Germany of people who did not fit the Aryan profile. There were the Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, political prisons, and intellectuals who were undesirable. But even before that, there were the mentally ill and physically disabled, adults and children who lacked “quality of life” and would be a burden on the state. While Down goes into great detail about the technical aspect of these final solutions and the way vast numbers of people will be eliminated in the coming years, she wisely focuses on the tragedy of one child and the adults around her. In doing so, she tries to make the reader understand how some men are inherently evil and other can do evil things while trying to retain a sense of morality. Central so the novel are three young adults. Hedda Schroeder, the daughter of eminent chemist Ernst Schroeder, is a lovely young woman interested in fashion, music, and society. She briefly dates Karl Muller, an engineer who is returning to university to study medicine, but is dazzled by and after a whirwind courtship marries Walter Gunther, a dashing SS officer and son of a distinguished Prussian military family whose ancestors fought against Napoleon. While Germany succumbs to National Socialism, Hedda is a content wife and mother, dining with the high government officials as her husband rises in the ranks of the party. But, too soon, Walter begins to show signs of mania; he becomes increasingly abusive if Hedda does not do exactly what is expected of her, has no tolerance for the childish antics of his five-year-old daughter and three-year-old son. More and more his reactions, at home and at work, are violent and this fits in with the party line because Walter would not hesitate to follow orders and could be counted on to kill anyone on the spot who goes counter to the Nazi party line. Karl Muller is assigned to T4 because of his engineering degree. His skills are used to design buildings, buildings to be used for extermination. This he does because he is ordered to do so and because if he fails in his work his wife, who is mentally ill, will be left unprotected. But all the while his conscience is making him physically ill and his only solace is a return to the faith of his childhood and a belief that surely God and good men will stop the madness. He, alone on the T4 committee, appears to have doubts.The statistics become tragedy when Hedda and Gunther’s daughter is injured in a bombing raid. She is severely damaged and in a coma. What happens to her and the three adults is the heart of the novel. Down has written a well-rounded and reachable novel on a devastating subject. Her characters act believably for persons of their class and education. She actually based her story on the lives of real people which gives it another element of terrible truth. The book is not an easy read. But it does manage to address the questions of “how could this happen” and “why didn’t more people react to the evils of National Socialism.”

[lcjohnson1988_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Title: The End of LawAuthor: Therese DownPages: 320Year: 2016Publisher: Lion PublicationsMy rating is 4 stars.Hitler was a lost person in more ways than one along with the many men who followed his orders without question or conviction. The author points though to the youth who at the cost of their own lives spoke truth to their countrymen, reminding them of who the German people really were and should rise up to be again.Many novels and nonfiction books remind us, teach us and make us aware of what happened when evil went unchecked in a nation. The author really writes a heart-gripping tale of how life changed for one German family when the husband, father and man chose to seek accolades from a mad man in power. In the book, you will also read of the way it affected the character to do Hitler’s selective killing. There is some detail in the book, but mainly it is a tale of the people who decided to stand up and then kneel down before God, making others aware of the atrocities being committed against the defenseless.Included in the book is what the cost was to the wife, daughter and son of a man who sought to have more power and higher rank in the SS. While he could live his life the way he chose, this made the character want to exert abusive power in his own home. While one SS man sought power from Hitler another SS officer turned to God. He cannot live with the nightmares he suffers or the work he has done with the destruction of life and ultimately his soul.The foul language in the book is used by the one male character who believes there is no God, only the Reich. However, it wasn’t necessary to use God’s name in vain in the novel as readers are aware of how the godless speak to and of God. Those who resisted and called on others to resist Hitler and the Reich were killed in the early 20s. I am humbled by their courage even decades after their sacrifice.As soon as one starts reading, the reader will quickly lose themselves in a period of history that defies description. However one aspect I learned about was of those who died courageously because they stood up to stop the spread of evil in the day. What a reminder to be courageous and instead of ignoring evil, speak up, out and against that which God calls evil even when the cost is life!Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255. “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

[shuffy2_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Berlin 1933: Hedda Schroeder marries SS officer Walter Gunther, forever changing her life and the lives of those around her.Hitler is rising to power and his plans require chemists, doctors and engineers to achieve his objective. Hedda reconnects with an old friend, Karl Muller, who is an engineer turned doctor. Her father, Heinrich Schroeder is a chemist and her husband is an unflinching officer, climbing the Nazi ranks. All three intersect and she is unable to ignore the occupations of those closest to her. Why should Hedda and her two children have to worry about Hitler’s proposal for the ‘unworthies’ and who decides who is unworthy-- Jews, homosexuals, the mentally ill and crippled children.A heavy, disturbing topic but a captivating read... My only complaint would be it seemed to go a bit fast at the beginning, would have liked a bit more character development before getting into the meat of the story. While many of the characters were vile and unlikeable, it was important to the story and the author did a good job portraying them during that horrifying time in history. Anything but light however it was a quick read and would recommend....

[navyjoe98 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I reviewed this book for Library Thing Early Reviewers.The End of Law is set in Germany during the early years of WWII. The story focuses on the lives of several SS Officers who are involved in the T4 program to exterminate mentally ill and other people who are deemed to be unworthy to live in Germany’s Third Reich.A large portion of the book focuses on the wife of a Senior SS Officer Walter Gunther. Hedda Gunther loathes her husband and does everything in her power to shield their two kids from her husband and the horrors of the War. Some of the SS Officers and family members achieve some form of redemption because of the actions that they take to try and bring this awful program to the attention of the World. They also try to save as many people as possible from killing.The book is interesting because it tells some of the inner workings of the SS and the Nazi party. It also tells about how many of the Germans recognized and attempted to stop the holocaust. I never realized that Herman Goering’s brother, Alfred, was very against the war and the treatment of the Jews. The story tells how Alfred tried to save some of the Jews and the “unworthies” of the German people.This is a very horrific yet touching story. The author told a very informative and entertaining tale which I enjoyed very much. My only gripe about her writing style is that the Chapters are very long (most 20-40 pages). Also, the pause points in the chapters are sometimes scarce. I am a very busy person who loves to read, but often has to do it in small chunks. For me it’s much easier if there’s a lot of pause points in the chapters or the chapters are relatively short. Overall, great book that I thoroughly enjoyed!! I would definitely read other works by Therese Downs in the future. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

[roxief_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this book as an ARC. I'm fascinated by WWII so this book was right up my alley. I can't add much that the other reviewers haven't already said. However, it was very hard to get through as it was very graphic. I, of course, know about the Holocaust and the aftermath....not sure why I never thought (or read about) how they decided on the best way to kill large amounts of people. The trial and error horrified me. Knowing the book is based on actual events and people made it even sadder. Despite that, the book was very good.

[nana50-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Shocking is the word that kept coming to mind. We all know about the holocaust but this book put so many things into perspective for me. The author did a wonderful job entwining love story, family relations and true grit history. Some descriptions were detailed enough to make me gasp out loud. My heart broke as I involved myself emotionally with some of the characters and the moral decisions they were faced with. Great book!

[mommom46 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

With thanks to LibraryThing for the chance to read The End of Law by Therese Down. It is a novel based on the experiences and troubled life of Kurt Gerstein, portrayed as Karl Muller. Hitler's dream of a pure Aryan race, the T4 Euthanasia Program and his final solution against the Jewish people,the Roma and Sinti and homosexual population are all too true. The novel is dark and brutal but well worth reading. Most Holocaust novels deal with stories of the ghettos or of concentration camps but this is a frightening look at the Nazi pysche.

[koalamom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

How can men decide to just kill those they deem unworthy? How can they just decide to put to death one of their own children? And yet the main character in this book has just these ideas. It was a sad, onerous, unforgivable time in our history.