Emma CraigieReviews

i think it is a great story plot and is a good read, but the issue is that i have put the book down, twice already and i have stopped reading it once more due the the shear fact that the writing style is non-relatable and is easy to put down, i understand why lots of people would enjoy it, and do, but I'm afraid this one is not for me

In Hitler's bunker, Helga Goebbels is witnessing everyone's life fall apart as the adults' appearances change along with their mood and the smell of marzipan fills the air. She unconsciously comes to realize that her 'golden childhood' was not at all as it seemed. Helga has an inkling that everything wouldn't go as planned; Hitler wouldn't beat the Russians and everyone would die. Her instincts are proven right when all the adults are artificially happy and pressing and even more so when they lie. Helga keeps her thoughts to herself because she wants to pretend everything is going to be alright but by doing so, she is lonely and the only consolation she can find in Hitler's underground bunker is from the past; her memories. She replayed her memories in her head as she subconsciously knows, though she denies it, that those times had passed and would never come back again.

Based on the true situation of the Goebbels children who spent their last days with Hitler and some other in his bunker. Helga Goebbels (12 years old) tells the story of what it was like to be with Uncle Leader (Hitler) and the others at this tense time. Lots of historical information at the end of the book so you know what happened. If you liked The Boy in Striped Pyjamas you may enjoy this.

A haunting account of the last days in Hitlers bunker told through the innocent eyes of a child. The voice of Helga is quite moving as she struggles to understand the grown ups around her.

During the final days of World War II in April 1945, twelve-year-old Helga Goebbels, daughter of Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, is brought to Berlin, along with her younger brother and four younger sisters, to stay with her parents in Hitler’s bunker in Berlin. Having spent much of her childhood sheltered from the horrors of the war, Helga can now see that something is terribly wrong. She is old enough to know that despite attempts to maintain a sense of normalcy for the children, the adults are hiding something terrible from her - the war will soon be over, and Germany has lost.

During the last ten days of her life, Helga looks back on the happier days of her childhood and the memories of good times with family and friends as day by day, things become worse in the bunker. Every day, the adults grow more tense, and more and more people leave in hopes of escaping from the advancing Russian army. Every day, more and more, Helga is faced with the terrible truths that the adults have tried so hard to hide from the children. What Helga doesn’t know, however, is that those she fears - the conquering Russian army - will not be the ones to take her life. Instead, she will lose her life at the hands of the person who should have protected her - her mother.

Chocolate Cake with Hitler is a haunting look at the final days of the life of Helga Goebbels, oldest child of one of the most notorious Nazis, Joseph Goebbels. Helga and her five younger siblings were murdered by their mother shortly before the Russians captured Berlin in early May of 1945. The author conveys the tragedy of a fanaticism so great and evil that a parent would kill her children before allowing them to live in a world in which the Nazis had lost. This is a short but powerful novel that shows all too clearly that in war, all children are victims.