Jenna Blum's first novel concerns World War II and the holocaust. The story flips back and forth from the 1940's in Germany and 1996 and 1997 in Minneapolis, Minnesotta. Trudy Swenson, a professor in Minneapolis, is interviewing Germans who immigrated to the U.S. who were living in Germany during World War II to gain information about their lives and their reactions to the Nazi regime and Hitler. Slowly Trudy learn secrets that her mother has kept hidden from her for over fifty years. For one thing Trudy's mother Anna ran a bakery shop in the town of Weimar, Germny. Trudy remembers learning this German nursery rhyme:"Backe, backe, Kuchen!"
der Backer hat gerufen,
"Wer will guten Kuchen backen,
Der muss haben sieben Sachen:
Butter and Salz,
Zucher and Schmalz,
Milch und Mehl,
und Eier machen den Kuchen gel'."
****
"Bake, bake a cake!"
the baker called out.
"Whoever wants to make a good cake,
He must have seven things:
Butter and salt,
Sugar and lard,
Milk and flour,
and eggs to make the cake gold."
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