As in every single book I've read before, I need to analyse the historical context of it. And in this case, it's the Holocaust.
Everything started with the Versaille's Treaty, in which Germans were obliged to resign. This made some people to feel that they have violated their rights; people like Hitler, that would take their honour back, whatever they needed to do. Adolf Hitler was a racist militar, that wanted to "clean" the world's surface of Jews, homosexuals, "negroes" and everyone else that interposed in his way. When he raised to the power as the Chancellor, he started his project. He burned books of anyone that didn't think like him, from Jack London to Albert Einstein. He wanted to demonstrate the whole world that the Aryan race was the only one that deserved living. That's why he wanted to exterminate the Earth's surface of Jews...and he almost did it. What he did with Jews, was to put them in labour camps, an eufemism for torturing-concentration camps. And that's what happened to Imre Kertész, or Georg Koves in the novel.
Anne Frank is another great example to illustrate the historical context of this years. As you probably know, she is a Jewish girl, who had to hide with her family from the Nazis in Netherlands. She, as perhaps many girls do, had a personal diary, in which she wrote about her life and feelings. After some years, she got caught and sent to Bergen-Belsen labour camp, and passed away in that same place, little before the war finished. This is really a sad story, that we have the opportunity to read in her words. Remember always, that you can't forget what passed, or you may repeat it again...
Here I'll let you a crude, emotive video about the Holocaust.
Caution: Extremely Graphic video.
That's what the novel is about. I hope this helps to understand the context better.
I'll start reading!
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