Words leave imprints in your mind like footprints in the sand...
beach reading
starry skies to read under
reading in nature
  • Location: Berlin, Germany, Poland

At the Wolf’s Table

At the Wolf’s Table

Why a Booktrail?

1943: A woman becomes a taste tester for Hitler

  • ISBN: 978-1250179142
  • Genre: Fiction, Historical

What you need to know before your trail

Germany, 1943. Twenty-six-year-old Rosa Sauer’s parents are gone, and her husband, Gregor, is far away, fighting on the front lines of World War II. Alone, she has little choice but to leave war-torn Berlin behind and live with her in-laws in the countryside, hoping she’ll find refuge there. But one morning, the SS come to tell her she has been conscripted to be one of Hitler’s tasters: three times a day, she and nine other women go to his secret headquarters, known as the Wolf’s Lair, to eat his meals before he does. Forced to eat what might kill them, the tasters begin to divide into The Fanatics, those loyal to Hitler, and the women like Rosa who insist they aren’t Nazis, even as they risk their lives every day for Hitler’s. As secrets and resentments grow, this unlikely sisterhood reaches its own dramatic climax. What’s more, one of Rosa’s SS guards has become dangerously familiar, and the war is worsening outside. As the months pass, it becomes increasingly clear that Rosa and everyone she knows are on the wrong side of history.

Travel Guide

Germany

The novel is set in and around Berlin and in several places in the German countryside. The setting is  clearly wartime Germany and this is a worrying time for all. In September 2014, the author read a short Italian newspaper article about Margot Wölk, Hitler’s last living food taster. Frau Margot Wölk had never told anyone about her experience, but at the age of ninety -six she decided to make it public. That letter inspired this novel.

Poland

Wolf’s Lair

Remains of Hitler’s wartime base with shelters, barracks, 2 airfields, power station & rail station.

Gross Partsch

In Gross-Partsch, she stayed with her parents in a house.  Less than three kilometers away was the Wolfsschanze (Wolf’s Lair) which was Hitler’s first Eastern Front military headquarters in World War II. The complex was built for the start of Operation Barbarossa – the invasion of the Soviet Union – in 1941.

Booktrail Boarding Pass:  At the Wolf’s Table

Destination : Berlin, Germany, Poland  Author/Guide: Rosella Postorino Departure Time: 1953

Back to Results

Featured Book

A Poisoner’s Tale

1651: Inspired by the true story of Giulia Tofana: The Angel of Death with a Vial of Vengeance

Read more