Content Warning: The book “Red Flags” takes place in Germany and Poland during the rise of the Nazi Party, the Second World War, and the Holocaust. As such, the content I will discuss in the following post will be about that, which includes far-right political ideology, antisemitism, racism, ableism, homophobia, and cruelty. There will also be some spoilers for the book.
This seems as good a place as any to express that I am by no means an expert on 20th Century Europe, nor would I say that’s a topic I like to research in my spare time. Most of my knowledge of World War II and the Holocaust comes from the history classes I took in high school and college, and beyond that, the occasional historically inaccurate film, like Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds.”
However, the second I heard my cousin, Rebecca McQueen, was about to publish her debut novel, I was like, “I’m buying the hell out of that.”
I mean, when you hear someone you know and admire is writing a book, and the book is finished, edited, and available for purchase, then you have to get the book. Especially since I knew the author had poured a ton of work into sensitively and accurately describing the historical events in this novel. Even though I was not in the market to read a novel that took place during World War II and the Holocaust, I knew I wanted to read it.
“Red Flags” is about a young woman named Hildegard. As a preteen, her mother remarries a successful industrialist, and they move from Metropolitan Berlin to a small town in the Alps. Although Hildegard initially feels like an outsider, the townspeople warmly welcome her.
As Hildegard matures, the political environment in Germany becomes more fraught. The people elect Hitler as Chancellor and stand by as he scapegoats Jews for the economic downtown faced after the First World War. Hildegard education is reformatted to become more German-centric, and she joins the local Nazi Girl Scouts, where she’s very successful.
After her high school graduation, Hildegard’s stepfather suffers from a stroke, and she chooses to remain in her small town rather than leave to begin a successful career with the Nazi Women’s League. Her stepfather hires a Spanish Civil War refugee, Miguel, to work on his farm. Hildegard and Miguel are immediately attracted to each other, and this attraction becomes a lot more complicated when she discovers Miguel is a Jew.
As the Second World War begins, Miguel and Hildegard fall deeply in love, which is threatened by their increasingly hateful and paranoid surroundings. Hildegard realizes that they are most likely to be betrayed by the people who had once warmly welcomed her into their community.
I don’t want to say too much about Hildegard’s journey or the other characters McQueen introduces in “Red Flags.” The story spans from the late 1920s to after the end of World War 2, and as such, the characters are heavily influenced by those events. This is the kind of story where the reader will be introduced to characters, become attached to those characters, and
I think McQueen excelled at telling a story from the perspective of the perpetrators. I think when writing stories about the past, there is a temptation to soften the actions of people in the past. For example, I often think of the scene from the movie “Hidden Figures” in which Kevin Costner’s character, the white man leading the Space Task Group at NASA, knocks down the “colored bathroom” sign NASA, thus abolishing segregated bathrooms. It should be a great scene, except that it never happened. Katherine Johnson was unaware of the segregated bathrooms and used the bathroom that was closest to her. Someone eventually complained about her using the “whites-only” bathroom, which she ignored. And honestly, good for her! The truth is not nearly as dramatic, but that shouldn’t matter in a story about three intelligent black women. Kevin Costner’s scene felt like it was pandering to an audience who might otherwise feel uncomfortable about the discrimination Katherine Johnson and her colleagues experienced.
“Red Flags” is refreshingly free of adaptational heroism. Some characters act according to their conscience and try to do their best, but never in a way that feels like pandering. If anything, the characters who do display heroic tendencies, either by standing up for their faith, other people, or even themselves, are severely punished. Selfless heroism is beautiful, but in this environment, it could also be a death sentence. This message is important because it reminds us why it is so difficult to stand up for your beliefs.
Hildegard, the main character, tries to be a good person in dark times but often experiences failure. Hildegard survives harrowing circumstances not necessarily because she’s braver or smarter than other people but often because she’s lucky. She’s very lucky to have blonde hair, blue eyes, and a pretty face, and those features are highly valued in her society. She’s aware of how that makes her different than other people who face worse persecution than her, and she regularly feels ashamed and disappointed in herself. During the latter half of the book, she often reflects on her “cowardice” and is not above moments of pettiness, rage, and terror. All of this unpleasantness is what makes her such an interesting character, and even though she appears to be the Aryan ideal, it makes her that much easier to empathize with. And given everything that Hildegard experiences in this story, and how she continues to try to be a good person in a world that punishes kindness, I wanted her to be happy.
There is an important message in “Red Flags” that makes this book especially worth reading. We see how the people of this small town are slowly manipulated and galvanized to become anti-Semetic. When Hildegard firsts moves to town, she only hears one or two people make insulting comments about Jewish people. For the most part, no one in this town has even met a Jew, let alone learned to develop an opinion about them. Yet slowly, over time, these people are exposed to increased Anti-Semitic rhetoric while indulging in German Nationalism, albeit weakly disguised as patriotism.
It is easy to be apathetic about another person’s oppression when unaware that oppression exists. It can be easy to mindlessly hate someone you’ve never met. It can be even easier to inadvertently contribute to that person’s oppression. However, just because you are unaware of another’s person suffering does not give you the freedom to perpetuate it. Yet, “Red Flags” shows how it is all too easy to start off as indifferent to someone’s pain and then to slowly become the very person who’s causing it.
I think that’s what makes this book a necessary read. The crimes perpetuated in Nazi Germany were not just by evil people, but by everyday, average citizens. It was all too easy for some of them to ignore the hateful ideology of the Nazi Party, and in many cases, directly aid in their horrifying mission.
I think Rebecca McQueen’s “Red Flags” is a fantastic work of historical fiction that was released at a time when there are quite a few parallels to modern American politics. The book pays homage to many of the people who suffered while living Nazi Germany while also harshly critiquing those who stood by and let that suffering take place. I found that it was sometimes a difficult story to read, but one that is necessary if we want to prevent these events from happening again.
I have a few words of warning for those interested in reading this book. When I read “Red Flags,” I was glued to the book and stayed up well past 2 AM to finish reading it. It’s hard to stop reading once you get invested in the story. However, some of the events in this book are difficult to read. And I don’t mean because the writing was inaccessible. It is hard to fathom that humanity could be capable of such cruelty. There was one scene involving the registration process at Auschwitz and the fate of a young pregnant woman that I found particularly gut-wrenching. After I read it, I had to take a break before I could continue.
The book is not exploitative in describing some of the atrocities that occur during the Holocaust. But it is honest about some of the cruel and inhumane ways the Nazi party tortured the inhabitants of Auschwitz. Some of the events of this book, particularly in the later half, are graphic and deeply upsetting. I understand why these events and descriptions are in the book, and I appreciated how they were portrayed. Some readers may struggle with some of the content of this book. “Red Flags” is a great book, but I do think some of the content may be too much for some readers. If you are interested in reading this book but are particularly sensitive to some of the topics I’ve mentioned in this post, or if you’re going through a “Bridgerton” phase and want to keep the good times rolling, you may want to make sure you’re in the proper frame of mind to appreciate what’s happening.
However, suppose you want to learn more about German history leading up to World War II, the Nazi Party, or concentration camps. In that case, this book is a must-read. I still recommend reading this book even if you’re not particularly interested in those topics because the moral of this book is important.
One line in the author’s afterward stuck with me: “These were a cultured, educated people who were fed a steady diet of nationalism and, in the end, chose warped political opinions over their own moral compass.”
It’s easy to think that something terrible could never happen again, and to deny that there are parallels between a past tragedy and events in the present, but that’s not the right thing to do. Antisemitism remains a major issue in society, as do the other forms of discrimination and hatred that occurred during Nazi Germany. In the advanced, enlightened, first-world United States of America, many states are passing transphobic legislature, communities are struggling with book bans, and researchers specializing in disinformation are being targeted with lawsuits.
That’s why it is so necessary now more than ever to speak up when something doesn’t feel right or goes against your moral compass. It’s not easy, and you may not be immediately rewarded for doing so, but it is necessary to prevent past atrocities from occurring again.
I’d like to tell readers that although Rebecca McQueen is my cousin, I bought and read the book of my own volition. No one asked me to write about the book for this blog, and I’m writing about it because I liked it, not because I’m getting some kind of reward or family kudo points or something. Plus, the only people who consistently read this blog are my dad and one of my college BFFs, so I would be a terrible choice as a paid promoter for a debut novel. However, if you like what I have written and want to give me money to write about your book or show, then please hit me up. I’m currently living in San Francisco on a graduate student salary, so I can be easily bought.
On a closing note, it seems a strange coincidence that after I read this book, the song “European Boys,” by Rose Kelso popped up on my Instagram feed. So if everything I’ve written about has dampened your spirits, I hope this brings them back up.
Happy Hagfish 
How cool that your cousin wrote a book! And I’ll always be reading your bloggity 😉 xo xo your college bff
LikeLike