Publication Date: August 9, 2024
Berlin, 1942. “All I know is we will survive this together,” he says before kissing the tears away from my cheeks. But I know if the Nazis discover what we’ve done, how we’ve conspired against them, we will die together.
Deaf since the age of five, Mina has had to fight for everything she has, including her place at an Austrian university to study physics. She has never felt accepted-until she meets fellow student Siggy, and her heart stops at the kindness in his bright blue eyes.
But Mina’s world comes crashing down when the SS arrive at her door and escort her to Berlin. She’s terrified it’s because of her disability-she’s heard the awful rumours about the Nazi euthanasia program. So relief washes over her when she’s told as one of Germany’s brightest minds, she’s been recruited to work for the government.
Soon, this relief turns to horror when Mina learns why she’s truly here: they want her to build the atomic bomb that will win Germany the war. Mina knows if she refuses they will kill her. But if she does as they say, she could be responsible for the death of millions.
With Siggy’s help, Mina vows to do everything she can to sabotage the project. Will they save the world from a devastating catastrophe? Or will everything they’ve risked be in vain?
As Germany became more entrenched in World War II and initiated restrictions on the Jewish population, ripples were felt within the scientific community.
Even Einstein was ostracized. Germans unwilling to join the Nazi Party like Werner Heisenberg were initially left out of the inner circle working feverishly to create an atomic bomb.
Author Ellie Midwood uses historical context in When the World Went Silent. Although the lead character, a brilliant prodigy named Mina, is fictional, she represents those who were pressed into service.
Mina, who lost her hearing as a child, desperately wants to leave her mark in the physics realm, but her deafness categorizes her as undesirable. An effort to hide her condition gives her the opportunity, but she soon discovers success could mean mass destruction.
The heartbreaking tale brings to life not only the cruel injustices done to the Jewish community but also the burden of knowledge shared by those working closely on the real-life atomic bomb program.
When the World Went Silent serves as a powerful reminder of how knowledge can be weaponized in forcing people to make gut-wrenching choices.
Ellie Midwood is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning historical fiction author, whose works have been translated into 20 languages. She owes her interest in the history of the Second World War to her grandfather, Junior Sergeant in the 2nd Guards Tank Army of the First Belorussian Front, who began telling her about his experiences on the frontline when she was a young girl. Growing up, her interest in history only deepened and transformed from reading about the war to writing about it. After obtaining her BA in Linguistics, Ellie decided to make writing her full-time career and began working on her first full-length historical novel, “The Girl from Berlin.” Ellie is continuously enriching her library with new research material and feeds her passion for WWII and Holocaust history by collecting rare memorabilia and documents.
In her free time, Ellie is a health-obsessed yoga enthusiast, neat freak, adventurer, Nazi Germany history expert, polyglot, philosopher, a proud Jew, and a doggie mama. Ellie lives in New York with her husband and their three dogs.
