Remote Sympathy

Set against the horrifying backdrop of World War II, Catherine Chidgey's "Remote Sympathy" masterfully interweaves the lives of three disparate individuals linked by the Buchenwald concentration camp. SS Sturmbannführer Dietrich Hahn sees his appointment as the camp's administrator as a career advancement, even as the scale of his horrific duties intensifies. Meanwhile, his wife, Greta Hahn, revels in their new luxurious home life, largely oblivious to the atrocities unfolding just beyond her garden walls, enjoying the privileges afforded to an officer's spouse. Her blissful ignorance is challenged when she is compelled to form an alliance with Dr. Lenard Weber, a prisoner who, years prior, invented a device called the Sympathetic Vitaliser, believed to cure cancer through subtle resonances. As Greta's world collides with the camp's stark reality through Weber, the novel explores the chilling capacity for human obliviousness and the complex interplay of complicity, denial, and the desperate search for hope amidst unimaginable horror. "Remote Sympathy" is a powerful examination of moral responsibility and the profound consequences of looking the other way.