Die Jerominkinder

Jerominkinder, Die, a novel by E. Wiechert, published in two volumes, 1945-7. The first was written in 1940-1, the second in 1946. The novel is a chronicle of the Masurian village of Sowirog, concentrating chiefly on the Jeromin family headed by the pious grandfather Michael, a centenarian, and on the period 1900-39. The most prominent characters are the charcoal-burner Jakob Jeromin and his five sons and two daughters, whose lives are the main substance of the book.

Jakob, the embodiment of simple goodness and faith, is called up in 1914 and dies on the eastern front. Rittmeister von Bulk, a retired captain of Uhlans, outwardly hard, but generous and just in his actions, steps in as squire of the village, and enables Jons Jeromin, the idealist youngest son, to study medicine in order to devote his skill to the welfare of the villagers. The patriarchal life of the village persists undisturbed by private misfortune until 1933, when the National Socialist regime begins to cast its shadow, causing acts of violence, of which the most serious are the murder of von Bulk and the suicide of the Jewish doctor, Jens's friend Lawrenz. Wiechert commented that the novel needed a third volume to cover the 1939-45 War, which he felt powerless to write.