My Grandfather’s Knife

Many of us possess objects that evoke stories and memories from our family history. Items such as old photos and heirloom jewellery comprise what historians call material history, and until recently researchers didn’t pay much attention to them, preferring to rely on primary written sources instead. But these days, according to Joseph Pearson, material history is “sexy.” 

To prove his point, the Edmonton- born historian who is now based in Berlin traces the stories of five objects related to the Second World War, beginning with his grandfather’s knife. The knife — actually a bayonet engraved with a swastika — hung menacingly from the wall of his grandfather’s basement when the author was a child. Other than the fact that his grandfather had “liberated” it while serving in the Canadian army in the Netherlands, Pearson knew nothing of the weapon’s origins. 

In what sometimes reads like a mystery novel, Pearson takes us on a journey of discovery as he uncovers the stories of the knife and the other objects in this book — a coded diary, a recipe book, a musical instrument, and a Holocaust survivor’s hand-sewn pouch. The objects belonged to people in disparate wartime roles — a German sailor writing about a French girlfriend, a cook tossing salads for Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels’ family, a cellist playing in Adolf Hitler’s favourite orchestra, and a Jewish woman surviving a horrible death march. 

With this well-illustrated book, Pearson succeeds at both engaging general readers and satisfying academic historians.