Aspiring Tradwife Christian Author Off To A Bad Start With “Holocaust Historical Fiction”

Can you believe that in the past week or so there have been two Nazi book dramas going on in the dark recesses of the internet? I’m only going to touch on one for today but I promise you, it’s certainly…something.

Skyler L. of the instagram ofwritersandreaders who describes herself as an “aspiring author” has absolutely no personality of which to speak. That might sound like a really harsh thing to say, but when your entire internet presence you’ve constructed around your (not finished) book is nothing but vague, boring, aesthetic-based nonsense, it’s hard to think anything else. In late March of this year, Skyler constructed her boring facebook page, making what some might call “cutesy” little picture or video posts trying to “convince” visitors to read her book by offering glimpses of the dedication and describing it in the captions as “Holocaust historical fiction.” Her Insta is a few months older, having been formed in late 2025 and filled with dull, beige-souled bookish crap occasionally cut with vignette-styled images of cowboy-hat wearing toddlers overlaid with wistful text claiming she one day wishes for the life of a ranch mommy. Honestly, this would all fit quite well as a line in Bo Burnham’s “White Woman’s Instagram.”

The first hint as to her actual project was on January 2nd of 2026 when she posted a short reel that used the aesthetic of the story to appeal to her Instagram’s audience which had been built up by a couple of lucky posts that had done well with comment engagement tactics. Images of soldiers, concentration camps, and various high-contrast close-ups flicker dramatically before the platform asks you if you want to watch the reel again and you’re left wondering what in the Enemy At The Gates fan edit did I just get blasted with? Still, her audience engagement continued to work and comments climbed as she posted uninspiring “updates” to her progress with her work in flowery language meant to stir at the heartstrings of the doe-eyed, soft-hearted, over-sized sweater-wearing girls cuddled up in their reading nooks.

From here, it didn’t take long.

The difference in the tone of the comments was staggering. From hearty encouragement 13 weeks ago to the now two day-old cacophony of “Disgusting”s, it takes a single flick of the scroll bar. Insta user sofiek07 wrote: “BRO LOOOOL go k-y-s plesse” [sic] while marie.valen.autorin stated, “Just don’t do it please. It just isn’t right.” Naturally, this is all said before we even know what the plot of the story is, or even a more narrow premise. All we know is that there is a “boy” within the ranks of the Schutzstaffel and a “girl” resistance fighter who have some kind of…a uhm…relationship. Cue the horrified screaming. Commenters came out of the woodwork, like they normally do, claiming ownership over their generational traumas associated with the Holocaust and the Nazi influence over the histories of their families. Concerns over the amount of research done as well as criticism of the marketing tactics are common as most folks take umbrage with the cozy bookish space playing host and cheapening the dark nature of war crimes. User patcat_89 commented: “Concentration camps are not an aesthetic. Hope that helps.”

Now, I have to admit that some of us are built a little different. After all, I’m not all that concerned about this girl having fantasies about trying to “fix” a man or having an unrealized fetish for Nazi uniforms that manifests in a story about redemption or…whatever. My criticisms come from two places, one shallow and one further into the psyche than the friction of a superficial Nazi fetish. Like many of our intrepid commenters, I’m a little concerned about the research aspect. It’s not all that difficult to look into certain elements that would add even just the most basic believability to a story, some taking only ten minutes of a Wikipedia read and a few basic Google searches while others might take a little bit more effort like checking out a book at the local library and donning the ol’ reading glasses to take notes. Since we haven’t read any of the work in progress yet, it’s not possible to give in-depth critiques, but from what we can see already we have a decent idea of the level of research with which we’re working.

The first hint is the name of the plucky heroine, Helena Galiński. Though here in America (where the author is, allegedly, based) it’s very common for a Polish surname to end in “ski” and surnames in the United States do not change for any reason, whereas in Poland surname spellings take into consideration gender with Polish males having a surname ending with “ski” and Polish females having “ska.” Throughout history, Polish names have even taken into account the marriage status of a young woman, further complicating things depending on the region, the name, and the origin of the family. Galiński as a surname is also, I believe (correct me if I’m wrong), an Americanized form of the Polish name Zieliński/ska: the eighth most popular Polish last name with a root meaning “green,” which betrays the author as relatively uneducated about the most basic aspects of Polish history, nomenclature, and culture. Granted: Skyler isn’t finished with even a rough draft of this story and has no editor that we know of, much less an agent or a publisher who would help her create suitable names for her characters since these are simply not going to work should she like anyone to take her book seriously.

I have little to gripe about when it comes to the name of the male counterpart—that is, the Nazi, Rainer. My complaints about him rest mostly with the concept of him as a whole, and probably not in the way of most critics. I think in general many would prefer that he simply not exist, meanwhile my personal thoughts are based more around his role within the narrative. I don’t mind a hot Nazi, as most of you well know, but his role has to make sense and right now, Skyler hasn’t really clarified anything. In a now-deleted Instagram post, she presented an AI-crafted rendering of both Helena and Rainer, presenting the latter as an officer of the SS as was indicated by his Dienstanzug (dress uniform) though it lacked any indication of rank (from the image, the uniform matches with war time Poland occupation) which leaves us in the wind when it comes to presumptions as to his narrative impact. Alarmingly, to avoid providing a rank, whatever AI model crafted the characters actually managed to render the dual lightning bolt symbol of the SS on the left collar tab (as opposed to the right), something that I was fairly certain most would avoid, though Grok could probably be convinced. This would also preclude him from being a concentration camp guard, as they often sported the Totenkopf rather than the bolts.

Skyler presents a Polish woman and a German man who are somehow supposed to have some kind of access to each other presumably in Poland where a lot of the hands-on elements of the Final Solution were actually delegated to Ordnungspolizei, better known as “Order Police Battalions” or colloquially: “Orpo.” If we were to extrapolate logically that our main male protagonist is located in Poland due to his involvement in activities related to the Einsatzgruppen (SS Death Squads), we can rightly presume that he meant to be there and is functionally working alongside the Police Battalions. Involvement in the SS and especially in the Death Squads was purely intentional and a matter of voluntary deployment and at its highest point their ranks numbered just over 4,000. Though there were clearly cultural elements that played a part in the actions of these men (Christopher Browning talks about these in his descriptions of Reserve Police Battalion 101 in his book Ordinary Men), the main take-away is that our male main character had to choose to be where he is and is, at this level, functionally irredeemable.

The role of the SS Einsatzgruppen during the invasion of Poland was to sweep behind the Wehrmacht and liquidate anyone who was slated for such a fate as ordered by top Nazi Brass (read as: Hitler himself as well as Heydrich). Their first and primary function was to destroy the Polish national identity through the systematic slaughter of their national leaders or anyone identifiable in a leadership role even in small locales such as priests or politicians. While that was going on, they oversaw an incredibly prolific and organized series of mass murders committed against Jews, Romani, etcetera, managing to liquidate tens of thousands of human beings, often after committing unspeakable acts of rape or torture, some of which were so abhorrent that leaders of the Wehrmacht would seek to distance themselves and their men from the acts in order to preserve their integrity next to the tenets of the Geneva Convention. (This is not to say that the Wehrmacht was not complicit or did not engage in such activities, it is only to say that there were examples of leaders within that found the actions of the Einsatzgruppen to be irredeemable.) These men were not here by accident, they were raised and conditioned by a culture and ideology that replaced their concept of “honor” with that of blind, violent loyalty. They were vetted by medical “experts” in eugenics-based SS racial ideology and underwent examinations in order to prove an acceptable level of “purity” in their Nordic features. (Weale, 66)

That’s not to say that there weren’t objections within the organizations themselves and the violence did, ultimately, take a toll on the psychological welfare of those who perpetrated these crimes. Most notably was Wilhelm Trapp, the major who commanded Reserve Police Battalion 101 who was known to break down into tears at times and once stated to his driver, “If this Jewish business is ever avenged on earth, then have mercy on us Germans.” his statements a clear understanding of the weight of their deeds. (Browning, 60) Still, as complex as our human understanding and existence can be, are the men who gave these orders not responsible for their execution? Are the men who completed them not also responsible for the acts by their own hands? Was survival in such a circumstance worth tens of thousands of lives beyond their own? Will Skyler’s book be able to navigate the weight of not just genocide on the part of the victims, but the psychological impact of systematic slaughter on the perpetrators?

This sounds like a tall ask from someone who draws cheeky fishnet-wearing Nazi illustrations, but it’s something that I can honestly say makes me wary of those looking to monetize and benefit from narratives that may “redeem” a member of an elite paramilitary arm of the Third Reich. Though I, myself, have “cheapened” the Holocaust in my use of it as a setting, I’m also pretty self-aware of my own foibles and I don’t openly fantasize about getting married, popping out babies, and going to live on a ranch. Mmm, the Hitler Particles coming off of those posts are making a bit more sense now, aren’t they? Instagram user droplov3 wrote, “Ohhhhh youre THAT kind of white. No wonder you’re making a book about Nazi propaganda” [sic]. For many of us, the irredeemable nature of the Nazi is what makes them compelling as characters, their struggle (or lack there of) with their own choices alongside a fundamental disconnect between their past and their future or legacy. It’s serious but we don’t take ourselves seriously, acknowledging that this is weird and oftentimes beyond what is conventionally acceptable in mainstream spaces. Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell Skyler.

Now, we don’t actually know what’s going to happen in the story. We can extrapolate and make wild assumptions, sure, but we can’t actually know until she finishes it (if she finishes it) and from her statement, she’s pretty well committed to the project, writing: “I got caught up in finally being able to share a project I’ve spent years writing and I posted the character art before I’d actually explained what the book was about. Looking back, I wish I’d done that differently. One image can’t tell the story I wrote, and I can understand why people made assumptions based on it.” Wooo, boy! That sure does sound familiar. The only thing that hits a little bit of a discordant note with me is when she goes on to say, “As a Christian, I believe stories can explore the reality of evil while still pointing toward truth, hope, redemption, and the value of every human life.” What does this mean in the context of being a Christian? My eyebrows are on the ceiling, ma’am, this isn’t making me feel better about anything. Is this some kind of strange Christian-based moralizing tale about the redemptive powers of Christ? Because uh…wowza. We are aware that the Einsatzgruppen and the Orpo shot infants to death, right? Like…left their tiny lifeless corpses in doorways and along the gutters?

…uhm...

I almost hope this book does get finished and that I get to somehow have an Advanced Reader’s Copy. I have to know. Skyler, if you’re reading this, please…I want to hear the actual plot.

Browning, Christopher R.. Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. Harper Perennial, 1993.

Weale, Adrian. The SS A New History. Abacus, 2012.