Find out the latest indie author news. For FREE.

ADVERTISEMENT

Formats
Soft Cover Details
  • 05/2004
  • 978-1-41843-054-2
  • 332 pages
  • $$18.95
James Micksch
Author
The Nazi's Called Me Traitor
SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD Chris left Germany just two days before the outbreak of World War II to take a job as radar operator at the small airport at Esbjerg, Denmark. Life was comparatively uneventful until the Nazi hordes overran their tiny northern neighbor. Suddenly Chris was summoned to the office of a German captain. Why, he wanted to know, was she, a German citizen, working in a foreign land during wartime? Under the circumstances it appeared dubious that she was loyal to the Fatherland. The captain, however, could straighten out everything, could get her beautiful clothes, set her up in luxury, if she would extend certain personal favors to him. He waited for her reply. It came quickly. "Fat pig!" For this Chris was promptly arrested, taken to Copenhagen and tried as a traitor. The verdict: Guilty! The penalty: Death! Chris tells of her hairbreadth escape, her perilous crossing into northern Italy with the Gestapo hot on her heels, and her long trek on foot, traveling only at night, down the Italian peninsula to Naples, where she made contact with friends. One wrong move would mean death before a firing squad. She next escaped to Tunis, North Africa, where she became a messenger in the Underground. On one of her missions two friends were instantly killed and she was severely wounded. She woke up in a German field hospital and was told that one of her feet must be amputated. General Rommel, the Desert Fox, arrived at the hospital, questioned her, and had her transferred to a private hospital in Tunis, where the foot was saved. Rommel, who was plotting the death of Hitler, showed her important documents and told her that she and her deceased friends had actually been working on secret missions for him. He arranged for her return to Italy, where supposedly she would be safe with friends in Reggio. As the Allied forces pushed into Italy, however, she once more had to flee, the quarry of Nazis and Allies alike. Hunted like a wild animal in the mountains and caves, she was captured by two German soldiers of the Hermann Goering Division who tied her up and beat her so badly that they left her for dead. Rescued by a sergeant of the German 3d Regiment, 1st Paratroop Division, she was taken to the commanding officer, Colonel Ludwig Heilmann, a strong anti-Nazi. She was adopted by the regiment and became the colonel's confidante; later, miraculously survived Monte Cassino; and finally joined the American forces. Often in the thick of battle, she risked her own life to save the lives of Germans, Italians and Americans alike. Her concern was with humanity, not national origin. She recalls the violent deaths of most of her friends, particularly the day when she and others stood before an SS firing line. Just as she was to be shot, a soldier and dear friend from the paratroop division threw himself before her, taking the bullet and falling dead at her feet. She says, "I write of life here as I lived it, of what I saw and felt about people. Though once I hated every man who wore a German uniform, I later learned that there were many decent, valiant soldiers, regardless of nationality. One should evaluate the individual, not the uniform. My story simply tells the plain facts and the full truth about 'men at war.'" Chris came to the United States in 1947 on a troopship crowded with GI's. Now happily married, she lives the quiet life of a housewife in Oakland, California.
Formats
Soft Cover Details
  • 05/2004
  • 978-1-41843-054-2
  • 332 pages
  • $$18.95
ADVERTISEMENT

Loading...