Category: Characters-Immigrant-Soldier
Hitler’s Adjutant – The SS Officer, Richard Schulze-Kossens
One of the more complicated and controversial minor characters in Immigrant Soldier is SS-Obersturmbannführer Richard Schulze. I have had several readers comment about the friendship between the novel’s hero, Herman, and this German SS officer. Most notably I received an email from a second cousin I’d never met who…
The Real Clara Lang: Holocaust Survivor
When I speak with book groups, they almost always ask me questions about the real people behind the novel’s characters. Women readers especially want to know more about Herman’s mother, Clara. “Did she ever see Albert again?” is one of their most frequently asked questions. Telling readers more about…
The Real Hugo
In Immigrant Soldier, Herman recalls his childhood days as he sits in a deck chair during the stormy passage to America. He remembers the tension in the sunny, well-furnished home on Bernard Strasse and his mother’s unhappiness. When I first wrote this section of the book, much of the information I knew about Hugo had to…
A Very Big Man – Man Mountain Dean
One common memory that almost all the Ritchie Boys share is of the oversized instructor of hand-to-hand combat, Man Mountain Dean. He obviously made an impression commensurate with his size. Dean, who stood over six feet tall and weighed in excess of 300 pounds, must have seemed, to the young soldiers he instructed, a literal…
Chicago and the Spiegels
Those of us who grew up in the 1950s and ‘60s will probably be familiar with the Spiegel name. Along with Sears and Roebuck, the Spiegel Company of Chicago was one of the best known catalog retailers in the United States. Beloved by their customers since 1912 for offering free credit and installment payment, in…
Born in the USA – A Ritchie Boy
Not all the Ritchie Boys were Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Many were second generation German, Italian, Russian, or Polish, even Japanese. Others where highly ranked language students pulled from advanced college classes. The common thread was fluency in a language spoken by the enemy. A self-described troglodyte, Burton Hastings is one of these American-born…
An Honest Man
Ernest Wachtel is a man who sees the importance of sharing his experiences. However, when I first spoke to him on the telephone in 2009, I noticed a certain reticence to open up. As I explained my project to him, there was silence on the other end of the line. Finally he said, “I’ll tell…
Secret Heroes
I arrived at the Detroit airport on a hot and humid afternoon in July 2011, but I wasn’t there to sightsee or to wander the asphalt streets of a city in the throes of financial decline and economic desperation. I was on my way to meet Ritchie Boys. I would be part of a reunion…