Book cover for Dr. Ahlin’s novel about two Jewish boys living through and getting involved in WWII.
Traitors is the compelling story of love and hate in Nazi Germany. Jenz and Ezekiel are Jews growing up in the dark shadow of the National Socialist Workers Party (Nazism) under Adolf Hitler in the Third Reich.
Jenz has a Jewish mother and a Swedish Christian father. Jenz' parents send him to Hitler Youth Camp in 1936 to help disguise their Jewish heritage. Life is getting increasingly difficult for Jewish families in their home town of Düsseldorf, Germany.
In November, 1938, Kristallnacht and the burning of their Temple make it very clear to Jenz and Ezekiel and their families that Jews are not safe in Nazi Germany. Jews are not allowed to work in government positions or attend public schools. Jenz helps Ezekiel change his identification to Vitali Carapezza in order to allow him entrance to the Technical University in Berlin.
Jenz, because of his Aryan appearance is "invited" to join the SS. His training is in the Dachau Labor Camp. Jenz is disgusted with SS training and the way his fellow Jews are treated in the concentration camps. He uses his engineering training to get transferred to the Wehrmacht secret Rocket Research Center in Peenemünde on Germany's North Sea.
Jenz and his boyhood friend Ezekiel do everything in their power to slow down and derail the V-1 and V-2 missile programs and thwart the Gestapo's reign of terror on Germany's citizens. They are determined to change the course of WWII. Their actions are fraught with intrigue and danger.
Traitors is a suspenseful and gripping historic novel. Young readers may not fully appreciate the abject terror that pervaded German and Eastern European society in the 1930s and 40s. Perhaps, these readers can begin to understand why our political leaders try to prevent National Socialism from getting a foothold in our country. Anti-Semitism has no place in America. The reader will come away with the thought that the Holocaust was much more than merely a symbol of Jewish angst.
About the Author: Dr. Ahlin is an accomplished author of two textbooks, over 50 research papers, and two novels. His first novel, "Overrun, The Battle for Firebase 14," details some of his experiences in South Vietnam on the USS Kitty Hawk and near the DMZ as a U.S. Naval dentist in 1969. He has taught at the Tufts and Harvard Schools of Dental Medicine for over 20 years. He has been a clinical dentist specializing in pediatric, orthodontic and cosmetic dentistry in Gloucester, Massachusetts for over fifty years.
