Fic­tion

Max’s War: The Sto­ry of a Ritchie Boy

  • From the Publisher
September 1, 2023

As the Nazis sweep across Europe, Jew­ish teen Max and his par­ents flee Ger­man per­se­cu­tion to Hol­land, where Max finds true friends and a life-alter­ing romance. But when Hitler invades in 1940, Max escapes to Chica­go, leav­ing his par­ents and friends behind. When he learns of his par­ents’ mur­der, Max imme­di­ate­ly enlists in the US Army. After basic train­ing, he is sent to Camp Ritchie, Mary­land, where he is trained in inter­ro­ga­tion and coun­ter­in­tel­li­gence. Deployed to the OSS, Max car­ries out dan­ger­ous mis­sions in Occu­pied coun­tries. He also inter­ro­gates Ger­man POWs, espe­cial­ly after D‑Day and the Bat­tle of the Bulge, where, despite life-threat­en­ing con­di­tions, he elic­its crit­i­cal infor­ma­tion about Ger­man troop move­ments. Post-war, he works for the Amer­i­cans in the Ger­man denaz­i­fi­ca­tion pro­gram, bring­ing him back to his Bavar­i­an child­hood home of Regens­burg. Max roams famil­iar yet strange streets, replay­ing mem­o­ries of lives lost to unspeak­able tragedy. While there, how­ev­er, he reunites with some­one from his past, who, like him, sought refuge abroad. Can they rebuild their lives… togeth­er? This epic, sus­pense­ful com­ing- of-age and war sto­ry is Lib­by Fis­ch­er Hellmann’s trib­ute to her late father-in-law who was active with the OSS and inter­ro­gat­ed dozens of Ger­man POWs.

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