K. Lang-Slattery's Blog, page 13
May 3, 2015
Molly Speaks on Love and War
In Immigrant Soldier, the Story of a Ritchie Boy, Molly is Herman’s first love. She is based on a real young woman, though I have changed her name and added details too private for Herman to tell me. I thought it would be interesting to look into Molly’s heart. How did she feel about her brief affair with a young refugee from Hitler’s Germany?
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May 2, 2015
Remembering V-E Day
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On May 8, 1945, the world erupted in celebrations. With the acceptance of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender by the Allies, the fighting in Europe was finally over. In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of victory in Europe, I decided to speak to a few Ritchie Boys and ask them to remember where they were on that day 70 years ago.
Surviving Ritchie Boys are now in their 90s and many are no longer in good health, so I am very grateful for those gentlemen who made the effort to get back to me when I posed the question to them via an e-mail blast.
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April 14, 2015
An Unexpected Answer
A few weeks ago, one of my readers asked me an interesting question. “How did the Nazis find all the Jewish people, especially people like Herman’s family who didn’t practice the religion?” My first response was the usual, perhaps obvious, one. “The German’s were meticulous record keepers,” I explained. “They gathered information from city, church, and synagogue records of births, baptisms, bar mitzvahs, and marriages, which in the past routinely included religious affiliation.”
But even as I spoke, I realized that this answer was not adequate.
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Verity
"Are you working on a new project and, if so, what is it?”
With my first novel barely off the press, it is a nearly impossible idea for me to contemplate. Yet, forced by the regularity with which this question is asked of me, I began to think about it. What subject would engage me as much as the story of Immigrant Soldier, the Story of a Ritchie Boy? If there is another book in me, I want it to be about a female character and, to simplify research, also a World War II story.
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April 3, 2015
Ask Me
Senoritas and Spies
March 28, 2015
The End of the Beginning
The violence and destruction of Kristallnacht lasted little more than 24 hours, but many historians consider it the event that marked the beginning of the Holocaust. It was, certainly, the culmination of the previous five years of Nazi propaganda and legal actions against German Jews. But how did the government’s response to Kristallnacht push Germany over the edge and send it pummeling down into the abyss?
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Who Was Vom Rath?
March 21, 2015
The Ugly Night of Broken Glass
CHAPTER 1
KRISTALLNACHT
THE QUIET OF THE EARLY November morning was shattered by loud voices and the screech of brakes. Herman peered through the crack in the stable door. A prickle of fear shot up his neck at the sight of a covered truck, two police motorcycles, and a black sedan in front of the homes across the street. Two brown-shirted SA officers, the Swastika symbols on their armbands blazing, pounded on his cousin’s front door.
* * *
So begins Immigrant Soldier, The Story of a Ritchie Boy.
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March 13, 2015
History 101
Over the years, as I was writing Immigrant Soldier, friends and acquaintances would ask me, “What is your book about?” I prepared what is called an “elevator pitch”—a synopsis short enough to recite on a ride between the stops on an elevator. Often, to set the stage, I would say, “It all begins on Kristallnacht in Germany.” Several times I was surprised when my listener would question, “But, what is Kristallnacht?”
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