Countdown Four - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

As World War II ends in Germany, the Countdown is on for four people. All are survivors of the extremes of human behavior—and their lives are converging in unpredictable ways. In the early days of the Nazi takeover, Gerda Brendler takes her five-year-old son, Marko, to a hospital to be treated for pneumonia. Next day, she is told Marko died. In her heart, she knows better. The Nazis have stolen him, blue eyes, blond hair. To build the Nazi master race. Now that the Nazis have been defeated, Gerda is eager for answers. Is Marko still alive? Will she ever cross his path again? To solve Marko’s disappearance, she must dig into the past and find the secrets buried there. But time is running out. If she doesn’t find him now, perhaps she never will.Fifteen-year-old Klaus Breuer, a Hitler youth, is being trained to blow up invading Soviet tanks with panzerfausts. To sacrifice his life, if necessary. Early memories of his life are fuzzy. One thing for certain, the woman he has known as his mother does not love him. A rabid Nazi who has lost her husband, could care less if she ever saw Klaus again. But who is his real mother? If living, where is she? Would he ever know? As the Soviets take Berlin, Klaus decides to run. But to where?Soviet soldier Levi Zuckerman is a misfit. That’s because he’s both a German and a Jew. During the Nazi takeover, his parents sent him to the Ukraine to live with relatives. They promised to follow after they sold their business but didn’t show up and—even more troubling—they quit writing. As the war winds down, Levi finds himself in the middle of Berlin. He is determined to find out what happened to his parents, even though the discovery may be gruesome. Levi is appalled by the behavior of his fellow Soviet troops. He saves a young German woman—Gerda Brendler—from being raped. But he nearly kills two Soviet officers to do it. That puts him and Gerda on the run.Erick Ranke is determined to solve a case that has frazzled all German church leaders and even the U. S. Army. A team known as The Monuments Men has found art treasures galore, stolen and hidden by the Nazis—even gold and jewelry. But they have failed to find an even more important treasure—church books containing birth, marriage and death records. Genealogical treasures. What if the Soviets find them first? Not everyone is telling the truth about what they know or have yet to reveal. Erick takes in refugees Gerda Brendler and Levi Zuckerman. They vow to help each other. Find Gerda’s boy. Find Levi’s parents. Find those church books.Brilliantly crafted, gripping, and well researched, Darryl Harris’s story will keep readers guessing.

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