Episode 6, the Nuremberg Rally

This episode of my video series focuses on the powerful propaganda feast called the Nuremberg Rally. Archival stills and video footage are included, so sit back and learn lots in less than 5 minutes!

LOC research day

In an effort to accurately portray era events in my novel-in-progress, I spent Wednesday conducting research at the Library of Congress in Washington DC. What a treasure trove we Americans have at our disposal - all open and free for the asking.

Beginning a couple weeks ago, I spent hours on the LOC website, scouring their archive. Some documents and images I was interested in were readily available on their website, while others were identified as 'available on site' at the LOC. For those items, I jotted down LOT numbers and contacted librarians in the Photographs room and Newspapers room by email and gave them the date of my planned visit. Within 24 hours, they responded to let me know the items were available and would be waiting for me upon arrival. And they were.

In one (very) long day, I saved over 300 images and newspaper articles onto my memory stick. Obviously I haven't had time to sift through them all, but some of my amazing preliminary finds include:

1. A private photo album of a Lebensborn home in Steinhoring, near Munich;

2. Two full-sized Nazi propaganda posters;

3. The apparent lack of any mention of the events of Kristallnacht in the Munich newspaper in the days following the violence.

In contrast, the New York Times was chock full of articles, op-eds, and letters to the editor for days.

Talk about the value of free press. Wow.

After I sift through the overwhelming volume of material obtained, I'll integrate relevant details and facts into my story's backdrop. My hope is to accurately portray what it must have been like to be 15 years old in Munich in 1938.

The most frequent questions, Pt. 3

Will there be a sequel to Risking Exposure? What are you writing now?

When I finished writing Risking Exposure, I was tired. I had spent several years reading everything I could get my hands on about the Nazi era, watching documentaries, etc. Pouring through so much twisting of the truth and outright evil was exhausting, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. My conclusion was that I never wanted to read another thing about Nazi Germany ever again.


But within 6 or 8 weeks, something happened. I'd be driving down the road and a character I'd relegated to the 'deleted scenes' folder would pop into my mind. Something a neighbor said would remind me of a dialogue exchange I'd cut. Pretty soon those characters and exchanges were forming new scenes and it became clear - the characters in my deleted scenes folder wanted their story told too. It's my job to give them their opportunity.

What is taking shape is a sequel, although told through another character's POV. No, I don't have a title or a time frame for release. That's actually not even on my radar yet.
I've been researching events which took place in Munich during July 1938 until very early 1939, about 6 months after Risking Exposure ends. I have what I believe to be a framework on which to hang my story. In my over-ambitious mind, I have set a goal of getting a first draft written by the end of 2014. (I may kick myself for making that public.)

The most frequent questions, Pt. 2

Why would a nice person like you write about Nazi Germany?

  I've written (and published) fiction and non-fiction short pieces for all ages, preschool through adult. Risking Exposure is the only one set in Nazi Germany. The others aren't even remotely similar in time or place or even in tone - Chicken Soup for the Soul for audiences seeking inspiration, Highlights High Five for preschoolers, Advance for Physical Therapists for PTs and PTAs, Discovery Years and Thriving Family for parents, Hopscotch for kids, plus a few currently on Wattpad. I think across genres, I read across genres, so I write across genres too.

I love stories, real or fictional, in which an unlikely hero must pull himself up by his bootstraps and become more than he was, in which an ordinary person is forced to rise above her circumstances in order to stand up for what is right.
That means the hero would have to be in a time and place in which doing what's right comes at great personal risk. Nazi Germany was just such a place.

All four of my grandparents emigrated to the US from Germany in the 1920s. One grandmother lived in our apartment building when I was a kid, and the other one moved in with us when I was a teen. So we got a good dose of the language, food, music, and culture of the homeland they loved. When I learned of the Nazi years in school, I asked the same questions many have asked - How could that happen? How could the country which produced my own family, plus geniuses like Bach and Goethe allow such horrors to occur right under their noses?

The answers are complex of course, spanning decades of Germany history and the culture of everyday life in a police state and dictatorship. But in exploring the answers, I found some simple themes which resonated with me -
it was a time and place of blind allegiance to an ideal;
in which some people held more value than others;

in which people were brainwashed by a flood of government-controlled information;
in which the voices of those who spoke against the regime were silenced through threats, violence, or detention.

It was and still is a perfect storm to use as a backdrop for a hero story. That's probably why so many of us writers choose to set our stories there.

Thanks for the support!

I'm touched and delighted with the turnout for my presentation today at the Dietrich - 43 people! Friends from my church and work and neighborhood lives, from the Writers Group and the Theater, and even more amazing, complete strangers who dedicated an hour or more of their lives to come and listen. Some scooted out before I had a chance to thank them personally, but I truly appreciate the attendance of each and every one.

Sharing my journey as a writer is such fun. I hope venues like this lead to more opportunities!

Another first

 

Yesterday I had the opportunity to spend the day at Philadelphia's Fort Mifflin on the Delaware for their WWII Reenactment of the Battle of Schmidt. One hundred + guys dressed as Allied and German officers and soldiers took part, and hundreds of spectators came to watch and tour the exhibits. I'd never seen anything like it.




 

In the barracks adjacent to the reenactment field, I had a large display area for my books and research materials. I had the chance to talk with lots of people, both reenactors and spectators. The 1938 Sears-Roebuck catalog and the reproduction Nazi propaganda pamphlets generated the most interest and discussion.







The reenactors and I have something in common - we like to get 'into the skin' of another era, to think about and act out scenes which occurred before we were born. Perhaps by putting on that skin, we see our commonalities across years and cultures instead of our differences. We learn compassion for what others have gone through. Compassion alone can keep us from repeating the mistakes of history.
  



While I was watching the reenactment, a 9-year-old boy sat nearby, watching also. He was dressed from head to toe in the Hitler Youth uniform seen late in the war, when children his age were sent into battle to defend what was left of the Reich.

I hope and pray compassion wins before that ever happens again.