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Traitors For the Sake of Humanity by Helena P. Schrader may be more terrifying today than when first released in 2008 as An Obsolete Honor and re-released in 2012 as Hitler’s Demons.
The chilling story reveals the means used under the leadership of Adolph Hitler to spread insidious Nazi socio-political ideology before and throughout WWII. Although a work of fiction, the grim, dehumanizing social transformation the tome reveals brings to mind the caution in George Santanya’s oft-quoted posit, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Schrader masterfully utilizes the setting as an unseen, omnipresent character. Scenes imbued with equal parts of detached cruelty, greed, and hunger for power – acting as a control agent affecting everyone within its grasp.
By Christmas, 1938, when the story begins, the Nazi Party dominates the German Parliament for nearly six years, and its influence alters the nation’s face. Within that period, during which Hitler becomes Chancellor, both welcome and unwelcome changes occur and spread beyond Germany’s large cities into and throughout the countryside.
The German citizenry is conflicted.
Many poor, disenfranchised citizens consider forfeiting their faith, culture, and free will for materially improved living standards and restoring their national pride as an acceptable trade-off. Others grow dismayed by the denigration and annihilation of traditional values, virtues, and mores. Residents find the mandated, unfettered obedience to the state’s authority and the flourishing of Machiavellian values an abomination.
Within this setting, we meet the aristocratic, well-educated, and cultured Baron Phillip von Feldburg. Phillip, the eldest of three children, is an officer in the prestigious German General Staff and has been imbued from childhood with the importance of honor, integrity, and allegiance to his country.
In the first chapter, Baron von Feldberg is juxtaposed with his immediate family, characters Schrader utilizes to reveal some of the varying socio-political views prevalent in Germany.
Christian, his handsome, devil-may-care Luftwaffe fighter pilot brother, lives in the moment, exhilarated by his conquests and the thrill of adventure. Theresa, an envious, entitled, and defiant “youngest child,” marries an uneducated, self-made man with a knack for doing business in the Nazi regime and little use for breeding, manners, or culture. Their widowed mother, the Baroness, gracious, kind, and concerned – but not enough to make waves—completes the family circle.
Phillip’s sense of honor and duty dominates his life, both personally and professionally.
As he advances within the military and is given more and more leadership responsibility, he begins to have troublesome questions about the decisions coming “down,” along with the ongoing, less-than-honorable actions and events he witnessed while serving on the front lines against Russia. Not until he meets the astute and savvy secretary with connections, Alexandra Mollwitz, that he begins to act upon his inner conflict, and his life begins to change in ways he could never have imagined.
Presented in multiple points of view of the von Feldburg family members, cohorts, and supporters, Schrader breathes life into some of the historically documented events occurring in Germany before and including WWII that forever changed the world. Each of their voices reflects their social status, belief systems, and loyalties—and their angst and fears as change turns evil and evil turns deadly.
Traitors For the Sake of Humanity, based upon documented historical events and personal memoirs recounted to the author by individuals who lived through that time.
In the end, the importance of this book cannot be underestimated. Traitors for the Sake of Humanity rises as a critical, provocative, and timely book that perhaps we would all benefit from reading. The Glossary and documentation alone impress.
Helena P. Schrader puts a human face on some “monsters,” and exposes the monster faces of others. Kudos, Dr. Schrader.
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