by Karla M Jay
The visit from the Red Cross delegation, and the production of the film that followed, brought hope of liberation to the prisoners of the Ghetto. However, the Jewish elder, Dr. Paul Eppstein, asked people not to get too hopeful. A week later, on Yom Kippur, he was arrested and sent to the Lower Fortress of Terezín where he was executed. The Terezín inhabitants who performed so well for the Red Cross were loaded in trains and nearly all died in Auschwitz.
Also true. In Terezín, at the end of the war, in order to cover their actions, the Nazis ordered the ashes of 22,000 people dumped into the Ohře River from the Columbarium where they were stored. The few remaining prisoners in the fortress were forced to form a human chain to speed up the activity.
Commandant Karl Rahm fled Theresienstadt on May 5, 1945, along with the last of the SS personnel. He was captured shortly afterward by American forces in Austria and put on trial. Rahm was found guilty of crimes against humanity and executed on April 30, 1947, four hours after his guilty verdict was handed down by the Czech court.
Herbert Müller’s story is also based on historical fact. During the war, 12,000 German-Americans were arrested as enemy aliens and sent to internment camps around the country, including one on Ellis Island. Of those 12,000 detainees, several thousand were repatriated to war-torn Germany, many exchanged for more important Americans who were trapped in Europe when the war broke out. A countless number of those German-Americans lost their lives as they were not safely chaperoned once in enemy territory, and all lost their property and assets. Some chose never to return to the United States. No one received restitution for what they lost.
The displaced persons camp that united Herbert and Izaak housed 12 million people at the war’s end. In 1946, there were 200,000 inquiries for lost children. At the end of 1947 and into 1948, three years after the end of the war, the International Refugee Organization (IRO) was still in charge of 370 camps in the English, French, and American Zones in Germany containing 800,000 displaced persons.
WHEN WE WERE BRAVE
READER’S GUIDE
Why do you think WHEN WE WERE BRAVE is told from three different points of view?
At the beginning of WHEN WE WERE BRAVE, Herbert Müller is incredulous that the FBI is interested in his family, as he, his wife, and children are all flag-flying citizens of the U.S. What, if any, similarities are there today regarding the issues immigrants and their children face?
Hundreds of thousands of German POWs were shipped to America and lived in over 500 internment camps throughout the U.S. Did you know the United States housed German (and Italian) soldiers for three years during the war? Do you think it’s possible for such an event to occur today?
Izaak’s mother, and later his father, protect Izaak by inventing games and by shielding him from the awful truth of what was happening around them. How do you believe so many Jewish people remained brave in the face of death?
When we first meet SS officer, Wilhelm Falk, we learn to believe an SS officer could be sympathetic to the Jewish plight. Do you think there were more upper ranking officers who believed The Final Solution was horrible? Should/could they have done more to stop Hitler?
Pastor Theodore Graf becomes entangled in the enemy-alien roundup when a postal worker turns him in for receiving a package from Germany and writing back. How do you feel about Graf paying with his life for his association with Falk? What would you have done if you received information like this that put you in jeopardy?
Herbert makes the choice to “repatriate” to Germany after Frieda is attacked at Ellis Island. If he knew what life was like in Germany, do you think he would have made the same decision?
In the Author’s Note, we learn that SS officer Falk is loosely based on Kurt Gerstein, an SS officer who wrote to many dignitaries and clergy hoping for a stop to the Jewish extermination. Were you surprised that as early as 1942 these other countries were aware of the massive murders, yet did nothing? Three more years passed until the end of the war. Do you believe any of the informed leaders regretted waiting once they learned of the millions who had been killed?
Helen Keller said, “The welfare of each is bound up in the welfare of all.” WHEN WE WERE BRAVE is filled with examples of human nature at its best and worst. Discuss the themes of good versus evil throughout the story demonstrated in Keller’s words.
What do you believe happens in times of war and ethnic cleansing that causes so many to turn on others? If you were told your neighbors were to be rounded up, what would you be willing to do?
Acknowledgements
This story took root during a conversation with my mother-in-law who said she’d ridden a passenger train full of German POWs from Utah to Kansas in 1944. Of course, I suspected this was a false memory until I turned to Google. I threw myself into research and soon fell in love with the idea of telling a story about these POWs. I also learned of German-Americans sent to internment camps, and a propaganda scheme played out in a Czechoslovakian extermination camp. The three stories started out separately, however, in the end, the threads of war wove through each of them, and they braided together.
It nearly took an army of devoted and tireless readers before this book found its true voice. Thank you to my early readers, who truly were the champions at steering my rough draft in the right direction. Kristy Pappas, Kate Beckerman, Marla Deakins, Scott Brendel, Karen Kroll, Bill and Kate Chabala, Camille Wintch, Rick Christensen, Mark Todd, Karen Nickel, Lynda Smart-Brown, and Valerie Walsh. To my critique group, Sherri Curtis, Linda Orvis, Rich Casper, Jeff Lowder, Dave Tippetts, and Ericka Prechtel, your enthusiasm has kept me going all these years. Thanks to John Hardy and Brittani Jay, who read the book twice, and who were great at brainstorming ideas. Thank you to The Manuscript Doctor for helping me understand Deep POV. Thanks to Julia Hardy for the beautiful cover and for your creativity.
My heartfelt appreciation goes out to E. Faith Mayo for your tireless enthusiasm and enduring friendship. Thank you for pushing me and demanding the very best from each scene. You are a writer’s dream.
Last, but certainly not least, thank you to my husband, John Hardy, for supporting my crazy writer’s journey no matter what blockages came my way.
About the Author
Originally from upstate New York, Karla lives with her husband, her mini-me niece, and one big dog in Salt Lake City, Utah. She owns a learning center and volunteers helping children whenever she can. When she’s not writing, she can be found gardening and reading. She and her husband travel as much as possible, always in search of another story that needs to be told.
Follow Karla M. Jay
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