Sons and Soldier by Bruce Henderson

Sons and Soldiers: The Untold Story of the Jews Who Escaped the Nazis and Returned with the U.S. Army to Fight Hitler by Bruce Henderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Okay, wow. There are so many points of view and facets to WWII and this one had me riveted. Admittedly, I mixed up the men until I drew pictures in my head, but it didn’t matter as much as the overall picture. Essentially, there were quite a number of German Jews that immigrated to the US, joined the military, then were trained as interrogators. Nobody knew the nuances, the culture, the psychology better than a former German rejected by his own country?

The author tells each story in different sections. All of the boys highlighted in this book arrive at Camp Ritchie with different experiences. Many were the only members of their family to leave Nazi Germany. One had already spent 2 years in Dachau which broke my heart early on. Some escaped before war broke out. Regardless of how they got there, they were each unique and more than willing to get in the war. They knew better than others what they were fighting for.

Even though I sometimes mixed up the boys, some were crystal clear in my mind. The book is told in chunks of time and somehow makes a readable book of facts while using great novelistic strategies. I really enjoyed this book and could not put it down.

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