Book Blurb:
Germany, November 1938. Hitler and his Nazis launch the pogrom that will be known as Kristallnacht. Herman watches in horror as his cousin and a friend are arrested by the SA. As a Jew, he realizes it is past time to flee his homeland, a decision that catapults him from one adventure to another, his life changed forever by the maelstrom of world events. Part coming-of-age story, part immigrant tale, part World War II adventure, Immigrant Soldier, The Story of a Ritchie Boy closely follows a true story. The novel follows Herman as he evolves from a frightened and frustrated teenager looking for a place to belong into a confident and caring US Army Intelligence officer serving in Patton’s Third Army. The hero experiences fear, romance, loyalty, disappointment, friendship, horror, and compassion in his quest for an understanding of hate and forgiveness.
Book Buy Link: https://geni.us/FSXZbP
Author Bio:
Born during World War II and raised in 1950s Southern California, Kathryn Lang-Slattery enjoyed a childhood filled with reading, drawing, and long days at the beach. College took her to Los Angeles where she studied art and English at UCLA, graduated with a BFA, and then undertook graduate work in art and education at the University of the Americas in Mexico City. In the following years she taught art, English, and cooking, travelled around the world, raised a daughter and a son, and devoted over 20 years to the Girl Scouts as a leader and community supervisor. Finally, she returned to her early love of writing. She has had stories and articles published in several highly rated magazines for the youth market, including Spider, Ladybug, Jack and Jill, Boys’ Life, and Faces.
In the 1990s, Lang-Slattery became fascinated with her uncle’s World War II stories and began taping his memories. Soon she knew she had found a fascinating untold story of Jewish refugees who became silent heroes. More than a decade spent researching, interviewing Ritchie Boys, and turning the true story of her uncle into fiction became an odyssey of discovery that resulted in her first adult novel, Immigrant Soldier, The Story of a Ritchie Boy. “I wanted to tell this story,” she says, “because it was different from any other Holocaust story I had read. The Jewish hero is not a victim, but a young man who gradually grows from a frightened and frustrated teenager, looking for a place to belong, into a confident US Army intelligence officer who struggles with the conflicting emotions of hate and forgiveness.”
Kathryn has become an expert on the secret heroes known as The Ritchie Boys and her experiences as an indie-publisher have given her insight into this long and complicated process. Always an educator, she is happy to share what she has learned along the way.
After two years spent promoting her novel, Lang-Slattery returned to children’s literature. Her early chapter book series, published under the name Katie Lang-Slattery, is based on her childhood memories of summer camp where her mother was the life-guard and backpacking specialist. Written for ages five to nine, Tagalong Caitlin is about a little girl with big ideas and the determination to reach her goal. Caitlin’s Buddy is about camp experiences and friendship and Caitlin's Party is about making a plan and carrying it out.
Kathryn’s newest book, Wherever the Road Leads, A Memoir of Love, Travel, and a Van, is an illustrated memoir that recounts living and traveling in a Volkswagen van in the early 1970s with her new husband, a two-year adventure that took them across four continents.
Kathryn (who prefers to be called Katie) lives in Laguna Beach, only steps from her childhood home. She finds tranquility simply by looking out the large windows of her living room toward a view of her garden and Aliso Peak beyond.
Editorial Review:
Editorial Review: “Immigrant Soldier: The Story of a Ritchie Boy” (2nd Anniversary Edition)
Author: K Lang-Slattery
“The quiet of the early November morning was shattered by loud voices and the screech of brakes. Herman peered through the crack in the stable door. A prickle of fear shot up his neck at the sight of a covered truck, two police motorcycles, and a black sedan in front of the homes across the street. Two brown-shirted SA officers, the Swastika symbols on their armbands blazing, pounded on his cousin’s front door. Hatred rose in his throat. Nazi Storm Troopers—they were nothing more than thugs, bullies for Hitler and his political party. Two more men in ugly, brown uniforms beat at the door of the neighbor’s home where Herman rented a room from the horse dealer and his wife.”
Kristallnacht. It is impossible for the reader not to feel the dread even in that one word, and to know where the story is going. “Immigrant Soldier” by K Lang-Slattery is a gritty, complex novel that follows Herman Lang, the author’s uncle (see the Author’s Note!) before, during and after World War Two. The events of Kristallnacht in 1938 lead to Herman’s realization that he must flee his German homeland in an attempt to survive. Herman’s story is enthralling, based partly on the author’s own interviews with her uncle, but also on her own historical research to find further details, and of course with a dash of fiction thrown in. Lang-Slattery has also interviewed certain of her uncle’s compatriots, and includes references to historical military figures who were also connected with Herman.
Herman obtains passage to England and then ultimately to the United States of America, holding on to what he can of his family and heritage. In the United States of America, Herman became part of a group known as the “Ritchie Boys” (those who were taught intelligence gathering and analysis; many of whom were Jewish refugees). The plot of “Immigrant Soldier” largely focuses on Herman’s time with Patton’s Third Army in Europe, but also relates aspects of his own personal journey as he grapples with his past and all that has happened. The stories of betrayal that Herman faced from people he considered friends are chilling and a searing indictment on the times and the depths of human nature.
“News of the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps continued to accumulate. On April 29, just outside Munich, the Seventh Army discovered Dachau, the oldest concentration camp and its surrounding satellite camps. These camps were not killing factories, like Auschwitz where huge gas chambers were built to murder and incinerate trainloads of humanity, yet they were no less terrifying. Dachau was mainly a political prison where constant labor, exposure, starvation, and disease could be relied on to kill the inmates. The gas chamber there and the accompanying crematoriums were used to expedite the death of the weak and the ill, and to cleanly and quickly dispose of the bodies of the dead. In the end, they had not been able to keep up. General Eisenhower issued an order that all officers and GIs able to go were to visit Dachau in order to bear witness to the unthinkable.”
The story is well paced as a page turner; the novel reads like a wartime adventure story but is based in fact. Although the author is at pains to emphasize the fictional element, there are extensive historical notes and chronologies included with the book that indicate not only the sophisticated level of research the author has undertaken but also the facts that underpin the novel. “Immigrant Soldier” ends with the Nuremberg Trials, but also includes an Afterward about Herman’s post-war life. There is a significant amount of military history woven into the novel, and each reader will judge whether the extent of this is appropriate. “Immigrant Soldier” also contains graphic references to the reality of war, to battles, to death and loss, and to the terrible dreams that haunted Herman at different times.
“Later that night, Herman tossed sleeplessly in his hard bunk. Thoughts of the reality of war and his uncertain future kept him from falling asleep. He had heard his father talk of the misery in the trenches during World War I, and he knew war was not always heroic exploits. It could also be pain and blood, injury and death, illness and disease, or simply tedium and slogging through mud. His father had been proud of his military service to his beloved Germany, and in the beginning of the Nazi years, he had hoped his contribution would help his family. It had not. Herman was thankful he was a US citizen and serving on the right side in this war. But in the darkest part of the night, as the waves slapped against the hull of the ship, he listened to the beat of his heart while the specter of a soldier’s death perched on his shoulder.”
“Immigrant Soldier” by K Lang-Slattery is a gritty novel of war, with a gripping personal story woven into the wider military narrative. The author’s family connection to the main character of Herman Lang adds a valuable extra dimension to the novel. The themes of personal struggle and perseverance set against one of the greatest conflicts the world has ever seen make “Immigrant Soldier” a must read for followers of this genre. Few of us can imagine the horrors Herman Lang and others like him must have faced, and reading such a story starkly emphasizes the extent of the sacrifices made by so many to protect future generations. A highly memorable read!
*****
"Immigrant Soldier” by K Lang-Slattery receives 4 ½ stars from The Historical Fiction Company
To have your historical novel edtiorially reviewed and/or enter the HFC Book of the Year contest, please visit www.thehistoricalfictioncompany.com/book-awards/award-submission
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