Shadows Walking is based on my extensive archival research in Germany and England.  It tells the story of two idealistic friends who both become physicians after World War I in Germany.  Both have studied medicine and believe in its capacity to cure humankind of all its ills.  Both are ardent nationalists.  They are different, however, in that one, Johann Brenner, becomes a Nazi.  The other, Philipp Stein, is a German Jew.  Their lives are intertwined like the two serpents on the staff that symbolizes their profession.  When they meet for the last time at Auschwitz, Brenner must recognize the harm that he and Nazis like him have done.  An exploration and search for understanding of why and how good men may lend themselves to evil causes, everything in Shadows Walking either happened or could have happened exactly as I describe it.  A painful book to have researched and written, it will be a painful book to read.  But I hope you will find it worthwhile...   Thank you,  Douglas R. Skopp