The book covers key periods in the history of the 20th. Century, including Hitler's rise to power WW2, the Holocaust, and three Middle East wars through the eyes of a young American adopted in the dying days of WW2
A novel of historical fiction that turns on two key events: the discovery of a beautiful blonde woman’s body in the back seat of a burnt out SS staff car during the last days of World War II, by US Army Medical Corps Colonel Samuel Singer, and the unsealing more than four decades later of a security-taped package from Germany, bearing a secret that changes the life of New York art curator Daniel Singer, the adopted son of Colonel Singer.
As Daniel learns more about the package’s contents, he unlocks the history of three families -- one American and two German – through tumultuous times, from the end of the First World War to the rise of Adolf Hitler, the Second World War, the Holocaust, and through to three Middle East wars. Along the way, he gets entangled in the web of the Mossad, Israel’s top secret spy agency and Naomi one of its beautiful operatives, and is ultimately faced with a life-altering choice – and the opportunity to right the most heinous of wrongs.
Excerpt
BETWEEN THESE WALLS
CHAPTER 1
American Zone, West Side of the River Elbe, Germany, May 4, 1945
A US Army Jeep, with the white star painted on its hood bouncing and vibrating through each pothole, rambled along the single lane dirt track on the west side of the River Elbe. Mixed stands of beech, spruce, pine and oak encroached on the winding, dusty clay path, sometimes wrapping the road in mid-morning shadow. The shade and openness of the Willys Jeep was a welcome respite from the brilliant sunshine and heat of an early Saxon summer.
Germany had already lost the war, with only the execution of a final, unconditional surrender document remaining to formalize defeat. Berlin had been captured by the Soviets. Adolf Hitler, his mistress Eva Braun and their German shepherd dog Blondi were dead and burned in the garden of the Fuhrer Bunker. The vaunted chief of the Nazi’s U-Boat fleet, and Hitler’s successor as Germany’s ruler, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, was preparing to sign the instrument of unconditional surrender on behalf of the Third Reich in Flensburg on the Baltic Sea.
The Elbe River was one of the most important waterways of Europe, running from Czechoslovakia to the Baltic . Approximately one week earlier the American and Russian armies had met at the German town of Torgau, and agreed to the west side of the Elbe becoming the American Zone of Occupation. The officer in the Jeep, Lt. Colonel Dr. Samuel Singer, was returning from a meeting with the Soviets on protocols surrounding the treatment of wounded non-combatants in their respective zones of occupation.
Sam Singer had left his position as Assistant Head of Surgery at Brooklyn’s Zion Hospital, to enlist in the US Army Medical Corps. Tall, slightly overweight with thinning brown hair, an infectious smile, and an unlit Meerschaum pipe loosely hanging from his lower lip, he looked more like someone’s friendly uncle than a senior military officer.
“Still feeling the effects of the vodka?” Singer asked his driver, an amused look on his face. “The Russkis consume enormous quantities of that vile spirit. We can’t keep up to them; we’re just not used to drinking that much.”
Corporal Joe Murphy, a stout, dark haired Irishman from Philadelphia, had been in the war since 1942. Slightly injured in Normandy, when the truck he was driving crashed into a tree after being strafed by a Messerschmitt 109, he was removed from active duty and placed in the officer driving pool.
At first Murphy had been bitter about the transfer to the rear, but the 28 year old soon came to realize that this was probably his best chance of returning to his wife and two kids. He had been driving for Colonel Singer for four months and enjoyed the officer’s easy-going rapport with enlisted men.
“Nah, I’m good”, he answered, the tone in his voice belying the actual way he felt. “My Dad was from the Emerald Isle, and though I grew up in Pennsylvania, my brothers and I learned how to drink like we were from the old country. So I was weaned on whiskey, with a little Guinness thrown in.”
If truth be told, Murphy had a tough time pulling the fog from his brain while he tried to navigate the pothole-filled road. But as much as he liked Dr. Singer, he was not going to admit to an officer that he was nursing a rather bruising hangover.
Suddenly, both men were shaken out of their abstraction by the deep roar of a fighter aircraft just above their heads, flying at treetop level towards the Russian zone. The silver-gray plane, its super-charged engine screaming at full throttle, arose out of the west and almost instantly disappeared; the red star on the underside of its wing being the only recognizable identifier.
“Holy fuck!” shouted Murphy, then realizing where he was… “sorry about the language, Sir. I was just caught by surprise.”
“No need to apologize, Corporal. Those were the two exact words I was thinking to myself. That Russian plane is flying from the wrong direction. He’s over our lines! What the hell does that mean?”
“Big blue sky up there sir”, answered Murphy, the hangover fog having totally disappeared at this point, brought around by the shock of the plane. “Easy to get lost.”
“I understand that, but the Elbe is a large river and easy to identify from the air. I wonder what he was doing on our side.”
A mile farther, they emerged from the tree canopied dirt side-road onto the paved Autobahn. They could see the smoke ahead of them before they could actually confirm its source. A black convertible, Mercedes staff car bearing SS insignia had plowed into the ditch, dark grey smoke curling skyward from under its hood.
“It looks like the Sturmovik found its mark”, said Singer, as Murphy slowed the car to a stop beside the burning wreck. Both men scrambled from the Jeep and rushed to the disabled Mercedes.
The first person they noticed within the crash debris was the driver, wearing a black SS uniform and lying in the ditch half way under the car’s undercarriage. He was in a bad way with both legs broken, one shoulder shattered by a bullet, the arm hanging down, held only by the blood saturated sleeve of his uniform jacket. Another 23 mm round had gone clean through his upper thigh and blood was flowing freely down his leg, soaking his pants.
A second figure dressed in a greenish grey Wermacht uniform lay a couple of yards away crumpled against a tree. At first glance it appeared that he had been ejected from the vehicle when it hit the ditch, his head smashing against one of the sturdy roadside oaks, breaking his neck, and killing him instantly.
“Corporal Murphy you look after the wounded man, and pull him away from the burning car. I’ll see if there’s anyone else in the vehicle.”
The engine fire had increased significantly and there was an imminent threat of explosion. The driver moaned loudly as Murphy pulled him clear of the wreck.
Singer looked in the back of the car. Sprawled on the grey leather seat was a young woman, seemingly in her early twenties, with a silver dollar sized hole through her forehead. Blood flowed freely from the wound, dying her long blonde hair a red color. Her lifeless blue eyes stared up at the now empty sky. Singer quickly guessed that a round from the Sturmovik had passed through the back of her head and entered the shoulder of the car’s driver.
“This one’s dead” he yelled to the corporal, not even worrying about searching for a pulse. No one could survive a head injury of that magnitude and live. “How’s the other one?”
“In lousy shape sir, but he might make it if we can get him back to the aid station quickly enough. Let’s go before this thing blows!”
“OK!”
As he turned to help the corporal tend to the Mercedes’ driver’s wounds, he noticed the woman’s body move. “No, she’s dead, this can’t be” he muttered to himself in a moment of sheer panic. Then the body shifted again, ever so slightly.
Singer quickly grabbed the woman’s blood soaked coat and started to lift her body off the seat. “Now, what have we here?” he muttered, his barely audible words getting stuck in his throat.
At that moment the car’s gas tank exploded, shooting a column of bright orange flame skyward.
Professional Reviews
Between These Walls
Between These Walls
by Michael Newman
16191455
Angela Thompson's reviewMay 18, 2020
it was amazing
Between these Walls Takes Readers on a Historical Journey. The author immediately introduces several seemingly unrelated events and characters--in a variety of times and places. The story moves from place to place and role to role--spanning time--and I did find it a little challenging to settle into the author's writing style for a while. Once I settled into the writing and began to watch the characters connect, and the story unfolds--the author was able to take me to other times and places.
Between these Walls Builds a Complex Story. The author does a beautiful job connecting the many elements of his story in a way that made the novel exciting and kept me wondering what the pages would bring. While the novel has a historical focus, it also takes a look at human nature and how the past influences the present.
Would I Recommend Between the Walls by Michael Newman? Fans of historical fiction will love the blend of the history, mystery, and strong, believable characters of Between These Walls. Readers may need a little patience as the characters and storylines build through the beginning, but once those first pieces of the story develop, expect a page-turner. I enjoyed the author's look at history and the research that went into his work--and I enjoyed the human nature aspects of the book as much or more. I would recommend this book to historical fiction fans as well as fans of dramas and mysteries.
I received a copy of this book from the author or publisher for use in a blog review. All opinions are my own.
Between These Walls
Between These Walls
Between These Walls by Michael Newman
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Between These Walls
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Carla's reviewMay 11, 2020
it was amazing
I love historical novels, they take us on a special journey to the past where we get a glimpse of what could have been happening and the people of this time. Between These Walls follows several seemingly unconnected characters from the the end of World War I through to World War II and three wars in the Middle East. It is intense and leaves you on the edge of your seat, never quite knowing what to expect next.
The centre of this story is Daniel – a young man raised in the Jewish faith who very early in the novel receives a mysterious package in the mail filled with documents in German that he does not understand nor particularly seem to interested in. The story then jumps in to his family history and we learn about his Father who served during the war as a surgeon, the relationships he builds during this time that last a lifetime and a discovery he makes near the end of the war. We learn about his past and how his actions bring him into connection with other key characters in this novel both good and bad. It is these connections that are key to the story and how they connect to Daniel. We are witness to horrific acts of evil, acts of kindness and bravery and acts of forgiveness.
I loved every moment of this novel, from the plot to the characters and the way it was written. I did not want to put the novel down, I had to know what happened next and how each evolving story brings us closer to Daniel’s past and future. It is well written and I loved how the story connects characters and events that span several decades. Even though the ending was a mix of hope for the future and pain, it is amazing to see how life and our actions can come full circle. It is a story of hope, faith, bravery in the face of evil and healing that comes with time. It is a definite must read novel, you will not be disappointed.
Between These Walls
I have found myself reading outside of my norm as of late. Genres that I would not typically read have been finding their ways into my ‘to be read’ pile.
Between These Walls was most certainly one of those ‘out of my norm’ reads, but I have to admit – I was intrigued from the very start.
I have to admit, I did get a little confused with the dates as several chapters would go back and forth between dates, and on occasion would confuse characters as the date changes also meant character and story changes. I did not find this to detract from the story, but did take me a little longer to read. At times I found myself having to refresh my memory of who was what and at times, recall who was linked to who. Again, I did not find that this detracted from the overall story, just made me slow down to better recall who I was reading about at a given time.
The story starts out with quite the start and leaves me hanging on every word to figure out the beginning. The book itself follows a unique set of different characters, going back and forth from past to a more current setting, intertwining lives and stories.
I never found history to be entertaining or something that interested me, but I did find historical information inside the story that had me reaching to Google and chasing history down a rabbit hole.
Overall, this book was a surprisingly (for me because it is unlike my normal genre) good read that I enjoyed.
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