Whitewashed

by Sandy Berman

Tommy Stern has never gotten over the suicide of his best friend, Ben Lowe, who in the summer of 1951 is found hanging from a tree in the woods behind their high school in Huntsville, Alabama. A year earlier, Huntsville becomes home to 118 former Nazi scientists and engineers who have been brought to the United States through a secret government-sponsored project called Operation Paperclip to work on the space program. Even past evidence of war crimes does not disqualify these men from entering the United States. Eighteen years later, the discovery of a journal is the catalyst that encourages Tommy to reexamine the facts that led to his friend’s death. Ben is Jewish and a survivor of the Holocaust. The journal leads Tommy to believe that there is a connection between Ben’s untimely and horrific final moments and the arrival of the Germans. Tommy’s search for the truth takes him back to Huntsville where he rekindles a relationship with his high school girlfriend Karin Angel, the daughter of one of the German scientists. Karin and Tommy join forces to discover the dark secrets of Operation Paperclip and the truth behind what happened to Ben.

254 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 25, 2020

About the author

My entire professional career has been spent working in the museum world. I was the founding archivist of the Cleveland Jewish Archives at the Western Reserve Historical Society and the founding archivist of the Cuba Family Archives at The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum where I remained for the next twenty-eight years. I recently retired. During my tenure at The Breman I helped to found the largest repository for Jewish collecting of historical material in the Southeast. I also curated numerous exhibitions including "Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited", and "Zap, Pow, Bam, The Superhero in the Golden Age of Comic Books."

Up to the publication of "Klara with a K" my writing was always in the realm of non-fiction. In addition to writing for historical exhibitions I have also written for historical journals and newspapers.

I am now working on my second novel and I am finding great fulfillment in my second career.

Thanks for reading.

Reviews

[Monica Maher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fictional account of ‘Operation Paperclip’ describing the aerospace program in Huntsville, Alabama after WWII. Many of the brightest minds working on this operation were ex Nazi SS high ranking officials that the United States recruited and relocated here for their engineering and science ability and success. This story chronicles the then smaller version of Huntsville and the impact of German families of suspicious background on this small southern city and the 2 Jewish young men whose lives were never the same.

[Judi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actual History Entwined in Fiction

This fictional,story based upon the Paperclip Files has its twists and turns. The author’s inserts of actual places and other southern institutions make the fictional story come to life. The Paperclip Files were real.

[Terri Broemm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was all set to give it a four and then I am reading the other reviews realize there was a operation paperclip. that’s what I love about historical fiction actually learned more about our past, a country , and as a world.