Living History

LIVING HISTORY-THE HOLOCAUST (SHOAH):

Welcome to author Carl Steinhouse’s living history series on the Holocaust (Shoah):

NEWS! STEINHOUSE'S SEVENTH BOOK, THIS ONE A HOLOCAUST-THEMED NOVEL, CALLED THE OUTFIELDER, IS AVAILABLE FROM AUTHOR, ONLINE FROM BOOK STORES AND AUTHORHOUSE, AND AS AN E-BOOK ON KINDLE AND NOOK.

EXPERIENCE FAMOUS PAST EVENTS THROUGH THE EXCITING LIVING HISTORY APPROACH‒HISTORY THAT READS LIKE A NOVEL THROUGH THE USE OF DIALOGUE, BASED ON CAREFULLY RESEARCHED FACTS-WHAT THE AUTHOR CALLS "CREATIVE NON-FICTION."

AND NOW, MY FIRST HOLOCAUST NOVEL, THE OUTFIELDER, HAS JUST BEEN PUBLISHED!

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All of my books are now on KINDLE and NOOK!

“The Outfielder” (2011)

“We Shall Be Called Israel!” (2010)

“Wily Fox” (2008)

“Barred” (2007)

“Improbable Heroes” (2005)

“Righteous and Courageous” (2004)

“Wallenberg is Here!” (2002)

THE OUTFIELDER

Steinhouse’s first work of fiction: How the dreadful secrets and lies of an Auschwitz survivor almost destroyed his American-born son, the outfielder that never was.

outfielder cover .jpg

Cover art: Tom Cardamone, TCA Graphics

Based on a screenplay by Joseph A. Richman

Author’s comment: After writing six creative non-fiction books on the Holocaust and the birth of Israel, I decided to try my hand at fiction‒a novel about the Holocaust’s lingering effect not only on the survivors, but also on their descendants. The story fell in my lap, so to speak, when a journalist, who covered the events of my trip to Auschwitz for a genocide conference, later contacted me and asked if I would be interested in writing a novel based on his completed screenplay. I read the script, liked the story line, the characters, and the plot and most important, I saw this as a new challenge. I was ready for something different. Hence the reason for the co-authorship with the screenplay writer, Joe Richman. This is not a feel good book, though I suppose no book that deals with the Holocaust can be. But the book does hold out some hope for the future. And no, this is not a book about baseball. The sport, in its own way, becomes simply another casualty of the ripples of the Holocaust down through time.

ABOUT THE BOOK

As a child and a young man, baseball was Bernie Feld’s dream and passion‒to become a major league outfielder for the then Brooklyn Dodgers. Hardly the usual idle child’s daydream because Bernie was truly talented and, but for his father, could have had a baseball athletic scholarship to the college of his choice. But it was not to be. His father was a survivor‒an inmate doctor in the infamous Auschwitz. Bernie knew that, but not much more. He certainly did not learn then the horrible secret his father harbored; nor the reason his mother, also a survivor, abandoned Bernie at a young age.

His father, a tailor in the Garment Center in New York, absolutely forbade Bernie from pursuing the distraction of playing varsity baseball and accepting an athletic scholarship. Unrelentingly, he pushed Bernie into becoming a doctor, telling his son that he sacrificed his own chance for a medical career in America so that he could afford to send his son to a fine medical school to become a successful man of medicine just as he, his father, had been in Germany before the Gestapo sent him to Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

After what his father had been through, Bernie felt compelled to abandon his own passion and follow his father’s dream for him to become a doctor and that is precisely what Bernie accomplished. Dr. Bernard Feld was now an eminent psychiatrist in New York with a successful practice.

His father had died and Bernie financed the creation of a cemetery in Israel in his father’s name and memory. This benevolent act began the unraveling of Bernie’s life after a fateful meeting in New York with an Israeli Mossad agent. It caused Bernie to abandon suddenly his lucrative practice and his patients, and destroyed the budding relationship with the woman he thought he loved. He embarked on a frantic and secret quest to Israel to uncover the truth about his father, only hinted at by the Mossad man. But it was enough to send Bernie into a frenzy. Had his father lied to him? An old acquaintance of his father, an ostracized survivor and also doctor in Auschwitz, was exiled to Israel’s Judean Desert by the Israelis‒Bernie Feld did not know why. But this man may know the secret to uncovering his father’s past. This elderly doctor reluctantly revealed the horror of the brutal Gestapo roundup of Bernie’s father and his family, and the devastating facts about what his father did in Auschwitz as an inmate doctor. Unexpectedly, Bernie also discovered what had happened to his mother whom he thought abandoned him.

Bernie Feld now faced the daunting task of trying to put back together his shattered life and practice.

Order “The Outfielder” directly from the author at stein0216@comcast.net for $16 (includes shipping and handling-U.S. orders)

By sending a check for $16 together with your name and address to:

Carl Steinhouse

1001 Arbor Lake Drive, Suite 705

Naples, Florida 34110

“The Outfielder” also available online at publisher, AuthorHouse, or at AMAZON.COM, B&N.com by clicking on the appropriate link, or at other bookstores. The book is available on KINDLE and NOOK!

WE SHALL BE CALLED ISRAEL!

ISRAEL COVER.jpg

Cover: Tom Cardemone, TCA Graphics

ISBN: 978-1-77067-077-8 (Hardcover); 978-1-77067-077-5; 978-1-77067-077-2 (E-Book)

ABOUT WE SHALL BE CALLED ISRAEL!

The exciting story of how the Jews ushered the State of Israel into being, in the face of violent opposition of the Arab armies and Palestinian Arab guerillas, and the implacable hostility and obstructive tactics of the British who were pandering to Arabs for their oil. Appreciate how, with only small arms and heroics, the Israelis desperately held off five Arab armies, which possessed modern heavy weapons; how the British not only blockaded the new state to prevent any arms from reaching the Jews while at the same time actually and brazenly supplying large quantities of heavy weapons and aircraft to the Arabs. How Jews in Israel and the United States, using guile and chutzpah, conspired to acquire heavy weapons in Europe and the United States (which prohibited weapons shipments to the Middle East)and ship them into Palestine in time to use in Israel’s defense, despite the British blockade and boycott. Learn how the Israelis defied the powerful British navy by secretly transporting into Palestine thousands of Jewish Holocaust survivors languishing in camps in Europe, in the face of the British government’s attempt to send these poor souls back to Germany, the scene of their persecution by Hitler; the fierce resistance put up by the unarmed refugee rescue ships (such as the Exodus), when discovered by the heavily armed British warships; how an American army colonel who liberated one of the death camps later offered his services to Israel and helped and save the Jews in Jerusalem. Read how Jewish Palestine leaders Ben Gurion, Chaim Weizmann, and former Milwaukee school teacher, Golda Meir, and others, overcame impossible odds to usher Israel into existence. Learn about a Jewish Kansas City haberdasher, an old partner and poker playing buddy of Harry Truman, who convinced the President to crucial recognition to the new state despite fierce objections of his own State Department; experience British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin’s vicious schemes to prevent the new state from coming into existence. Author’s creative narrative of history puts you in the middle of the action.

NEWS!

STEINHOUSE'S SIXTH LIVING HISTORY BOOK,ON HIS SERIES ON THE HOLOCAUST, WE SHALL BE CALLED ISRAEL!, HAS BEEN PUBLISHED ON HOW THE JEWS AND THE SURVIVORS OF THE HOLOCAUST FOUGHT FOR AND ACHIEVED NATIONHOOD WITH HELP OF HARRY TRUMAN AND DESPITE THE DESPERATE ATTEMPTS OF THE BRITISH LEADERS AND FIVE ARAB ARMIES TO PREVENT IT FROM HAPPENING. THE BOOK is AVAILABLE FROM AUTHOR, ONLINE FROM BOOK STORES AND FRIESENPRESS, AND AS AN E-BOOK ON KINDLE.

ABOUT WE SHALL BE CALLED ISRAEL!

What reviewers have said about this book:

“The exciting story of the birth of Israel. Steinhouse’s use of creative

narrative puts you right in the action and he pulls no punches.”

Fred Schwartz, founder and chairman, The Auschwitz Institute for Peace and

“Steinhouse brings the facts alive through his own passion and storytelling skill.”

Dr. Philip L. Jason, Naples Press Club; Professor Emeritus of English, United

States Naval Academy.

Order “We Shall Be Called Israel” directly from the author at stein0216@comcast.net the softcover edition for $21 and $30 for the hardcover edition (includes shipping and handling-U.S. orders)

By sending a check and your name and address to:

Carl Steinhouse

1001 Arbor Lake Drive, Suite 705

Naples, Florida 34110

We Shall Be Called Israel also available online at publisher, FRIESEN PRESS, or at AMAZON.COM (softcover), AMAZON.COM (hardcover), and B&N.com (hardcover), B&N.com (paperback) by clicking on the appropriate link, or at other book stores. All books are available on KINDLE and NOOK for $9.99!

Dad 1.jpg Carl Steinhouse is a retired lawyer and former federal prosecutor or the United Stated Department of Justice, and thereafter in private practice specializing in class actions, white-collar crime, RICO civil and criminal trials, and civil and criminal antitrust investigations and litigation. Steinhouse served in the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps, 1953-1954, with a tour of duty overseas. He served as a lecturer, editor and/or writer on several American Bar Association publications on criminal trials and grand juries. He had been involved in the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, making several trips to the Soviet Union and to Jerusalem and Helsinki on fact-finding missions. He served as board member of the Cleveland Anti-Defamation League, he was active in national ADL matters, including the legal committee and monitoring activities of hate groups. He writes an occasional column, “The Humorous Side of the Law” for the Naples Daily News. Steinhouse is happily married and lives in Naples, Florida, where he does his writing.

STEINHOUSE’S OTHER PUBLISHED BOOKS ON THE HOLOCAUST

WILY FOX

Steinhouse’s fifth living history book on his series on the Holocaust, Wily Fox, is the exciting story of King Boris III of Bulgaria who, notwithstanding being an ally of Hitler and the Axis Powers in World War II, outmaneuvered and outwitted the German dictator, to save all of his country’s Jewish population, causing a frustrated Hitler to characterize Boris as a “wily fox.” His brilliant maneuvering, while saving his Jews, probably cost him his own life.

image001 (2).jpg

Cover: Tom Cardemone, TCA Graphics

ISBN 978-1-4389-2283-6

ABOUT WILY FOX

No government allied with, or occupied, by Germany, could withstand Hitler’s demands to give up their Jews for total extermination by the Nazis under the Final Solution. Well, that is not quite true, and that is the crux of Wily Fox. Little Bulgaria, allied with Hitler in World War II, did just that. This is the story of how King Boris III out maneuvered and outwitted Hitler and used Hitler’s own lies against him to protect Bulgaria’s Jews.

The life of King Boris holds its own fascination. Boris was fluent in many languages, including French, German, Italian, English, Turkish, Greek, and Russian. He was an expert in botany, zoology, and mechanical engines. He could repair most any vehicle and would often stop on the road to help a motorist with car trouble. He’d mingle with the common people, sometimes incognito. He had a natural curiosity and was friendly with everyone from all classes. The diminutive king, in exciting scenes, survived several assassination attempts by virtue of his own bravery and wiles. Hitler did not call him the Wily Fox for nothing!

When, at the height of World War II, the leaders of the Bulgarian church, the Metropolitans, and leaders of some political parties pressured the king to save Bulgaria’s Jews, it was obvious that Boris was not averse to doing so, although he had already surrendered the Jews from Trace and Macedonia, areas under his control. Be a witness to the terrors the Jews experienced at being rounded up for shipment to the killing camps in Germany and Poland

But there were also many government leaders and officials who were Nazis themselves and each tried to outdo the other to do Hitler’s bidding to round up the Jews of Bulgaria and ship them to the German concentration camps for extermination. This is the story of how the church leaders, some politicians, and some ordinary citizens, both physically and morally, and at the risk of their lives, thwarted the efforts of the Bulgarian Nazis in charge of rounding up the Jews.

However, all these efforts in Bulgaria would have come to naught if Boris could not continually put off Hitler’s demands to cough up his Jews. The story takes you, on several different occasions, into Hitler’s headquarters where the Fuhrer time and again confronts the Bulgarian king, who stands up to him, carefully explaining why he couldn’t release his Jews “just now” because they were needed for the war effort, actually building on Hitler’s own lies regarding the Jews and throwing back at him.

In a final confrontation scene, Hitler is unable to cower the small king with his hysterics and finally appears to resort to ordering his minions to take the king’s life.

Review of Wily Fox

Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, in a pre-publication review says, “In Wily Fox, Carl Steinhouse brings to his narrative a large and animated cast of historical Bulgarians who said ‘no’ to the Nazi killing machine, ‘no’ to the deportation trains and concentration camps, and ‘yes’ to its 48,000 Jews. Full of guile and decency, Boris did what few others dared: he defied Hitler. This is a moment in the annals of Holocaust history that bears constant retelling, and Steinhouse has brought it to remarkable life.”

Order “Wily Fox” directly from the author for $18 (includes shipping and handling) through email

at stein0216@comcast.netorby sending a check and your name and address to:Carl Steinhouse

1001 Arbor Lake Drive, Suite 705

Naples, Florida 34110

Improbable Heroes, Righteous and Courageous, and Wallenberg is Here! are also available at $18 each (includes shipping and handling) We Shall Be Called Israel is available at $21 ($30 for hardcover), and Barred is available at $20 each.

Wily Fox also available online at publisher, AUTHORHOUSE, or at AMAZON.COM, and B&N,COM by clicking on the appropriate link, or at other book stores, and available on Kindle

All books are available on KINDLE and NOOK FOR $9.99!

BARRED

Steinhouse’s fourth living history book on his series on the Holocaust, BARRED, is the story about how anti-Semites in the United States State Department, used every bit of bureaucratic red tape to bar the Jews of Europe, facing extermination, from emigrating to the United States, and used every device to hide the news of the murder of Jews or to assure Americans that such news was wild unsubstantiated rumor, not to be believed, thus negating a Polish hero’s risk of his life to bring out the truth and those of Jews who escaped Auschwitz to tell the world how the Germans were slaughtering Jews. To obstruct the granting of such visas, a secret State Department memo to its consul in Europe told them to use every administrative device to "postpone and postpone and postpone the granting of visas." Read about President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s failure to intercede with such State Department antics until finally, pressure from his wife Eleanor, and the threat of exposure and scandal by some in his administration, forced FDR, late in the war, to act to save lives.

Cover: Tom Cardemone, TCA Graphics

ISBN: 978-1-4259-7627-9

ABOUT BARRED

Hitler started World War 2 on a pretext. In September 1939, the German SS, posing as Polish soldiers, staged a mock raid on a German border town. The SS dressed prisoners as Polish soldiers and shot them in cold blood, to make it appear that heroic German soldiers repulsed the “Polish” attack. Little did the world know that these ruthless murders were just the beginning of six long years of unabated slaughter of innocents under the color of law and government authority. This is the story of the Holocaust Hitler and his minions inflicted on Europeans, particularly the Jews, whom, as a matter of state policy, the Nazi intended to exterminate to the last man, woman and child. It is the story of heroes, both Jews and Gentiles who, under the thumb of the German oppressors, risked their lives to bring the news of the slaughter to the free world; it is the story of the men and women who tried to disseminate the word these people brought out of what was happening; it is the story of callous and venal politicians and government bureaucrats in the United States State Department‒and British Foreign Office‒who took every measure to conceal, downplay or outright deny what they knew was happening and they did it for various reasons including: placating the Arabs, wanting to prevent immigration of any nature to the free world by Jews, or simply trying to further anti-Semitic agendas. Barred! tells about an American president who, for political reasons, did nothing to change the situation, despite the urging of the first lady, until it was too late to save the bulk of the Jewish people in Europe; and it is the story of some other government officials, some private citizens, and the first lady, who together, exposed the conspiracy to keep the Holocaust a secret and European Jews out of the United States.

Jan Karski, a Polish army officer, brought first-hand information of the killings directly to President Roosevelt. After escaping capture by the Germans, he joined the Polish underground and, at the risk of his life, infiltrated the Warsaw Ghetto and the German death camps in order to be an eyewitness to the atrocities.

Jewish inmates in the concentration camps, assigned to strip the bodies of Jews killed in the gas chambers, executed daring escapes to bring out word of what the Germans were doing in the camps. One Jewish resistance fighter in Warsaw escaped to England, traveling through the heart of Germany, to alert the Allies of what the Germans were doing to the Jews and others. What he found was uncaring government bureaucrats who could not be moved to save Jews and so took his own life to shake conscience of the world.

A clique within the State Department, headed by Breckinridge Long, not only concealed the evidence of the extermination of the Jewish people, but also misled the American people and the president by denying what they knew was taking place. They schemed to have American diplomatic representatives in Europe deny visas to the Jews in danger of annihilation. The State Department instructed those consuls, in writing, to create such obstacles and delays that would make it impossible for Jews to meet requirements for emigration to the United States.

Jewish agency officials and American diplomats in Switzerland, and rabbis in the United States, worked together to overcome the anti-Semitic government bureaucracies to bring the evidence of the horrors perpetrated by the Germans to the attention of the free world.

Then there is the unending campaign by Eleanor Roosevelt, with some measure of success, to open the gates of America to the oppressed Jews, locking horns with the State Department bureaucrats and even her own husband. There were also some caring officials in the Treasury Department who, at the behest of Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, investigated and came up with the smoking gun evidence that exposed the State Department’s activities and forced the president, in 1944, to finally take steps to try to save what remained of European Jewry, steps that led to the establishment of the War Refugee Board and the sending of Raoul Wallenberg into Budapest to work his magic at saving Hungarian Jews.

Jewish and other nuclear scientists, who had managed to escape from Germany and German-occupied Europe, banded together to persuade a skeptical United States to engage in atomic bomb research. They used pacifist Albert Einstein, whom they convinced to write a letter to Roosevelt warning of Germany’s strides in developing a bomb capable of leveling a city, a letter which would spark the creation of the Manhattan Project and the building of an atomic bomb while German nuclear scientists were hamstrung for years by Hitler’s refusal to permit them to use Einstein’s theory of relativity in their research because it was “Jewish science.”

The reader is taken into the private offices and conference rooms of government to witness how President Roosevelt desperately maneuvered against an isolationist and hostile Congress to aid Britain and the Soviet Union in their fight against Germany with the firm determination that ultimately, the United States would have to go to war and defeat the greatest threat to its existence—Hitler’s Third Reich.

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT BARRED

“Your new book about Roosevelt got a stranglehold on me in the first few pages. You are certainly a master at making history come alive and it is very hard to put the book down.” Lorie Mayer, Southwest Florida Holocaust Museum

“Carl L. Steinhouse is probably one of the best, if not THE best, self-published authors it has been my privilege to read. . . . Barred is an incredible tale of a world at war and a president facing the uncertainty of reelection in a country bent on isolationism. It’s also the story of the political ploys, posturing and backroom deals that served to place the lives of thousands of men, women and children in mortal jeopardy. Beyond this, it’s a fascinating and thought-provoking story, one that is made all the more terrifying because it is deeply rooted in fact. An outstanding novel by a very talented writer, Carl Steinhouse certainly deserves high fives for this one." Linda Fasulo, National Public Radio (NPR)

Order “Barred” directly from the author for $20 (includes shipping and handling) through email to

stein0216@comcast.net or by sending a check and your name and address to:

Carl Steinhouse

1001 Arbor Lake Drive, Suite 705

Naples, Florida 34110

BARRED also available online at publisher, AUTHORHOUSE, or at AMAZON.COM, and B&N.Com by clicking on the appropriate link, or at other book stores

All books are available on KINDLE and NOOK FOR $9.99!

IMPROBABLE HEROES

is the true story of how ordinary Italians and priests saved 85% of the Jews of Italy. How did the gentle friars of Assisi establish an underground railroad using vehicles provided unwittingly by the German military to ferry Jews over the front line to Allied-held territory and safely? What was the position of Pope Pius XII on the Holocaust? Were his cardinals acting against orders in ordering its churches, monasteries, and convents to hide Jews? How did Mussolini’s antics affect the fighting ability of not only the Italian army, but the Germans, as well? What’s the story on Mussolini’s sexual prowess and his Jewish mistress? Read about it in:

Cover: Tom Cardamone, TCA Graphics., Inc.

ISBN: 1-4208-6838-1

Pope Pius XI died hours before he planned to issue the just-completed encyclical condemning Hitler’s persecution of Jews. It never saw the light of day. The encyclical was scuttled by his successor, Pope Pius XII who, fearing for his fellow Catholics in Germany, elected to pursue a policy of silence. Yet the ambivalent Pope’s own Catholic Church in Italy had led the effort to save the Jews.

The book details the antics of the vainglorious, strutting and often delusional Mussolini who first swore to his Jewish mistress that he would never harm the Jews, but later, to ingratiate himself, copied Hitler’s anti-Semitic programs and laws. However, unlike the German citizens and clergy, the majority of Italians would not only refuse to participate in the persecution of the Jews, they would, at considerable risk to themselves, actively protect their Jewish brethren from Nazi attempts to exterminate them. Improbable Heroes is the true story of how most of the Italian Jews—and foreign Jews who, with the help of the Italian military, had fled into Italy to escape the Nazi onslaught—were saved by extraordinary acts of bravery by ordinary Italians and clergy.

Learn about the massacre at Ardeatine Caves, where the Germans, in reprisal for a partisan attack on an SS unit in Rome, and furious at their inability to round up significant numbers of Jews, slaughtered, under orders from Hitler, civilian men, woman and children who took no part in the attack.

After the German takeover, experience the terror of Italian and non-Italian Jewish families, routed out of their homes by the SS for extermination; discover how Italian citizens hid Jews and frustrated German attempts to find them; Catholic and Jewish artisans counterfeited false papers, baptismal certificates and ration cards; Catholic clergy concealed, disguised and spirited Jews out of anger areas, hiding Jews, dressed as priests and nuns, in convents, churches, abbeys, and even the Vatican. Gentle monks from Assisi escorted “pilgrims”—Jews and their rabbis dressed as clergy—through German lines to safety. Other Jews joined the partisans and fought alongside the Jewish Brigade from Palestine to kill German SS troops.

Read how an Austrian Jewish woman hiding in a convent dressed as a nun, brazenly walked into Gestapo headquarters posing as a German nun, and shamed the commander into releasing a priest and two boys they were about to execute; how non-Jewish and Jewish partisans staged daring raids on concentration camps to free Jewish inmates destined for extermination.

From the acts of these improbable heroes, over 85% of the Jews in Italy survived, a survival rate unmatched in any other German-occupied European country. This, then, is their proud story.

Reviews of Improbable Heroes

Review on National Public Radio: In Improbable Heroes Steinhouse focuses on the real heroes and does so with an authenticity rare in historical fiction. . . . .Improbable Heroes is an exceptional work and one that is well worth reading, but more than that, it is a testament to ordinary people who through courage and determination and the belief in the sanctity human life managed to accomplish the impossible saving the lives of over eighty percent of Italy’s Jews.

Review in the Federation Star:“Steinhouse, with his background in criminal investigation and army counterintelligence, has again undertaken both very wide and deep research to provide us with an outstanding historical novel. . . 'Improbable Heroes' is a valuable addition to Holocaust and historic readings. It serves to educate as it entertains, and will find acceptance by readers of all ages.” Godfrey Levy

Review in the Naples Sun Times: “Steinhouse brings the facts alive through his own passion and storytelling skill. . . .'Righteous and Courageous' tells a less well known but equally thrilling story....'Improbable Heroes' dramatically reveals how 85 percent of Italy’s Jews were saved.” Philip K. Jason, Professor Emeritus of English from the United States Naval Academy

Review by former Federal Trade Commissioner: “Mr. Steinhouse has a gift of bringing to life the people he writes about . . . . Improbable Heroes is a book we all need to read to remind us of our human frailties, our capacity for evil and our capacity to put our own lives on the line when confronted with the imminent murder of our fellow human beings for no other sin that having another faith . . . “ Hon. Mary Gardiner Jones

Review in N Magazine: “In his latest book, Steinhouse focuses on these real heroes with an authenticity rare in the annals of historical fiction. Improbable Heroes is an exception work and one that is well worth reading.” Linda Fasulo, NPR

EXCERPTS FROM IMPROBABLE HEROES

He was having a bad dream—at least that’s what Attilio Nathan thought until the screams wafting through the open window from the street below brought him to consciousness. He leaped out of bed. and ran to the window. In the predawn darkness he saw a man running down the street—he didn’t know him. The man shouted, “Jews, run, run, the Germans are here!” Nathan heard the crack of a weapon being fired—the man crumpled in the middle of the street.

Nathan stuck his head out. Down the street, Germans were lining up men, women and children against a wall. People were being pushed roughly out of the buildings, the German soldiers seemingly impervious to the heartbreaking pleas and screams. If anything, the noise seemed to make them more violent. A convoy of military trucks pulled up. The soldiers started prodding the people with their rifle butts to make them climb into the trucks. Children and infants were thrown in bodily if their parents did not move fast enough.

Momentarily transfixed by the brutal scene under his window, he suddenly sprang into action. “Get up, all of you,” he shouted at his family. “The roundup has started. We’ve got to get out of here!”

Rosa was already up and dressing. Nathan shook his fourteen-year-old son Michele, roughly. “Get up, this is no time for sleep. Our lives are in great danger!”

The three raced down the stairs. The Germans were already pounding on the front door. “It’s too late,” Rosa cried.

“No,” he whispered urgently. “Follow me.” Nathan pushed them into the storage room in the back of the building. He found a wooden crate and shoved it against the wall under a small window three feet above them. He could hear the front door crash in. The Germans were in the building.

“Hurry, out the window. I’ll give you a boost.” He cupped his hands around his wife’s foot and propelled her out of the window. He did the same for Michele. He heard the Germans approaching the storage room. With a burst of adrenaline he grabbed the windowsill and pulled himself up and through the window.

* * *

Across the Tiber, another informer prowled Corso Vittorio Emanuele looking for her next victim and another reward. The Black Panther, Celeste Di Porto, would approach a Jew she recognized and engage him in conversation. That was the signal to Gestapo agents waiting nearby that the person was a Jew and they would move in for the arrest. For this treachery the Gestapo paid her five thousand lire a head. By the end of the war she had identified more than fifty of her fellow Jews. All her victims were caught by these chance encounters with her on the streets.

The day was cold but bright. Squinting into the sun, the Black Panther, shaded her eyes with her hands. A block away, she spotted someone who looked familiar. She quickened her pace to be sure and pulled up alongside Lazzaro Anticoli. “Ciao, Lazzaro.”

Anticoli looked around at the sound of that sweet voice and stared into the pale blue eyes of the stunning Black Panther. He smiled. “Ciao, Celeste.” Just as quickly, three Gestapo agents closed in on him. He looked back to Celeste, whose broad smile infuriated him. “Why, Celeste?”

She shrugged. “It’s profitable. A girl, too, has to live in these terrible times.” She walked away as Anticoli felt the cold metal of the pistol pressed against his temple. Strong hands gripped both his arms. They shoved him roughly into the back seat of a black sedan.

* * *

The three military leaders and Ciano looked at the Duce in frosty silence. Mussolini scowled. “You are angry because you weren’t consulted. So be it. For your information, the secret of Hitler’s success has been that he, not his generals, makes the decisions and dictates the strategy. I intend to be the same kind of victorious commander-in-chief. Now that war is declared, I shall mount my horse and take command in the field of battle!”

[General] Badoglio could contain himself no longer. “This is suicide, Duce. Before you get your ass shot off on a white horse, you’d better realize that we have few arms, tanks or airplanes—not even shirts and shoes for our soldiers!”

Mussolini slammed his fist on the desk. “Enough!” he shouted. Then lowering his voice to a growl, he continued, “You are not calm enough to judge the situation. By September, this whole thing will be over. If I can have a few thousand dead Italians, then I will be able to sit at the peace conference as one of the victorious belligerents.”

* * *

“With all due respect, Holy Father, I think [German Ambassador] Weizsäcker was trying to warn us that unless you protest, these people will be deported and liquidated. I suggest we do protest to forestall German action.”

The pope sighed. “And you’d be wrong, Eminence. I know Hitler and his colleagues. I lived in Germany during their rise to power, and Rahn is absolutely correct. Any protest by me would almost certainly instigate greater atrocities here, in Germany and in the Eastern Territories. Believe me, I would not do those poor Jews a favor by speaking out.”

Cardinal Maglione [Vatican Secretary of State] shrugged, “I don’t know, Your Holiness . . .”

The pope stood up and paced around the study. “Do you recall that after Mussolini was deposed, our sources informed us that Hitler was so enraged that he planned to send SS troops to occupy the Vatican? That his generals only at the last minute had dissuaded him? Do you believe that?”

Cardinal Maglione nodded.

“Then I must assume that it would not take much for Hitler to change his mind again. My own safety is of no concern to me, but an occupied Vatican would not be much assistance to our fellow Catholics, much less to the Jews. Hitler, I am sure, would also take severe reprisals against our German Catholics.”

“I understand, Holy Father. Nevertheless, may I suggest that it is incumbent upon us to lend some helping hand to the Jews.”

The pope looked at Maglione. “I’ll leave that up to you. Help the Jews, but be discreet about it.”

IMPROBABLE HEROES Available from author (see below) or online at publisher, AUTHORHOUSE, or at AMAZON.COM, and B&N.Com by clicking on the appropriate link. All books are available on KINDLE and NOOK FOR $9.99!

Order directly “Improbable Heroes “from the author for $18 (includes shipping and handling) through email at stein0216@comcast.net or by sending a check and your name and address to:

Carl Steinhouse

1001 Arbor Lake Drive, Suite 705

Naples, Florida 34110

All books are available on KINDLE and NOOK FOR $9.99!

In Steinhouse’s second book:

RIGHTEOUS AND COURAGEOUS

Tom Cardemone, TCA Graphics

ISBN: Paperback 1418420794; Ebook 1418420786

Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara risked life and career to save thousands of Jews in Lithuania from annihilation in 1940 by issuing, against orders, visas that permitted the Jews to escape prior to the German onslaught. Jews were admitted to Japan despite the protests of its German ally.

Yes, those Japanese of Pearl Harbor infamy saved Jews. To understand Japan’s respect for, and the gratitude to the Jews, the author takes us back to the Russo-Japanese War when a Jewish banker, incensed by the pogroms throughout Russia that killed hundreds of Jews, helped the Japanese defeat the Russians in 1905.

DID YOU KNOW:

THAT ONE JEWISH-AMERICAN BANKER SINGLE-HANDEDLY SAVED JAPAN IN ITS WAR WITH RUSSIA IN 1905?

THAT IN THE YEARS PRIOR TO THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR, ALMOST HALF THE JAPANESE CIVILIAN GOVERNMENT FAVORED ALLYING THEMSELVES NOT WITH GERMANY, BUT WITH THE UNITED STATES?

NO?? THEN READ ON

RIGHTEOUS AND COURAGEOUS

How a Japanese Diplomat Saved thousands of Jews in Lithuania from the Holocaust

The Little-Known Story of Japan’s Debt of Gratitude to the Jews

ABOUT THE BOOK

The true story of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara who risked life and career to save thousands of Jews in Lithuania from annihilation in 1940 by issuing, against orders, visas that permitted the Jews to escape prior to the German onslaught. Jews were admitted to Japan despite the protests of its German ally.

After the Germans invaded and conquered Poland, tens of thousands of Polish Jews fled to Lithuania to escape the horrors of the Holocaust. Now, the Germans were on the border of Lithuania and Sugihara had no doubt that soon the Germans would attack this small Baltic country. Jews rushed from consulate to consulate—no one, including America, would issue them visas.

Working day and night, Sugihara issued, against his government’s orders, thousands of visas and convinced the Soviets to permit these Jews to travel across Russia to Japan.

A titanic struggle ensued between the pro-American and pro-German factions of the Japanese Foreign Ministry and military. The story examines the conflicted thinking of the Japanese officials, torn between pleasing their German ally by not admitting Jews into Japan and their gratefulness to the Jews for saving Japan in the Russo-Japanese war. The book delves into this little-known but exciting history that resulted in protection of the Jews by the Japanese against the Germans.

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT RIGHTEOUS AND COURAGEOUS:

“The writing is compelling. The reader gains a sense of the desperation of the Jews, the compassion of Sugihara and Zwartendijk, the determination of the murderers and the indifference of so many. It is a chilling story made all the more real, all the more vivid by Steinhouse’s account.”

Dr Michael Berenbaum, eminent Holocaust scholar and author and former Director of the United States Holocaust Research Institute at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

************************************************

“My meeting with Chiune Sugihara in Tokyo certainly changed my life. I was in the presence of one of the great humanitarians of history. I am delighted that Sugihara’s conspiracy of kindness can now be read by a wider audience. Sugihara’s exceptional kindness certainly deserves the wider audience that this book will provide, blending scholarship and information to provide an uplifting and profoundly true story of kindness.”

Rabbi Marvin Tokayer, author of The Fugu Plan

“For those of you who read his first book . . . you will not be disappointed when you read “Righteous and Courageous” …His trained mind and intense interest … brings to life for the reader the events and details of this complex piece of history. Steinhouse provides us with a history lesson in a fast-moving colorful style.” Godfrey Levy, Federation Star

“Righteous and Courageous tells a less well known but equally thrilling story …” Philip K. Jason (Professor Emeritus of English from the United States Naval Academy), Naples Sun Times

Excerpts from

Righteous and Courageous

March 1906

Thanks to [Jacob] Schiff’s efforts, the total loans to Japan exceeded the original $300 million. The Japanese rapidly modernized their navy and were able to destroy the Russian fleet at the Battle of Tsushima Strait in May 1905. That stopped Russian advances into China and forced Russia to sue for peace and cede to the Japanese the southern half of Sakhalin Island. Japan hailed Schiff as a hero of the Empire of the Rising Sun.

Seated in a government limousine on its way to the Imperial Palace, the usually stoic Japanese imperial chief of protocol suffered an attack of nerves brought on by the strange American banker sitting beside him, who was about to receive a hitherto unheard of honor for a foreigner, an audience with the emperor. It was to take place at a luncheon at which the Emperor Meiji would bestow the Order of the Rising Sun and the Second Order of the Sacred Treasure on the American.

December 1935

Takahashi smiled. “Ah, then we are of one mind. I have given that matter a great deal of thought. As you know, it is most difficult to persuade Japanese citizens willingly to leave their life in Japan for what they consider the untamed, uncivilized frontier. But I have an idea. Use Jews.”

[Japanese Foreign Minister] Ayukawa blinked. “Jews?”

“Exactly. The Jews are talented in industry, finance and the sciences—just the skills we need in Manchukuo. Thousands of these Jews are fleeing Germany since the enactment of the Nuremberg Laws. Let’s offer them sanctuary in Manchukuo, where we can utilize their creative energy, industrial skills and cultural finesse to benefit Japan.”

Ayukawa shook his head. “I don’t understand. Why do the Germans discard all this talent simply because they are Jews? It doesn’t make sense.”

Takahashi shrugged. “The Germans are irrational brutes and that simply proves my point. What better place for the Jews than Manchukuo? It will make the American and British Jews beholden to us and they will invest in Manchukuo. After all, don’t they control the world’s capital? We have seen how influential Jews like my friend, Jacob Schiff, influenced American policy to be more favorably disposed to Japan. Don’t forget what Schiff accomplished for us during the war with Russia and still later, when he convinced the American Congress to abrogate its treaty with Russia. Schiff died fifteen years ago but I am sure we can again evoke Jewish interest for our benefit.”

August 1, 1940:

Alone again, Sugihara wandered around his office, hands clasped behind his back. He looked out the back window onto the peaceful vista of his small Japanese garden, hoping for some inspiration. He couldn’t bring himself to look at the desperate refugees framed in the front window. The horror stories in Poland haunted him because he knew that without his help, these Jewish refugees would suffer the same fate. The arrival of the Nazis in Lithuania was just a matter of time. Their lives were in his hands. What would happen to his diplomatic career if he issued transit visas against orders and all those Jews showed up at the Japanese border? The consul shook his head, thinking out loud. “It’s my career against their lives. Lord, give me the courage to act.”

August 27, 1940:

Yukiko looked into his sad face and saw the turmoil. Unfolding his arms, she took both his hands in hers. “There is no blame, Chiune-san. You did all you could under the circumstances. To help these people, you’ve defied the Japanese, German and Soviet governments. You should feel good about your bravery, not ashamed. I knew you were a righteous and courageous man when I married you and you have exceeded even those expectations.” She looked into his moist eyes. “I’m very proud of you.”

Available directly from author (see below) or online at publisher, AuthorHouse, or at Amazon. Com, and B&N.Com by clicking on the appropriate link.

Order “Righteous and Courageous” directly from the author for $18 (includes shipping and handling). Other Books by author: for “Barred” for $20, or “Wily Fox”, “Wallenberg is Here!”, “Righteous and Courageous” or “Improbable Heroes” for $18 each (includes shipping and handling) by sending a check and your name and address to:

Carl Steinhouse

1001 Arbor Lake Drive, Suite 705

Naples, Florida 34110

Or Contact author at stein0216@comcast.net

All books are available on KINDLE and NOOK FOR $9.99!

WALLENBERG IS HERE!

The true story about how Raoul Wallenberg
faced down the Nazi war machine and the infamous Adolph
Eichmann and saved the tens of thousands of Budapest Jews

Cover: Tammy Hildreth

ISBN: 1-4033-4559-7(paperback);1-4033-4558-9 (e-book)

In March 1944, SS Colonel Adolph Eichmann, responsible for implementing the Final Solution, arrived in Budapest, Hungary with his SS troops and the German Army with orders exterminate the last remaining Jewish community in Europe, which numbered in the hundreds of thousands, by shipping them to death camps or by simply murdering them in the streets.

Under dubious cover as a diplomat in the neutral Swedish Legation but actually working for the American War Refugee Board (WRB), Swede Raoul Wallenberg, a Gentile from the family of the Wallenberg business empire, left the safety of Sweden for Budapest in July 1944. Wallenberg's mission: stop the Nazi slaughter of Hungarian Jewry. Everyone responsible for arranging Wallenberg's mission knew that one man had no chance of success, but President Roosevelt had to show he was doing something.

Colonel Eichmann dismissed Wallenberg as "just another weak-kneed aristocrat playboy," finding out later how resourceful, brave and skillful the compassionate Wallenberg could be, setting the stage for one of the most dramatic, and seemingly unequal, confrontations of the war. It was the unarmed Wallenberg, assisted by some of his legation colleagues, versus Eichmann, backed by the arms and might of the SS, the Gestapo and several German panzer divisions.