Max's War: The Story of a Ritchie Boy (The Revolution Sagas), Libby Fischer Hellmann, author, Derek Shetterly, narrator.
This is a story that is fiction, but it is based on the very real time of Hitler's rise to power as he built his Third Reich. Hitler created a world focused on the barbarian treatment of people he deemed to be unworthy. Hitler’s actions gave rise to war, and ultimately, the ignominious years of The Holocaust. Hitler started World War II, and he willfully planned the torture and murder of those that he judged to be unfit Germans, those who were not pure Aryans, and unfortunately, six million of those who failed his test were targeted and killed because they were Jews.
Max Steiner is a German Jewish teenager, at the time of Hitler's rise to power. He lives in a town called Regensburg. His family is very successful there, and he enjoys a good life, wanting for nothing. His girlfriend Renee Herskowitz is also enjoying a life free from want. Slowly, however, Hitler’s draconian rules for Jews, limiting their freedom and their civil rights, often ending in violence, forces many to consider leaving Germany. After Kristallnacht and Max’s father’s arrest for treason and subsequent manhandling by the SS (The Gestapo), the family flees to Amsterdam. Although it is difficult, they manage to start again. When Hitler invades Holland, however, they will have to consider fleeing again. What will they do then?
Meanwhile, Renee and her family had fled to Shanghai, because China allowed Jews to come there without proper papers. They, too, attempt to start again, but their situation will deteriorate as well, when the Japanese occupy Shanghai. How will they fare then?
Although the teenage sweethearts were forced to separate, they had vowed to remain in touch. Soon, though, Renee freed Max from their commitment. She understood that the times were difficult and realized that they might never see each other again. Soon Renee met someone, and so did Max. When Max arrived in Amsterdam, he went to a bookstore and met Carl Weber. They became good friends. Weber’s father, Jacob, was the owner of the bookstore. Carl took Max to a club, and he met Annaliese, a prostitute. He was smitten by her and worked hard to get her out of prostitution. She had only chosen it out of desperation. He managed to help her get a job in the fashion industry, but a fellow worker recognized her and began to blackmail her into prostitution again. When she was fired, though blameless, Max took revenge by writing letters that shamed the man, not thinking ahead. Soon, that Nazi will seek revenge against Annaliese.
Life grew more complicated when Hitler invaded Holland. Carl’s father, who worked with the Underground had gotten Max involved also, so when Annaliese was threatened, and then Max was also, he turned to Carl for help. Carl hid them in the bookstore, but the Nazi bent on vengeance, drunk with his power, showed up there, and tragedy followed. Max escaped, but Annaliese did not. Max was forced to flee for his life. He made his way to America with a visa his mom had procured earlier, and he was taken in by a relative. He learns that his parents were sent to Sobibor, a Concentration Camp and everyone knew the fate of those victims. Everything he knew and loved was gone. He joins the army and after basic training is assigned to Camp Ritrchie and becomes one of the Ritchie Boys. The Ritchie boys were trained in intelligence gathering and combat. Many were from the countries Hitler invaded. They spoke the language and knew the areas where the war was active, so they were better able to interrogate the prisoners of war and those seeking asylum. Max wanted revenge. He desperately wanted to kill Nazis. Now he could finally fight back. Ultimately the war ended, did he become a killer? Did he maintain his humanity? Did he find love again?
This is a story about the consequences of war, of the heroes and the villains, of the cruelty and the heroism, of the courage and the bravery humans are capable of, of the debauchery it forces some people to sink to in order to survive, of the barbarians and the angels, of the hate and the insanity, and of the love that can bloom even in the worst of circumstances, love that can outlive the horror, survive and flourish even after the war is over. The survivors learned that love is the one thing that didn’t die.
As with other books on the Holocaust that I have read, each one informs me of something new, even though I think I have read everything there is to know. I did not know that in some places, Jews could not return to their homes even though others were living in them illegally. It seems that there was no way to return. Their neighborhoods no longer existed. Their friends and family no longer existed. Their possessions were taken by others. Essentially, their lives were gone, and there was little to return to, and also, it was unsafe since there were still people who would murder them if they did return. They could not return to life as it had been, because that life no longer existed and could not be resurrected.
Finally, one has to come to the conclusion that no one sane could have contemplated the horrors of World War II, or of the Holocaust that ensued, resulting in the deaths of so many millions, not only Jews. Perhaps Hitler’s supporters were purely German, but they were also purely evil, cruel, inhumane and monstrously mentally disturbed. We must all keep the memory of The Holocaust alive, because otherwise we might forget… and if we forget, it could happen again.