A CAT AT DACHAU
SS Private Max Schrader is a brutal Nazi guard at Dachau concentration camp. While he is ruthless towards the Jewish prisoners trapped behind the barbed wire, the Nazi soldier does have one soft spot: he loves animals, especially cats.
When Max finds an injured cat near the front gate of Dachau one day, he nurses the feline back to health. Max happily adopts the cat, named Faust, and comes to love his precious new pet. But it seems that Faust is searching for something: every day, the cat follows Max to Dachau and searches the concentration camp.
As Max attempts find what his pet his looking for, his worldview will be shattered…and his sins may cost him dearly.
A Cat at Dachau is a heart-wrenching short story by award-winning author Elyse Hoffman.
fracture
A heart-wrenching WW2 story of forbidden love and torn allegiances.
Franz Keidel is a monstrous SS soldier: loyal, hateful, and devoted to Hitler. With a cold heart, he hunts down his Führer’s enemies, but one fateful mission will fracture his shield of ice.
While hunting for Jews, Franz stumbles across a familiar face: Amos Auman, his childhood friend. Amos is the only source of joy in Franz’s life, but he is also a Jew. Unable to bring himself to kill his friend, Franz vows to protect Amos from his fellow Nazis.
As Franz spends more time with Amos, bringing him food and books, he falls in love with his kind-hearted friend. How could he fall in love with a man, a Jew? How can he continue to hate Jews when a Jew has thawed his icy heart?
And what will Franz do if he has to choose between Amos and his loyalty to Hitler? What choices does he have when he is already beyond redemption?
Where david threw stones
“Welcome to the Brennenbach of Midnight! The Curse Hours have begun.”
West Germany, 1968
When ten-year-old David Saidel’s parents are murdered by Neo-Nazis, he is sent to live with his grandfather in the anti-Semitic village of Brennenbach. David, miserable and lonely, finds solace in his kindly Grandpa Ernst, who has one strict rule: never go out after midnight.
One night, when David breaks curfew to search for his missing dog, he discovers why Ernst is so serious about his curfew: Brennenbach is cursed. When midnight strikes, the town is thrown back to 1943, the height of Hitler’s reign.
During the Curse Hours, the Nazi ghosts that infest Brennenbach are just as dangerous as they were in life. They’re hunting for David because they think David is the last remaining member of the Kogan family. Whatever happened to the Kogans caused the Curse, and David and his grandfather won’t be safe until he finds a way to end it.
Through the help of a little girl named Maria Rahm, the daughter of a vicious Nazi Lieutenant, he sets out to uncover the truth behind the Kogans. Can he end the Curse that plagues the town of Brennenbach before it claims another victim?
This spellbinding Historical WW2 Fantasy Novel is a story of a ten-year-old boy’s loss, redemption, and ultimate courage. Award-winning author Elyse Hoffman has crafted an expertly woven tale of World War II’s horrors. This thrilling story is perfect for readers of Marcus Zusak’s “The Book Thief,” John Boyne’s “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” or Michael Reit’s “Beyond the Tracks.”
The book of uriel
In the fires of World War II, a child must save his people from darkness…
Ten-year-old Uriel has always been an outcast. Born mute in a Jewish village known for its choir, he escapes into old stories of his people, stories of angels and monsters. But when the fires of the Holocaust consume his village, he learns that the stories he writes in his golden notebook are terrifyingly real.
In the aftermath of the attack, Uriel is taken in by Uwe, a kind-hearted linguist forced to work for the commander of the local Nazi Police, the affably brutal Major Brandt. Uwe wants to keep Uriel safe, but Uriel can’t stay hidden. The angels of his tales have come to him with a dire message: Michael, guardian angel of the Jewish people, is missing. Without their angel, the Jewish people are doomed, and Michael’s angelic brethren cannot search for him in the lands corrupted by Nazi evil.
With the lives of millions at stake, Uriel must find Michael and free him from the clutches of the Angel of Death…even if that means putting Uwe in mortal danger.
The Book of Uriel is a heartbreaking blend of historical fiction and Jewish folklore that will enthrall fans of The Book Thief and The World That We Knew.
Barrack five
Winner of the 2021 Readers’ Favorite Silver Medal for Short Stories.
The ghosts of the past don’t always stay silent…
When Vilém Rehor takes a security job at a former concentration camp, he assumes it will be dreary, but uneventful. But when someone starts carving their name onto the walls of Barrack Five, his supposedly boring job becomes more than he bargained for.
Though he tries to catch the vandal, Vilém can’t figure out how they’re making their marks—he never sees anyone, but that doesn’t mean he’s alone…
As he delves deeper into the mystery of the vandal, he realizes that the Holocaust isn’t over for everyone. The spirit of a girl long gone reveals herself, desperate to be heard.
Can Vilém help this restless soul?
Barrack Five is a heartbreaking work of historical fiction.
Barrack four
The past has a funny way of coming back to haunt you…
Vilém Rehor works at a former concentration camp. Although he’s the only living creature roaming the grounds overnight, he’s not alone…
After freeing Raya Pomnenka, Vilém hoped his night shift would return to monotonous normality. But when the Camp’s director demands that he keep a close watch on a particular exhibit, he encounters another spirit, the spirit of a young girl named Iveta. She, too, wants to tell her story, but this time someone wants to shut her up…
As Vilém tries to make it through Iveta’s heartbreaking tale, he realizes his ties to the people who lived and died in the Camp are deeper than he could have imagined. Can he set this spirit free? Or will dark forces drive him away before he can discover the truth?
Barrack Four is a historical fiction novelette, the sequel to Barrack Five, and a heartbreaking tale of the Holocaust.
Barrack three
Vilém can hear ghosts, and they have secrets to share…
As a concentration camp security guard with the strange ability to speak to spirits, he’s privy to stories lost to time, stories of the Holocaust, and those who didn’t live to tell their truths. But the more he learns about the Camp, the less he wants to know.
Eager for a distraction, he and his girlfriend escape to his parents’ home, but even here, he can’t escape the Camp. His mother tells what little of his family’s story they know, revealing that his great-grandfather was close friends with the heroic Joseph Klammer, a Nazi guard who betrayed his SS brethren and saved a train full of Jews bound for Auschwitz.
As soon as Vilém returns to the Camp, Joseph Klammer’s spirit appears, eager to share the truth about Vilém’s family…and confess that he is not the perfect hero of history. But another ghost is stalking the Camp, and he doesn’t want the truth to get out.
Can Vilém discover what really happened the day the Auschwitz Train left the Camp? Or will dark forces keep him from his family’s past?
Barrack Three is a historical fiction novelette, the sequel to Barrack Four, and a heartrending tale of the Holocaust.
Barrack two
Can a parent ever go too far when protecting their child…?
Vilém Rehor is about to become a father, and he wants nothing more than to be a good one. A good father and a good man, but as he sets about fulfilling Joseph Klammer’s final wish, he soon learns that sometimes it’s impossible to be both.
Eager to memorialize the heroic Doctor who helped Klammer free four hundred Jews bound for Auschwitz, Vilém begins investigating the history of Doctor-Rabbi Yosef Doubek. He is shocked to discover that his tyrannical boss, Alica Doubek, is the daughter of the supposed hero…and she has done everything in her power to make sure he and his shameful past is forgotten.
As Vilém encounters the Doctor’s ghost and learns of the Faustian bargain he made with the Architect of the Holocaust, Reinhard Heydrich, he is confronted with a barrage of impossible questions. How far would he go to keep his child safe? How much would he betray? And is Doctor Doubek worthy of seeing his daughter smile again?
Barrack Two, the sequel to Barrack Three, is a heartbreaking tale of the Holocaust.
Barrack one
Past and present collide for the last time as Vilém Rehor, a night guard with the strange ability to speak to spirits, finds himself facing the wicked spirit of the Nazi Kommandant Hans Gerber.
A new exhibit is set to open in the Camp, an exhibit dedicated to survivors of the Holocaust—an exhibit that is sure to anger the vicious ghost of the Kommandant. Vilém’s fiancée begs him to keep his distance lest he becomes yet another victim of the murderous Kommandant…but Vilém won’t let the Nazi hurt anyone else.
Desperate to get rid of the ghost before the new exhibit opens, Vilém turns to the spirit of Reinhard Heydrich, the Architect of the Holocaust. The Hangman of Prague reluctantly gives Vilém enough information to coax Kommandant Gerber into speaking with him. But Heydrich’s confession is shocking: Kommandant Hans Gerber, the fanatical Nazi, had a Jewish brother.
Armed with this revelation, Vilém confronts Gerber’s ghost, eager to finally discover the full truth…but to do so, he must delve into the memories of a monster.
Barrack One is a thought-provoking, heartbreaking tale of the Holocaust, the conclusion to The Barracks Series.