Into Crosswinds: A Novel

Members of an Alsatian family are swept into the crosswinds of World War II, some loyal to Germany, some to France, and some so desperate to survive they betray both countries. For one couple it means an evacuation from the city of Strasbourg to a village in Southwestern France where they live a substandard existence that becomes increasingly lethal as enemy troops occupy Free France, and the husband, a Jew, joins the Resistance. The wife’s cousin, an SS, married to an American girl employed at IBM-Berlin, is involved in the Final Solution. Later dispatched to southwestern France, he leads raids in pursuit of Resistance fighters and Jews as part of a vast German suppression program. Will his path cross his cousin’s?

A suspense-driven story based on personal experience, family accounts, several live interviews in situ with surviving members of the French Resistance in the Dordogne, on location research and interviews with war survivors, as well as research in French, English and German WWII history books, literature, and museums.