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Genre Biography/Memoir
NH author!
This true story includes two German veterans and offers a fresh perspective on WWII from the losing side. How did people who did not support Hitler or join the Nazi Party live under the Nazi regime? What was it like to work on Hitler's secret weapon, the V-2 rocket, in a top secret installation? How could a family live through war waged on home soil on the losing side? How can love and dreams aided by faith in God prevent despair and aid survival through adversity?
Against the backdrop of World War II tragedy and devastation in Latvia, occupied Poland and Germany and three tumultuous decades of European history, Flight of Remembrance provides a window into the palpitating heart of wartime upheaval through the lives of Rolf Dutzmann and Lilo Wassull--a young Latvian aeronautical engineering student and the young woman he meets in 1940 Berlin after being forced to flee Latvia.
In December of 1939, swept along on a threatening tide of dire circumstance due to the imminent Soviet takeover of the Baltic States, Rolf and his family flee to Germany to save their lives, but Germany is fully under Hitler's control and already waging war. While the story follows Rolf's pursuit of his technical dream against daunting wartime odds, it is first and foremost a poignant love story that plays out against a panorama of worldwide chaos and destruction. The reader will experience the chain of cataclysmic events including Rolf's draft into the Luftwaffe and his father's assignment as chief inspector of V-2 rocket production; the bombing of Berlin; the destruction of their homes; the desperate, cross-country escapes from the bombing, the advancing Soviet troops from the east, and other Allied forces from the west; the POW camp hardships; and the deprivation of the postwar years. Despite the immeasurable evil, suffering, and desolation of World War II, a synchronistic chain of events provides a chance for a new beginning and a key role for Rolf in the US space program.