The German Wife(128)

I learned that Operation Paperclip was a program to bring the most valuable German scientists across the Atlantic to work for the US government. It was an immense undertaking, involving more than 1,600 German scientists and engineers across many disciplines, from chemistry and physics to architecture and medicine and, of course, rocketry. Most of those German scientists ultimately lived out their lives in freedom and comfort in America, their pasts rewritten so they could be of service to the US government. Many were complicit in war crimes. Others were complicit through their silence.

Just like Jürgen and Sofie, many of these German men would argue that they had only done what they felt they had to in order to keep their families safe. Does that rationale hold out in the face of unfathomable suffering and death? Is there a point where we are morally obliged to take a stand, whatever the cost?

In writing this book, I wanted to show Jürgen and Sofie caught in an unimaginably difficult situation through the Nazi years, as so many German citizens were. But given the choices they make along the way, I’m still not sure my characters deserve the happy ending they find. It’s historically accurate that Jürgen’s past would be “erased” once he arrives in America, but is it just? I only hope readers will ponder this too.

Nothing about Operation Paperclip was simple—not the politics, the mechanics, or even the ethics. It has been fascinating, frustrating, and heartbreaking to explore some of these issues in writing this book. Thank you so much for taking that journey with me.

History buffs may recognize that Jürgen’s career loosely follows Wernher von Braun’s career path, although the character of Jürgen, his family, and his reaction to those career events are products of my imagination. And aspects of Mayim’s survival and escape were inspired by Gerda Weissmann Klein’s experiences, including the ski boots that saved her life—in Mrs. Klein’s case, her father insisted she wear them when she was captured. More information about Gerda Weissmann Klein and her incredible life and advocacy work can be found at citizenshipcounts.org/our-founder.

Finally, the character of Aunt Adele was inspired by my husband’s late grandmother, Vera Harabajic, who we all knew and loved as “Baba.” Baba was one of the fiercest women I have ever met—a matriarch of brutal honesty and boundless love. I hope to have honored her memory by sharing something of her spirit in this book.

Kelly



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


Thanks to my agent, Amy Tannenbaum. Your guidance and advice are always invaluable, but this time around, I truly could not have finished this book without your help and support. Thanks also to the entire team at the Jane Rotrosen Agency.

To Susan Swinwood and the dream team at Graydon House and HarperCollins—I love working with you and I am so grateful for the opportunity to place my stories in such capable and skilled hands.

Thanks also to my Australian publisher, Rebecca Saunders, and to everyone at Hachette Australia. Because of your hard work, my books are available on shelves here in my home country, and that means more than I can explain.

Thanks to the booksellers and librarians who put my books in the hands of readers. And to the bloggers, bookstagrammers, reviewers, and to anyone else who has recommended my books to someone else over the years—thank you for believing in my work and spreading the word.

Thanks to my husband and my children. If we can get through remote schooling while I worked on this book, we can do anything. And thanks to my sister Mindy, especially for dealing with dodgy tradespeople for me so I could write.

And finally—thank you for inviting us to Parkes that day, Teresa and Scott. I bet you didn’t realize you’d be inspiring a two-year obsession!

Although all errors remain my own, I’m grateful to the following authors for their works that were useful in the research for this book.

David Baddiel’s Jew Don’t Count was an excellent resource for understanding the absurd contradictions that underpin anti-Semitism both in the present day and throughout history. Some of these inspired Sofie’s thoughts on the rising acceptance of Nazi party ideology in Germany through the 1930s, particularly in the dinner party scene in Chapter 17. Thanks to my friend Kim Kelly for the recommendation.

In Chapter 12, Lizzie reflects on books she has borrowed from a library, trying to understand Henry’s combat fatigue. She mentions she has learned that his trauma returns not as memory but as reaction. This is inspired by The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk, which was published in 2014. This concept gives such valuable insight into Henry’s behavior that I have Lizzie reflect on it to help readers better understand his actions.

Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America by Annie Jacobsen.

Our Germans: Project Paperclip and the National Security State by Brian E. Crim.

Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War by Michael J. Neufeld.

German Rocketeers in the Heart of Dixie: Making Sense of the Nazi Past during the Civil Rights Era by Monique Laney.

Huntsville Air and Space by T. Gary Wicks.

Remembering Huntsville by Jacquelyn Procter Reeves.

Soldiers from the War Returning: The Greatest Generation’s Troubled Homecoming from World War II by Thomas Childers.

The Great Depression: America in the 1930s by T. H. Watkins.

Crash: The Great Depression and the Fall and Rise of America by Marc Favreau.