The Angel of Auschwitz

Duty, honor, country - under which circumstances does the warrior's code become irrelevant and impractical? Some would say it ends the moment an innocent life is threatened. Others would argue it always applies, no matter what the duty. But what if the duty was to eliminate an entire race of people? At what point does one's salvation hold greater bearing than one's honor? Or does it ever... "The Angel of Auschwitz" chronicles the life of Wolfgang Bremmer, an adolescent boy from the hills of Hamburg during the Nazi occupation of Germany. As a Hitler Youth, Wolfgang is captivated by the prowess of the Nazis and thrust into the ideologies of Adolf Hitler. As a young man, Wolfgang enlists in the SS-Death s Head Division, the gatekeepers of the regime s most lethal concentration camp, Dachau. It is here he is introduced to Theodor Eicke s School of Violence and becomes one of the most ruthless guards the SS has ever seen. After joining Hitler s Mobile Killing Units, he participates in the invasion of Poland and the evacuation and extermination of its Jewish inhabitants. Wolfgang is the ideal Nazi warrior: vicious, ruthless, and entirely intolerant. But evil erodes even the hardest of hearts and Wolfgang grows weary in the midst of all the death and destruction. His conscience returns and with that a gnawing guilt for what he and his fellow Germans have done and are about to do. With the fear of punishment for treason though, Wolfgang is trapped in the cyclone of violence; that is, until he is promoted as a guard at the Reich s newest concentration camp, Auschwitz. In the belly of such a beast as Auschwitz, though, Wolfgang discovers a secret that will not only save his own life and salvation, but the lives of so many prisoners as well.