Parallel Journeys

Eleanor H. Ayer

• Publisher: Aladdin
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9781442440999

She was a young German Jew. He was an ardent member of the Hitler Youth. This is the story of their parallel journey through World War II.

Helen Waterford and Alfons Heck were born just a few miles from each other in the German Rhineland. But their lives took radically different courses: Helen’s to the Auschwitz concentration camp; Alfons to a high rank in the Hitler Youth.

While Helen was hiding in Amsterdam, Alfons was a fanatic believer in Hitler’s “master race.” While she was crammed in a cattle car bound for the death camp Auschwitz, he was a teenage commander of frontline troops, ready to fight and die for the glory of Hitler and the Fatherland. This book tells both of their stories, side-by-side, in an overwhelming account of the nightmare that was World War II. The riveting stories of these two remarkable people must stand as a powerful lesson to us all.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Power and the Glory
• Chapter 2: The Tightening Noose
• Chapter 3: Serving Mein Führer
• Chapter 4: Kristallnacht: The Night of Broken Glass
• Chapter 5: Marching Down the Road to War
• Chapter 6: The Nazi Net Ensnares Holland
• Chapter 7: Disaster in the East
• Chapter 8: A Dark Look into the Future
• Chapter 9: The Kingdom—Forever and Ever?
• Chapter 10: Heading into Hiding
• Chapter 11: Germany’s Youngest Top-Rated Glider Pilot
• Chapter 12: Discovery and Deportation
• Chapter 13: A Meeting with Mein Führer
• Chapter 14: Our Journey to Heaven
• Chapter 15: The Christmas Eve Air Attack
• Chapter 16: Some Small Signs of Hope
• Chapter 17: Decline, Fall, and Capture
• Chapter 18: The Long Trek Home
• Chapter 19: “You Will Be Executed by a Firing Squad”
• Chapter 20: One Day at a Time
• Chapter 21: Oceans Cannot Put Ghosts to Rest
• Chapter 22: Coming to Grips with the Past Epilogue: The World Must Not Forget
• Epilogue: The World Must Not Forget
• Postscript
• Chapter Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Back Cover
• Copyright