Black Swastika, Red Swastika (ePub)

This is a historical novel, a fi ctional storybased on historical facts.The book begins in the summer of 1942,in the Warsaw ghetto at the start of thegreat Aktion of deporting the WarsawJews to the death camp Treblinka. A pair of young doctors, Leo andRachel, with a 4 year old son Adam, triesdesperately to escape the deportation anddeath. They are initially successful buteventually they are caught by the deathmachine and taken to the Umschlagplatzfor the trip to Treblinka. They escape fromthe Umschlagplatz, and later from theghetto , just before the ghetto uprising,to hide on the Aryan side .Adam is sentto a catholic family and Leo organizes thehospital at the edge of a huge forest nearWarsaw, mostly for the partisans fi ghtingagainst the Nazis. They all survive theWWII but Rachel succumbs later to theovarian cancer . The second part of the book starts at the endof 1952, under a communist regime, whenLeo is already a Professor of Cardiologyand treats prominent Polish politicians. Atthat time in the Soviet Union 14 membersof The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committeewere executed and many prominent JewishDoctors were arrested in the trumpedup case of The Murderers in the WhiteCoats, accused of trying to kill Sovietpoliticians, including Joseph Stalin. Leo is called to Moscow to treat visitingPolish Prime Minister, because all Russiandoctors, terrifi ed by the arrest of theircolleagues, are afraid to treat him. Whenin Moscow Leo is entrusted with the secretmission to notify the West that Stalin andthe KGB are planning to deport all the Jewsto Beribidzhan in the Eastern Siberia. He meets Tanya a young doctor, a daughterof the most prominent Russian ladyscientist, who is now exiled to Kazakhstanfor her membership in The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. Tanya looks like theyounger sister of his late wife, Racheland Leo and Tanya fall in love almostimmediately. Leo is interrogated brutally in Moscowby the KGB but is released with the helpof Polish Prime Minister. He returnsto Warsaw and shortly later attends aCardiology conference in Switzerland. There he is run over by a truck drivenby the KGB agent but escapes with onlybroken arm. Afterwards he drives to Pariswhere he goes to the US Embassy to reportthe KGB plans. The Embassy offi cials dont believe fullyhis story but when the papers report thebeginning of the court proceedings againstthe Jewish Doctors, his story fi nds a littlemore understanding. He is received with more appreciation inthe Israeli Embassy and is fl own to Tel-Aviv to report to the Prime Minister BenGurion on the plight of the Russian Jews. As a result of his mission major US andIsraeli newspapers report on the Stalins andthe KGBs plans to deport Russian Jews. Later Leo goes to Moscow, together withhis son Adam, to rescue Tanya from theserious threat of arrest and the deportation. They get married and using false papersand big bribes they manage to return toPoland in a nail biting escape. Stalin is seriously ill but he jailed hispersonal physician. He becomes moreparanoid and threatening to one ofhis closest hangman, who decides toeliminate this danger. Stalins death endsall plans of Jewish deportation to Siberia.