A little about Alex in Deutschland

Alex Schwarz is a second-generation Holocaust survivor haunted by the nightmare that was Nazi Germany. In 1939, Alex Schwarz’s father escaped the Third Reich and came to the United States. But Alex’s grandparents and uncle perished in Nazi concentration camps. Now, in the 1960s, Alex wants to understand and escape from the dark shadow his father’s grief and fears have cast over his youth.

Then happenstance gives Alex a gift—or is it a burden? Alex learns he can see into the past. How will Alex and his girlfriend Lucy, a Soviet émigré, make use of this new and extraordinary capability? 

Roger Neumaier's father was a holocaust survivor. A major focus of Roger's youth was trying to understand the terror and pain his father experienced in the Third Reich. In 1965, Roger traveled with his father to Frankfurt where he had the opportunity to see the city in which his father had grown up. He also met and spoke with people his father had known as a young German Jew. The book draws heavily on memories of that trip. 

The author began writing Alex in Deutschland shortly before his father's death in 2016.  A preliminary version of the book was published on Amazon in 2018.  But the book has since been materially revised and rewritten. 

The photo of the Frankfurt Opera House that appears on the cover of Alex in Deutschland was taken by Roger's father in 1935. This photo was particularly poignant for his father because his mother Leonore Schwarz had been the Opera's star. She was first contralto in the Frankfurt Opera before Hitler rose to power.  Leonore Schwarz died at the Majdanek Death Camp in 1942. 

To learn more about Leonore Schwarz, please hit the button below. The website was created by Roger's sister, Diane Neumaier in conjunction with the traveling photographic exhibition that she assembled.

Use the links below to order Alex in Deutschland online from IngramSpark, from Amazon.com or you can purchase it from your local brick & mortar bookstore.