Killing the Hangman: a novella

Literature & Fiction

MIDWOOD, Ellie

Genre Fiction

Independently published

“It was very dangerous for him, and he knew it. But his love for me was stronger than fear.” - Ilse SteinThis novel is based on the inspiring and moving love story of Ilse Stein, a German Jew, and Willy Schultz, a Luftwaffe Captain in the Minsk ghetto, who risked his life to save the one he loved the most.When the last of the Jews’ rights are stripped in 1941, Ilse’s family is deported to a Minsk ghetto. Confined to a Sonderghetto and unable to speak the locals’ language, Ilse struggles to support the surviving members of her family. Befriended by a local underground member Rivka, Ilse partakes in small acts of resistance and sabotage to help her fellow Jews escape to the partisans. A few months later, after losing almost his entire brigade of workers to one of the bloodiest massacres conducted by the SS, a local administrative officer Willy Schultz summons the survivors to form a new brigade. Ilse’s good looks immediately catch his eye, and he makes her a leader of the new unit and later, an office worker. Soon, an unlikely romance blossoms amid death and gore, moving a Nazi officer to go to great risks to protect not only Ilse but as many others as possible and allowing a Jewish girl to open her heart to the former enemy. Knowing that the ghetto would soon be liquidated, Willy Schultz swears to save Ilse, even if the cost would be his own life.“We live together, or we die together,” - an ultimate oath of love in the most harrowing setting. Dark, haunting, but full of hope, “No Woman’s Land” is a testament to the love that is stronger than fear and death itself.

No Woman's Land: a Holocaust novel

Born and raised in Bensonhurst Brooklyn, Renzo has always been the craziest kid on the block: always first to sink a boat, to steal a car or to egg-bombard an unlucky cop. However, as he grows up, all his “stunts”, fearlessness and great personality attracts the attention of underground rulers of the heavily mob-associated neighborhood. Now Renzo and his friends have to decide for themselves if they want to become a part of the “family”… or create their own Brooklyn Boys “family”, where the first rule is that there are no rules.   Impossible to put down, The Brooklyn Boys Club is like a roller-coaster ride that will open the Italian-American side of New York City to you on a completely different level: you will laugh out loud, you’ll hold your breath and in the end you’ll fall in love with Renzo and his daredevils, who laugh in the face of danger and never play it safe or by the rules.

The Brooklyn Boys Club

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

This is a diary of Annalise Meissner, a young German Jew with long time ago falsified papers, living a carefree life in pre-war Berlin. A talented ballerina, she comes from a wealthy family and at first doesn’t want to concern herself with the changes her country starts undergoing under the new Nazi regime. However, when the oppressions against the Jewish population begin, she realizes that she can’t be a silent bystander and swears to help her people in any way possible. She falls in love and gets married to her father's longtime friend, Standartenführer Heinrich Friedmann, who even though he works for SD – the Reich Secret Service – seems to share her views, and soon Annalise learns why. Her new husband turns out to be a counterintelligence agent working for the US government, and together they start a dangerous game against the sinister Gestapo, trying to save as many lives as they can and not to compromise themselves. But it's not only the persecuted people Annalise wants to save; she meets the leader of the Austrian SS Gruppenführer Ernst Kaltenbrunner who everyone seems to fear, but for some reason Annalise isn't intimidated by the Chief of the Austrian Gestapo and doesn't believe the rumors about his brutality. Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner isn't hiding the fact that he would love to get this beautiful girl as his mistress, but Annalise, despite the mutual attraction, stays faithful to her beloved husband. However, the risky game she’s playing will soon change everything…

The Girl from Berlin: Standartenfuhrer's Wife

Romance

Historical

‘Gruppenfuhrer’s Mistress’ is book two in the series “The Girl from Berlin,” which continues to follow Annalise’s story. Caught up in a dangerous game between the Allies and Nazi Germany Secret Service – the RSHA – she’s torn between staying faithful to her husband and yielding to the demands of her American superiors and start a romance with the unpredictable Chief of the RSHA, who she finds herself attracted to more and more every day…

TheGirl from Berlin: Gruppenführer's Mistress

As soon as Annalise, a counterintelligence agent working for the American OSS office, thinks that all the dangers are finally behind, swept away by the protective hand of her high-ranking lover – the Chief of the RSHA Ernst Kaltenbrunner – she has to face an even bigger challenge. With both fronts approaching her quickly collapsing Germany, she has to make a fateful decision: to run from the allied prosecution together with the father of her unborn baby, the man, who the allies consider one of the major war criminals and who they can’t wait to bring to justice; or to stay with her husband Heinrich and accept a generous offer from the OSS – a new and free life in the United States…

The Girl from Berlin: War Criminal's Widow

What is going through the mind of a war criminal, tried by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg? Regret for his atrocious actions? Frantic desire to defend himself to the end? Desperate longing to be forgiven by his former enemies or craving of human kindness, even though he knows that he doesn’t deserve any… And the strongest of all, the fear to never again see the one, who he risked everything for, the only woman that he still continues to live for. All this is only the tip of the iceberg in the myriad of emotions for Ernst, former leader of the Austrian SS incarcerated in Nuremberg prison, who already knows what fate awaits him. Day after day he recollects his life, trying to understand where he made that wrong turn that changed his whole life and brought him into service of his new masters, who soon dragged his whole country into the most blood-shedding war in history. With agonizing sincerity he analyzes his past, which made him, a former promising lawyer, into a weapon of mass murder in the hands of his new leaders. Self-loathing and torturous doubts are plaguing Ernst’s mind, which together with unwanted hopes for salvation, terrifying visions of the nearing end, and ghosts from the past turn his incarceration into a never-ending nightmare. And yet, at the very edge of the abyss, he’s still clinging to life, because a woman is waiting for him, a woman, whose secret he’s still carefully guarding, and the one who he still hopes to see…

The Austrian: A War Criminal's Story

Second book in “The Austrian” series, which continues to follow Ernst’s fate. As the new blood-shedding war breaks out, as rumors start spreading about the atrocious actions of the government that he swore his loyalty to, more and more doubts arise in the former ardent SS leader. However, once claiming them, the sinister Nazi regime doesn’t want to let go of its victims so easily, and one has nothing else to do, but pick up a bloody mantle of a former sworn enemy to continue his ugly work… Once again, in his cell in Nuremberg, Ernst recalls the events of his life that is about to end any day now, slowly coming to terms with his fate, which is stronger than him, and preparing to die. Only, a loyal friend still refuses to give up on his attempts to save the condemned man’s life…

The Austrian: Book Two

Millions of people walked through Auschwitz’s gates, but she was the first woman who escaped. This powerful novel tells the inspiring true story of Mala Zimetbaum, whose heroism will never be forgotten, and whose fate altered the course of history…\nNobody leaves Auschwitz alive.\nMala, inmate 19880, understood that the moment she stepped off the cattle train into the depths of hell. As an interpreter for the SS, she uses her position to save as many lives as she can, smuggling scraps of bread to those desperate with hunger.\nEdward, inmate 531, is a camp veteran and a political prisoner. Though he looks like everyone else, with a shaved head and striped uniform, he’s a fighter in the underground Resistance. And he has an escape plan.\nThey are locked up for no other sin than simply existing. But when they meet, the dark shadow of Auschwitz is lit by a glimmer of hope. Edward makes Mala believe in the impossible. That despite being surrounded by electric wire, machine guns topping endless watchtowers and searchlights roaming the ground, they will leave this death camp.\nA promise is made––they will escape together or they will die together. What follows is one of the greatest love stories in history…

The Girl Who Escaped from Auschwitz

Grand Central Publishing

Based on the unforgettable true story of Alma Rosé, this novel brings to life one of history's most fearless, inspiring, and courageous heroines. In Auschwitz, every day is a fight for survival.&nbsp;Alma&nbsp;is inmate 50381, the number tattooed on her skin in pale blue ink. She is cooped up with thousands of others, torn from loved ones, trapped in a maze of barbed wire. Every day people disappear, never to be seen again. This tragic reality couldn't be further from Alma's previous life. An esteemed violinist, her performances left her audiences spellbound. But when the Nazis descend on Europe, none of that can save her... When the head of the women's camp appoints Alma as the conductor of the orchestra, performing for prisoners trudging to work as well as the highest-ranking Nazis, Alma refuses: "they can kill me but they won't make me play". Yet she soon realizes the power this position offers: she can provide starving girls with extra rations and save many from the clutches of death. This is how Alma meets&nbsp;Miklos, a talented pianist. Surrounded by despair, they find happiness in joint rehearsals, secret notes, and concerts they give side by side--all the while praying that this will one day end. But in Auschwitz, the very air is tainted with loss, and tragedy is the only certainty... In such a hopeless place, can their love survive?

The Violinist of Auschwitz

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Books by MIDWOOD, Ellie