Radio Operator

Based on a true story, a gripping historical novel about a German immigrant who becomes embroiled in a Nazi spy ring operating in New York City in the early days of World War II. At the end of the 1930s, Europe is engulfed in war. Though America is far from the fighting, the streets of New York have become a battlefield. Anti-Semitic and racist groups spread hate, while German nationalists celebrate Hitler’s strength and power. Josef Klein, a German immigrant, remains immune to the troubles roiling his adopted city. The multicultural neighborhood of Harlem is his world, a lively place full of sidewalk tables where families enjoy their dinner and friends indulge in games of chess. Josef’s great passion is the radio. His skill and technical abilities attract the attention of influential men who offer him a job as a shortwave operator. But when Josef begins to understand what they’re doing, it’s too late; he’s already a little cog in the big wheel—part of a Nazi espionage network working in Manhattan. Discovered by American authorities, Josef is detained at Ellis Island, and eventually deported to Germany. Back in his homeland, fate leads him to his brother Carl's family, soap merchants in Neuss—where he witnesses the seductive power of the Nazis and the war’s terrible consequences—and finally to South America, where Josef hopes to start over again as José. Eventually, Josef realizes that no matter how far he runs or how hard he tries, there is one indelible truth he cannot escape: How long can you hide from your own past, before it catches up with you? Copyright 2020 by Klett-Cotta-J.G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger GmbH Stuttgart, Germany; Translated by Marshall Yarbrough

KEYNOTE: * First-hand account of how the Resistance heroes lived and their training in England, along with colour photos of the radio equipment they used * Includes accounts by British historians, radio operators, and those who belonged to the Allied underground All Resistance and radio buffs have been waiting for this book, abundantly illustrated (300 photos 70 of which in color) and giving an exhaustive account of the real champions of Free France - the Allied underground radio operators parachuted into Occupied Territory. Ruthlessly pursued by the Germans, the radio operators had a life expectancy of six months... For the first time, the training they received in England is described in detail and five accounts describe how these heroes lived daily. Most of the radio equipment, some of which is very rare, is shown for the first time with colour photos. The son of a Resistance worker, Jean-Louis Perquin has earned the friendship and the trust of the veterans and has drawn attention to himself by publishing articles on what Allied special agents wore when they were dropped into enemy occupied territory. In touch with a lot of historians and museum curators in the States, Great Britain, Norway and France, he has drawn up this first title in the "Resistance" collection with devotion and humility. ILLUSTRATIONS: 300 b/w & colour photographs

The true and dramatic testimony of a German grenadier during World War II. Erhard Steiniger joined his Wehrmacht unit on 12 October 1940 as a radio operator, a role which required his constant presence with troops at the Front, right during combat. On 22 June 1941, he accompanied his division to Lithuania where he experienced the catastrophic first day of Operation Barbarossa. He later witnessed intense clashes during the conquest of the Baltic islands and the battles leading up to Leningrad on the Volkhov and Lake Ladoga. He describes the retreat from battles in Estonia, Kurland and East Prussia and his eventual surrender and captivity in Siberia. He finally returned to Germany in October 1949, a broken man. From the first page to the last, this is a captivating eyewitness account of the horrors of war. Praise for Radio Operator on the Eastern Front “This often subdued, but continuously hypnotic, memoir is rare since it offers so much information, knowledge, and insight about the enemy from the beginning of the war on the Eastern Front right up to Steiniger’s release from a prison camp in Russia and return to Germany in 1949.” —ARGunners.com “Witting testimony of a German radio operator—a extraordinary account from a German perspective. Fascinating.” —Books Monthly

Supplement to 3d ed. called Selected characteristics of occupations (physical demands, working conditions, training time) issued by Bureau of Employment Security.