The Bismarck Memorandum

Book excerpt: Two German familiesone corrupt and Aryan, while the other honorable and Jewishform an unlikely and convoluted relationship spanning three generations. Then in June of 1944 comes the inevitable final reckoning. In the waning days of Nazi Germany, two larcenous conspiracies collide tragically in a forgotten backwater of war-ravaged Germany, both plans sabotaged by their lone common participant. Four people die, and four others simply disappear without a trace, though clearly not together. Also missing is a fortune in Nazi gold and artwork. The obscure incident generates a cryptic memo, which finds its way into the highest echelons of the Third Reich. Then the Reich falls, the incident, the treasure, and the memo all disappearing into history. In July 1970, a quarter-century later, the memo resurfaces. And the killings begin again. Drawn unsuspecting into the carnage, the descendants know only that they must unravel the puzzle before one of them becomes the next victim. But the trail is cold and the search frustrating, each new revelation taking them further back in history and deeper into the bizarre world of the Third Reich. And looming before them is the danger zone, a fanatic cabal of SS survivors determined to find the answers first.