Thirty Four

Book excerpt: Amidst the giddy chaos of Berlin, Hitler toys with death in his bunker. The golden boy of Nazism, Hermann Goring, looks set to succeed as Fuhrer. But his bid for power ends with a cyanide capsule in a gaol cell in Nuremberg. And there history signs off on Hermann. Yet buried in the footnotes sits the extraordinary story of Hermann Goring's little brother, Albert. A defiant anti-Nazi, Albert Goring spent the war years busting the persecuted out of concentration camps, smuggling them across borders and funnelling aid to refugees throughout Europe. He did everything to undermine his brother's regime. But by 1944 the Gestapo were hunting him down like a dog. Did Hermann step in and save his brother? Enter William, a twentysomething from Sydney, Australia, who stumbles upon the key to Goring's last secret, the original list of Thirty Four witnesses penned by Albert's own hand in Nuremberg. Shelving plans for a Ph.D., William sets off on a three-year odyssey across eight countries and three continents to piece together the puzzling life of Albert Goring. There to guide him are the tattered pages of Albert's list, along with those within who bear testimony to Albert's heroism. Forget staid biography. Think seat-of-your-pants travelogue mixed with a Spielberg eye for storytelling and you start to get a taste for the energy William brings to the page. Delivering the kind of must-read story that turns history on its head, "Thirty Four" gives us a new hero. Standing alongside Oskar Schindler and Raoul Wallenberg is the Goring history forgot. 'William Hastings Burke has done a great service by bringing Albert's deeds to light. Many survivors and their descendants scattered across the globe owe their lives to him. It is time that he was recognised by Yad Vashem.' Gilead Sher, "The Jewish Chronicle" '... an enthralling piece of history that has the makings of a great novel.' "Die Presse" 'A fresh and unorthodox form of writing history, enriched by the first person.' "La Aventura De La Historia" 'Burke splices an interesting form of history with his travel anecdotes in the background.' "Die Woche"