The stranger an event, the more likely it really happened.

THE CHILDREN'S WAR and A CHANGE OF REGIME are less fiction than a rewriting and weaving together of various personal histories. The characters are inventions, but in general - and unfortunately - the events are not. Some of the stories date from the Second World War from Europe, some from the present from elsewhere. They were all united by the common thread of individuals denied basic human rights and, to a greater or lesser extent, their humanity. Of those who spoke personally, many imparted their tales only under conditions of absolute anonymity, for they still had much to fear and did not want themselves or their loved ones to become nothing more than an obscure line at the bottom of a newspaper column. To this end, a fictional tale seemed the best way of telling their stories, of imparting a sense of the humans behind the statistics. In both novels the setting within Nazi Germany is a convenience and in no way is meant to reflect upon modern Germany or its people. The Third Reich is used solely to provide the reader with a familiar and historical representation of any number of repressive governments, regimes, or authorities. It has been used simply as proof of what is possible. It is a reminder, too, that no people, no matter how advanced their civilization, should take their liberties for granted. ***************************************** A portion of the profits from these books has been and will continue to be donated to The Center for the Victims of Torture and other human rights organizations.

BACKGROUND SOURCES The culture of domination and violence which Europe experienced during the reign of Nazism is not unique, nor are THE CHILDREN'S WAR and A CHANGE OF REGIME based solely on this political system. Indeed, many of the incidents used in these books are modern. Nevertheless, as a unifying historical and cultural context was necessary, the Third Reich was chosen. Below are some of the source materials from that regime: Quotations in the story with regard to the planned occupations of Britain and Poland are essentially accurate paraphrases. The nearly six years of the German occupation of Poland gave every indication that there was very little in the plans that would not have been carried out. Archives in Britain, Germany and Poland will attest to the details of day-to-day regulations and camp discipline; for example, the rules enumerated in the story for the behavior of Zwangsarbeiter are only mildly altered from the historical regulations to reflect the passage of time. Many personal incidences and attitudes which are not part of documented Nazi German history have been drawn from several other sources - in particular, reminiscences of acquaintances (including some Nazis), and of friends and relatives who survived Germany under Nazi rule or the German occupation of their lands. The occupation of Britain is based upon the combination of experiences of the occupations of other Western European countries, the specific plans for Britain made by the National Socialists, and their increasing frustration at the apparent betrayal of the Germanic Folk by the British. The resistance movements are based upon the plans set up in Britain and the actual running of the Polish Underground during the years of German occupation. Given the circumstances, an incredible amount was achieved: essentially the establishment of an entire secret state including an education system and a mountainous republic entirely cleared of German troops. After sixty years of occupation, the Underground networks established by the conquered nations could have been quite formidable and are portrayed as such. The Third Reich did not last long enough to give us an accurate assessment of the sort of society and economy that would follow after several generations; therefore, source material was drawn from Nazi plans as well as life experiences under (often externally imposed) totalitarian regimes of this century - especially the Communist bloc. (Former) West Germany provided useful insights into German culture under democracy and (former) East Germany provided useful insights into the particular mix of German culture and a relatively stable totalitarian regime. Re-education, as contained in the story, has been employed throughout this century - very notably in southeast Asia and China. Psychiatric hospitals and drug-therapy were used in the former Soviet Union. Other source societies, useful for their insights into human behavior and what can be politically tolerated, include South America under their various dictators, South Africa under Apartheid, the American South before the civil rights movement, the experience of slavery in America, the strictures of Islamic cultures and the complicated and enduring caste system of India. Amnesty International and the Center for the Victims of Torture document the effect of torture on the individual and there are excellent histories by concentration camp survivors detailing the dehumanizing effects of brutality. Regular news reports indicate the persistence of slavery even where it is outlawed and domestic violence shows that brutality and violence are not foreign even to a stable society at peace. The institutionalized cruelty of Nazi Germany is well-documented, there is no reason to believe it would not have percolated down to everyday society; indeed, domestic, industrial and agricultural slave-laborers were already well-ensconced even during the turbulent years of the war and vast resources which could have been better used to further their war effort were diverted by the Nazis toward destructive and militarily useless endeavors. As a society, the Third Reich may have eventually self-destructed, but it is clear that it would have taken many victims with it in its inexorable decline.

HISTORICAL BASIS OF SOME SPECIFIC INCIDENTS IN THE NOVELS: The plans for the occupation of Poland and the actions of the occupiers as presented in the book are historical. In particular, there were plans for mass sterilizations. The plans laid out for Britain are also as quoted. The occupation depicted is based upon these plans, the rather schizophrenic treatment of the English by the Nazi regime in the novels is based upon the various writings of different Nazi officials and by the existence of both a French Resistance and a collaborative French government. Millions of slave laborers (of every nationality) were used in the Reich for industry, farm and homes. Forced labor (Zwangsarbeiter) was employed in households as domestics, nannies, etc. The conditions of Zwangsarbeiter varied considerably all the way from those who were deliberately worked to death (usually in industry, usually resident in camps) to those who were forced to work in appalling conditions but were not deliberately murdered (though they often starved or fell victim to disease and beatings) to those who were relatively well-treated. Currently these groups are most often separated by the terms “slave-laborer” and “forced-laborer” though the vast number of possibilities in between is not well represented by such a stark division. Most of the laws governing Zwangsarbeiter existed as stated in the novels. Use of public transit was forbidden, the workers had no right to free time and could not even give testimony in court. Sexual relations were legally forbidden. The conditions under which the Zwangsarbeiter worked were completely dependent on the whim of his/her employer (sic). In Reich law such persons literally had no rights. The AK (Home Army) did exist and did establish an extensive underground network including a University system and infiltration into German society. There was freed mountain territory during WWII. The British did have extensive resistance plans ready for any occupation. The Warsaw uprising did occur and there were such atrocities as tying Warsaw civilians to German tanks as human shields. Massive retaliation was visited upon Warsaw and the description of the resulting destruction in the novels is accurate. Holocaust incidents (gas-chambers, lime-laden railway cars, etc.) are genuine. There was a Warsaw Ghetto created by the Nazi occupation, there was a Judenrat, there was a ghetto uprising, and the people of the ghetto were deported to their deaths. The incident with the pregnant woman is a single example of camp atrocities taken from court testimony. The extermination camps did industrially process their victims and, among other things, human hair was used as stuffing for furniture. There was an emissary who (at great personal risk) witnessed the camps, traveled to the West and gave early and detailed reports to the Allies and the American government. (See Jan Karski, Story of a Secret State.) There was a council to aid the Jews sponsored by the Polish Government in Exile (the only such organization in occupied Europe). There were random and frequent executions for "crimes" such as supplying a loaf of bread and, in German occupied Poland, there was a death penalty enforced against anyone who aided Jews. (Though it was a crime to aid Jews in the rest of occupied Europe, it did not generally carry the death penalty.) Medical experiments were conducted on unwilling human subjects (prisoners-of-war, twins, Gypsies, women from the Polish underground, etc). Retaliation incidents mentioned in the books for the WWII period are historical, in particular, the 20,000 hostages of Bydgoszcz and the list of persons murdered and villages destroyed. The taking of hostages, the publication of their names, and their subsequent murder as retaliation for Underground action was standard. Retaliatory destruction of entire villages and their inhabitants was widespread. (The governor of occupied Poland even bragged that if notices were posted for every retaliatory action taken by the Nazis, there would be no trees left in Poland.) Manhunts (or “round-ups”) were a regular feature of civilian life. Killing children by slamming their heads against walls is a documented technique that was used to save bullets. The death statistics for the years 1939-1945 given in the novels are accurate: in Poland about one in six civilians perished during this period – six million people. Half that number was Jewish, the other half gentile. In the Reich proper, Germans were required to document their bloodlines and Hitler did film the torture and execution of his own officers. Germans deemed unfit by the regime were legally murdered. Being "asocial" was a crime. The general population was subject to denunciation and arrest for myriad (and ever-changing) "crimes". The enormous stress under which the civilian population of Germany lived is only now beginning to be documented. The SS Lebensborn did exist and did abduct children for adoption by German families. Though select groups were ruthlessly persecuted, the variety and background of all victims was extremely diverse and no-one was genuinely safe. Concentration camp inmates included an Italian princess, upstanding German religious people, and various Nazis who had somehow offended the regime. There are even incidences of American prisoners of war being worked to death. The mass expulsion of the Polish population from conquered western Poland is historical. The de-Polonization of the territories which were incorporated into the Soviet Union did occur. The liquidation of the Polish Communist Party by the Soviet Communists did happen. Soviet atrocities in Siberia (and elsewhere) did take place but due to subsequent history are much less well documented than those that happened in western and central Europe. There was a Nazi-Soviet pact which partitioned Poland and the two great powers were allies until 1941. Polish officers, taken prisoner of war by the Soviets, were massacred, en masse, in the forest of Katyn and elsewhere. All pre-war incidences are historical (the Statute of Kalisz, the Confederation of Warsaw, the partitions, Romuald Traugutt, the export of food from Ireland during the famine, the slaughter in the Belgian Congo, the Ukrainian terror-famine, etc.) The concepts of Nichtdeutsch, gemischt (Mischling of various grades), Volksdeutsch, Reichsdeutsch, Zwangsarbeiter and Pflichtarbeiter are all historical and had legal standing. Conquered people with sufficient Germanic blood could (and sometimes were forced to) declare themselves Volksdeutsch. The "nur für Deutsche" (Germans only) signs existed. Nichtdeutsch (non-Germans) being required to step into the gutter to let others pass was a genuine law in at least some conquered territories. The playing of Chopin and the singing of certain songs really was forbidden. At various times in various regions, passes were required for any travel by Nichtdeutsch. Food was rationed according to race (i.e. ethnicity) Rassenmischung ("race-mixing" or more precisely "ethnicity-mixing") was a crime with complicated gradations and various sanctions, as well as explanatory posters. There was a Rassenamt (Race/Ethnicity Office) which tended to the technicalities of marriage and other race issues. There were indeed laws making it essentially impossible for certain groups to marry. The Bund Deutsche Mädel and the N.S. Frauenschaften were genuine organizations. The Polish Underground did publish several newspapers allegedly from the German Underground. The Norwegians did resist the German invasion, the British were termed Volksverräter, there was a Danish resistance. There were also voluntary national-S.S. Units formed from the erstwhile citizens of nearly every occupied country (though not Poland). Tattooing was used to identify prisoners in some (but not all) camps. (This included children and babies taken prisoner after the Warsaw uprising but generally not the children and babies sent to immediate extermination). Forced laborers were required to wear identifying armbands with their number at all times. Triangular badges of various colors were used to identify the various categories of prisoners, green being used for criminals. Re-education and psychiatry have been used as indicated in the novels. The techniques and incidents mentioned are not fictional; however they derive from personal testimony, news reports, and recent history and do not date from the Third Reich – the Gestapo’s techniques were much less refined in the 1940’s. The level of sexual sadism involved in modern torture has been considerably downplayed. The use of a drug which prevents suspects from breathing, banging buckets placed on suspects’ heads, partial strangulation via wet sacks and other methods have been reportedly used by modern, democratic states. American-made “prisoner control devices” are exported and used as weapons of torture world-wide. Finally, it should be emphasized again that though the setting of this fictional tale is the Third Reich, this is just a convenience. Many other societies have been used to construct this alternate reality and the story is not a critique of German culture. None of the incidents derive from modern Germany and indeed, that country has an excellent human rights record.

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