“Doppelganger,” which is a German word meaning “Ghost-like, or the “ghostly double of a living person.” Doppelgänger is adapted from German doppel, meaning "double", and gänger, translated as "goer."
In the case of Morrow’s “Doppelganger,” he’s an 18-year-old young man from Broken Bow, Neb. This is the story of a farm youth taken to Germany by his German immigrant father for the 1936 Berlin Olympics and left to find his own way in the new Third Reich.
What John Krauss really wanted to do was go to the University of Nebraska in Lincoln to become a veterinarian, but the elder Krauss, who was an ardent member of the German-American Bund, would hear of nothing less than pursuit of a medical degree from the prestigious Berlin University.
Young Krauss is left in Berlin by his father and all goes well until he is approached by the Gestapo, who begin pressuring him to become a member of the Nazi Party and enter “leadership school.” Krauss’ expertise as a speaker of the American English language and its various slang would be valuable to Hitler’s Third Reich as the Nazis build their spy network, encroaching upon freedom-loving nations around the world.
When Krauss refuses to join the Nazis, he is promptly drafted into the Wehrmacht (armed forces) and his odyssey begins.
For readers who would like to learn more about how World War II began, but not get beaten over the head with a lot of historical minutiae, Morrow has crafted a nicely woven tale using real German characters to frame his story.
“First of all, from what I can determine through rather sketchy historical information, young Americans finding themselves caught up in the German military machine happened more than a few times,” Morrow explains. “I’m not the first to make reference to this aspect of the war. The late historian Stephen Ambrose refers to it in his ‘Band of Brothers,’ which was made into an HBO television series.”
Strangely, though, little, if any documented evidence exists today about Americans fighting on the side of Nazi Germany.
“We know it happened,” Morrow said. “A number of young people even gave up their U.S. citizenship, only to beg to have it returned after the war – that is, if they survived.”
He said he was told be veterans of U.S. Army intelligence, who were stationed in Germany after to war, encountering supposed Americans who had been on Germany’s side during the war.
Morrow has spent much of his adult life listening to the many and varied stories as told by veterans of World War II, getting the American, British and German points of view.
“One may be surprised how ordinary and like-thinking the common German soldier was compared to our American G.I.s,” he said. “I talked with, listened to and interviewed former German soldiers and airmen over the past 30 years. Getting to know them led me to believe portraying service members of the German Wehrmacht during the 1930s and ‘40s wouldn’t be all that different than telling the story about dogface G.I.s.
“This isn’t a story about the Nazis autrocities – we’ve had plenty written on that subject,” said. “This is about ordinary German citizens pulled along by an evil government and how it affects their lives.”
Morrow said his hero, John Krauss, becomes of age on the battlefields of Europe and North Africa, witnessing history from the viewpoint as personal valet to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
“I don’t know if Rommel ever had a valet, but I’m guessing he did, and, such a person would be in a perfect position to witness one of the history’s great military leaders at work,” Morrow said. “After I had finished my book and put it in the publisher’s hands, I watched a documentary on Rommel over The History Channel. It’s remarkable how closely my story’s portrayal of ‘The Desert Fox’ was to the descriptions of Afrika Korps soldiers who actually knew and served under him. I’m very pleased that I think I got it right.”
“Nebraska Doppelganger” sells for $15.95, online here as well as available online at: www.oldwarriorbooks.com. Old Warriors Publishing Co., 603 Seagaze Drive, Ste. 546, Oceanside, CA, 92054. ISBN 0-9779119-0-X.
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