"If not me, who? If not now, when?" "To do nothing, to remain silent, was to let evil win."
Words perfectly capable of speaking for themselves, (wouldn't you agree?) accurately portraying the depth of courage and determination that the characters in this novel must exhibit as their author deftly slips them onto the stage of historical events; in and out, barely leaving a trace.
"Are you there, God? Do you really care for me? If so, why did you give me so much, just to take it away?"
Liesl Weiss has lost much; her husband having mysteriously disappeared, her job at MGM Studios getting swallowed up in budget cuts, and her relationship with a beloved friend seeming all but lost. Struggling to support her two young children Liesl happens upon a job that is like none other; "What I am looking for - what I desperately need, Mrs. Weiss - is a spy". Thus Liesl is tasked with infiltrating the seemingly innocuous Friends of New Germany organization; while unbeknownst to her, Jewish lawyer Leon Lewis, has placed another agent directly in her path. Neither of them know about the other . . . just yet.
Subterfuge abounds in this riveting explosion of careful detail! Let little known Hollywood history come back to life between the pages of "Code Name Edelweiss"!
*I purchased this book and was not obligated to provide a positive review. 4.5 stars
BackCover Blurb:
“What I am looking for—what I desperately need, Mrs. Weiss—is a spy.”
Adolf
Hitler is still a distant rumble on the horizon, but a Jewish spymaster
and his courageous spies uncover a storm of Nazi terror in their own
backyard.
In the summer of 1933, a man named Adolf Hitler is the
new and powerful anti-Semitic chancellor of Germany. But in Los Angeles,
no-nonsense secretary Liesl Weiss has concerns much closer to home. The
Great Depression is tightening its grip and Liesl is the sole supporter
of two children, an opinionated mother, and a troubled brother.
Leon
Lewis is a Jewish lawyer who has watched Adolf Hitler’s rise to
power—and the increase in anti-Semitism in America—with growing alarm.
He believes Nazi agents are working to seize control of Hollywood, the
greatest propaganda machine the world has ever known. The trouble is,
authorities scoff at his dire warnings.
When Liesl loses her job
at MGM, her only choice is to work with Leon Lewis and the mysterious
Agent Thirteen to spy on her friends and neighbors in her German
American community. What Leon Lewis and his spies find is more
chilling—and more dangerous—than any of them suspected.
Code Name
Edelweiss is based on a true story, unknown until recent years: How a
lone Jewish lawyer and a handful of amateur spies discovered and foiled
Adolf Hitler’s plan to take over Hollywood.
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