Dangerous Secrets: a Young Girl's Travails Under the Nazis

Nikki suspects a family secret and she's trying to find out who saved her from drowning. This is 1932. An Austrian named Adolf Hitler is drumming up followers for his new Nazi Party. Heinz, the neighborhood boy Nikki adores, dons the brown Hitler uniform and marches about the small Bavarian town in which Nikki's parents own a hotel. In her quest for answers Nikki saves Max, a Jewish boy, from Heinz's Nazi mob and learns that her late grandfather was Jewish. She realizes the danger to herself, her younger sister, and her country cousin, Lena. Lena visits Nikki the following summer and is beguiled by Paul, an enthusiastic Hitler youth. Surprisingly, the Nazi leader has come to power, and his men pressure Nikki's mother to vote for him. Mama refuses and dies of a heart attack. Papa meets and marries a young woman. Nikki hates her stepmother and wants out. A letter from America elates her. Max invites her to come to New York, giving her a way to escape the strained situation at home. Circumstances sway her to stay. On a Spring day in 1937, Heinz returns after a long absence. He wants Nikki to marry him, but she dreads the black S. S. uniform he now wears and the power it gives him. When he sets the wedding date for October 18, Nikki's 18th birthday, she cannot refuse him without endangering her life and the safety of her family. The dangerous dance that began five years earlier ends with her astonishing escape from Nazi Germany. A seasoned author and eyewitness of the times presents an authentic picture of the Nazi period. A gripping book for young adult readers and for students of the Nazi era.