Patrick Hicks

Patrick Hicks' latest novel, IN THE SHADOW OF DORA, adds some vitally important information to the Holocaust story, as well as a little-known link to the U.S. space program. Like many Americans, I had never heard of the Dora-Mittelbrau Camp, and had only a vague knowledge about where Germany's deadly V-2 rockets were made, and I certainly didn't know that they were manufactured under the most inhumane conditions by "slave labor," or inmates brought from other death camps.

Hicks brings this all to life with his fictional protagonist, Eli Hessel, who comes to Dora on a train from Auschwitz, where his whole family had been incinerated, "gone up the chimney." A young man, Eli knows he must declare himself useful, so tells his captors he is an electrician, and hence becomes part of the V-2 assembly line hidden deep inside a mountain near Nordhausen. For several grim months, Eli endures unimaginable conditions, nearly starving on a daily diet of moldy bread and a thin gruel, finally, in the last days of the war, reduced to eating bugs, spiders and grass. He witnesses horrible acts of cruelty and murder by his SS guards and is beaten and abused himself. He also sees visits to the tunnels by the mastermind behind the V-2, Werner von Braun, who was at the time a high-ranking SS officer. Yes, the same man known here as the father of the U.S. space program, whose brutal war record with the Nazis was carefully glossed over, if not erased. Other real-life high-ranking SS officers are also woven into the fabric of Eli's story, but it is Von Braun who most readers will recognize.

Eli manages to survive the war, if only barely - "He weighted 93 pounds when the Americans found him." Fast forward twenty-plus years. He has emigrated to America, earned a degree, married, and is teaching at Columbia when he is recruited to work as a scientist for NASA at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). He is still plagued by nightmares and memories of Dora, despite an earlier series of electro-shock treatments meant to 'cure' him. Eli is all too aware of von Braun's high-ranking presence at NASA, as well as a few other former SS types. He is also vaguely aware of certain anti-semitic elements at KSC. He subtly self-medicates his problems and unease with alcohol, keeping a bottle of vodka in his desk at work, along with a stash of candy and snacks - a holdover from his days of near starvation at Dora. The climactic scenes of Eli's last days at the Space Center, on the eve of the launch of Apollo 11, that would carry Armstrong, Aldrin and Collns to the moon, are indeed gripping and compelling, and kept me turning the pages, even though the events seemed a bit far-fetched, if not unbelievable. And then there is a winding-down epilogue which seemed tacked on, an almost Disney-esque ending. But enough, no spoilers.

Hicks's story is, as I said earlier, an important addition to the Holocaust files, but it is not of the Primo Levi or Elie Wiesel class of book. It can't be, of course, because it is fiction, not a personal narrative or primary source. It does succeed in other ways however. When Eli remembers a close casual encounter with Hitler, for example, describing his "cold blue eyes," and a man who "preached a scripture of hate," I could not help but think of the current political scene in America, filled with hate and divisiveness. And later, in an unpleasant exchange about guns with a clueless young colleague at KSC, Eli considers the stupidity of the young man's comment that if the Jews had been armed, they could have fought back. "Hitler's rise to power had very little to do with who had access to guns. It was about fear and hate." Once again, all the gun nuts and second amendment types gathering in our streets today, intimidating and sowing fear.

I enjoyed the book, but I do have a gripe. IN THE SHADOW OF DORA is filled with detailed descriptions, sometimes almost to a fault, slowing the forward momentum of the story. The grim conditions of Dora were reiterated so often they began to feel redundant. Eli's "wooden clogs" were mentioned so frequently that they could have been a character. And there was more of this in the second section set in 1969 Florida. For example, a description of Eli having a TV dinner -

"When his dinner was out of the oven, he peeled back the aluminum foil. Steam rose. Gravy bubbled. He mixed butter into the mashed potatoes and gave the peas a dusting of salt. The peach strudel got some nutmeg ... The food in his tray was separated into little compartments and he ate each one in turn. The strudel was saved for last. When he was done, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and dropped the empty tray onto the floor. He burped."

I mean, Huh? Passages of description like this - and there are many - seemed unnecessary and obtrusive, and slowed down the narrative, causing me to lose interest and put the book down for a while. But maybe that's just me.

Again, some very good stuff in here, and the connection between the Holocaust and NASA is an important one historically, and should probably even be part of our history curriculum in schools. Kudos to Patrick Hicks for putting it all together. I will recommend this book highly, especially to history buffs.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (plus d'informations)