Defending Britta Stein is a work of historical fiction. I’ve always believed that writing historical fiction is a little bit like cheating. The setting has already been written for me. It’s history. My job is to create characters and a plotline to weave into that backdrop. In that regard, I need to say that the principal characters portrayed herein are imaginary and do not refer to any actual persons, living or dead. Britta, Grethe, Emma, the Morgenstern family and Lukas Holstrum are all products of my imagination. Similarly, Ole Hendricksen, his wife, Margit, and his son, Nils, are fictional and do not represent any person. To my knowledge, there is no tavern named The Melancholy Dane, and if there might be in some location, the use of the name in this story is unintentional and is not meant to refer to any existing establishment. Similarly, to my knowledge, there is no such association as the Danish-American Association of Chicago. It is my fictional creation. Nothing in this story is meant to refer to an existing Danish American association in any location. Likewise, Simmons Manufacturing is fictional and not meant to refer to any company called Simmons.
While the Circuit Court of Cook County is an institution where I have spent the better part of my forty-nine years of litigation practice, Judge Obadiah Wilson is a fictional character and is not meant to refer to any judge, living or dead. Catherine Lockhart and Sterling J. Sparks are fictional characters and do not refer to any specific attorney I have known, though in many respects they are amalgams. If you are an attorney and you see yourself in Sterling J. Sparks, I am sorry. Truly. The reporters are all fictional.
The marvelous story of Denmark in World War II is factual and occurred as described in the story. What the people of Denmark did when they received word of the Nazi deportation orders was unique in World War II history. As a country, they came together to hide, protect and ultimately rescue 7,200 of their Jewish brethren from certain death. They are indeed honored as an entire country at Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in the garden of the Righteous Among Nations.
Though Joseph Morgenstern is a fictional character, he is representative of a Danish Parliamentarian in that period. The parliamentary elections of 1943 are accurately reported. Thorvald Stauning, Hans Hedtoft and Erik Scavenius were, in fact, all Danish prime ministers, who acted as portrayed in the story. Georg Duckwitz was the German naval attaché who, at great risk to himself, divulged Obergruppenführer Werner Best’s order to round up and deport all of Denmark’s Jews on Rosh Hashanah. Duckwitz did in fact travel to Berlin and attempt to convince Hitler to revoke Best’s order, and upon failing to do so, he did travel to Sweden and met with Prime Minister Per Hansson to secure sanctuary for Denmark’s Jewish refugees. Although he did not divulge the secret to Morgenstern, Duckwitz did tell it directly to Hedtoft, who then spread the word through Rabbi Melchior and Hans Fuglsang-Damgaard, the Bishop of Copenhagen. The pastoral letter sent to all churches in the diocese on the day before the scheduled roundup is quoted accurately.
Sister Elizabeth and the St. Vincent’s Hospital are fictional but representative of hospitals throughout Denmark that did provide shelter and a hiding place, quite often citing the German measles on the medical chart. The Elsinore Sewing Club is historically accurate and did provide passage for Jews during the exodus. Hal Koch was a professor of church history and a proponent of Danish unity. He is quoted accurately in the story.
The bravery of the youth resistance clubs in Denmark is legendary. The Churchill Club and Hvidsten Club were authentic and their exploits were accurately described. There is a cemetery and a monument to the memory of the members of the Hvidsten Club in Hvidsten, Denmark. They were heroes who did receive shipments of arms from the British Special Operations Executive as described.
The German officers and officials—Obergruppenführer Werner Best, Cécil von Renthe-Fink, Alois Brunner, General von Hanneken and Vice Admiral Wurmbach—were actual figures in the capacities portrayed and are described accurately, as were Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and Joachim von Ribbentrop. Henning Brondum, Kai Nielsen and the Petergruppen are also historically accurate, as were the trials and punishments following the war. Operation Safari did result in the scuttling of thirty-two Danish ships and the destruction of the Danish navy.
Once again, my heartfelt thanks to my support group, especially my readers: Cindy Pogrund, David Pogrund, Richard Templer, Rose McGowan and, of course, to my indefatigable wife, Monica, who read each and every page as it was born. No writer ever had a better critic, and I mean that in a good way. My thanks as well to my supportive group at St. Martin’s Press: my editor George Witte, assistant editor Kevin Reilly, Brant Janeway in marketing, and my publicist Sarah Schoof. Thanks as well for the support of my literary agent, Mark Gottlieb.