AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: Libby Fischer Hellmann

Libby Fischer Hellmann left a career in broadcast news in Washington, DC and moved to Chicago a long time ago, where she, naturally, began to write gritty crime fiction. She soon began writing historical fiction as well. Seventeen novels and twenty-five short stories later, she claims they’ll take her out of the Windy City feet first. She has been nominated for many awards in the mystery and crime writing community and has even won a few. She has been a finalist twice for the Anthony and four times for Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year. She has also been nominated for the Agatha, the Shamus, the Daphne, and she won the The Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year in 2021. In the past she has won the IPPY, Foreword Magazine’s Indie Awards, and the Readers Choice Award multiple times. 
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Q: What inspired you to write Max’s War?
Anwer: I’ve always been attracted to stories about WW2, partly because it’s the only war that spelled out the differences between good and evil so clearly, and partly because everyone who lived through it (almost everyone in the world) had a unique story to be told. My late father in law’s was one. A German born Jew, he and his family fled to Holland thinking they’d be safe from Nazi persecution. But Hitler invaded in 1940, so Fred escaped to the US. He was drafted into the US Army in 1939 and was recruited by the OSS (the forerunner to the CIA). Trained in intelligence, interrogation, and espionage, he went back to Europe where he fought for the US behind enemy lines. I wanted to tell that story.

Q: Who are the Ritchie Boys?
Answer: The Ritchie Boys were a group of 2300 German and Austrian immigrants, mostly young Jewish men, who escaped Hitler’s Nazis and came to America where they joined the US Army and fought against their homeland. Like the OSS, they were trained in intelligence, interrogation of German POWs, and espionage. Also like the OSS, they returned to Europe to fight for the US. Max Steiner, one of the Ritchie Boys, is the protagonist of Max’s War. His journey loosely follows my late father in law’s story.

Q: Why are they important?
Answer: During WW2 the Ritchie Boy program was top secret. It wasn’t declassified until 1998. However, most people still do not know who they were or what they did. Above all, Max’s War is a story of young men who escaped the Holocaust but willingly went back as Americans to stop the Nazis. After reading it, what I hope readers will take away is the enormous challenge these soldiers faced. Many of them suffered personally at the hands of Nazis. Many lost their families. But they went back… to the place of that suffering… to stop the carnage. And they ultimately triumphed.

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LINK for BOOK:
https://www.amazon.com/Maxs-War-Story-Ritchie-Revolution/dp/B0CR3DFMJR

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