Guest Author - Diana Pederson

Tricia Goyer. Arms of Deliverance. Moody Publishers. 2006.

I almost groaned when I saw ANOTHER historical novel from the World War II period of the last century. However, this book taught me something I had never heard about Hitler’s regime through my many history classes. I’m sure it will surprise you too.

Katrine, one of the key characters in this story, is a young Jewish woman playing a dangerous game. She is actually dating an officer in Hitler’s Military. He believes that she is of “pure Aryan” stock. After she gets pregnant by her lover (who is married), she is sent to live at a Lebensborn home, run by the Nazis as part of a breeding program to produce pure Aryan children for the future of the regime.

Lee and Mary are rival reporters from the United States, sent to cover the war’s front lines and report back on the lives of the young soldiers fighting the Nazi regime. Little did they know the role they would play in rescuing Katrine’s baby once it is discovered that she is really a Jew.

Why Should You Buy This Book?

Goyer is an outstanding author. Her books reflect the depth of her knowledge about the World War she writes about. In addition, her characters are real—you don’t get the feeling that this story couldn’t be absolutely true. The majority of the American public had little understanding of what was really happening under Hitler’s regime. Although I vaguely remember something about his emphasis on weeding not the physically or mentally challenged people, and others who were simply not purebred Aryans, I did not know of his breeding homes. Perhaps this wasn’t common knowledge when I was in high school or college during the 1960s. I don’t know how long information such as this might have been considered military secrets.

May I encourage you to purchase this book, read it, and contemplate on what we are not being told about today’s war on terror-wherever it takes place? Too often, just like in WWII, the non-military people go on with their lives without learning the terrible truths about what starts a war and how the war is actually fought.

Comment to Authors and Publishers

Let’s move on from World War II. I’m eager to learn what REALLY happened during the Korean conflict (never declared a war by the United States Congress), the Viet Nam War, and perhaps even the earlier war in the Middle East. Although I am sure many gruesome details are still considered national security or military secrets, surely some can be written about.

Where are the love stories from those wars? What about pure acts of heroism such as smuggling a baby doomed to death out of the territory bent on killing him or her? How about stories of the many Vietnamese babies brought to this country by our soldiers? Are there any evacuees from Afghanistan or Iraq?

As a representative of the reading public, I am less and less inclined to read historical novels based on wars before my birth. Perhaps it is time for both publishers and authors to begin some serious study of these later wars in order to write facts-based historical novels about the last 60 years.