A German Jew’s Triumph

When Prussian soldier Fritz Oppenheimer left the World War I battlefield with two Iron Crosses, he could never have imagined that the pinnacle of his military career would come 27 years later at the German surrender in World War II, when he took top Nazi leaders into captivity and interrogated Wilhelm Keitel, head of the Wehrmacht.
A towering personality packed into a 5’3″ frame, Oppenheimer was a wealthy Jewish Berliner who fled the Third Reich in mid–1938, joined basic training in the U.S. Army at 45, and ultimately became General Eisenhower’s legal aide and translator, tasked with helping to build a sustainable postwar democracy in his former homeland. This historical biography presents an untold David-and-Goliath story, demonstrating how one person’s efforts can help change the course of history and forge a more hopeful future.

Cindy Schweich Handler’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Redbook, Huffington Post and a host of other national publications. She is a former editor and writer for The USA Today Network.

Cindy Schweich Handler
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 288
Bibliographic Info: 57 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2025
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9735-2
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5509-3
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments       ix
Foreword: The Death She Wanted       1
Prologue: The Refugee Returns       9

Part I
 1. Setting the Stage       11
 2. The Proving Ground       20
 3. Trial by Fire       25
 4. ­Battle-Hardened       36
 5. A Gentleman in Galicia       44
 6. A Final Push       50
 7. Disaster and Deliverance       58
 8. Armistice       64

Part II
 9. Young Man in a Hurry       69
10. Endings and Beginnings       78
11. A Darkening Decade       86
12. Strangers in Their Own Land       96
13. Family in Flight       104
14. Reprieve in England       114
15. Attack on the High Seas       123
16. The Fight to Join the Fight       131
17. A Soldier in Middle Age       138

Part III
18. Bushy Park       147
19. The “Occupation Bible”       153
20. A Corrupted Continent       164
21. The Race to Reclaim Germany       173
22. Buried Secrets       179
23. A “Miraculously Fine Assignment”       187
24. Building the Peace       199
25. Justice, A Work in Progress       210
26. The Chaplain       216
27. End of a Mission       220
28. Life Without the “Sense of Danger”       227

Epilogue: Looking Back on the Journey       237
Chapter Notes       241
Sources       261
Index       265