The book reveals historical details that came to light in recent decades - a reason why we didn’t learn about it in school. Ann Bausum’s book is the most compelling piece of nonfiction I’ve read this year. When Greg Pattridge reviewed Ensnared in the Wolf’s Lair last April, I was eager to read about an event during WWII I knew nothing about. Using rare photographs and personal interviews with survivors, award-winning author Ann Bausum presents the spine-chilling little-known story of the failed Operation Valkyrie plot, the revenge it triggered, and the families caught in the fray. Observers near the retreat called them the “ghost children.” They created their own sign language to communicate with each other. They feared their parents were dead, but didn’t know why. They were housed together, isolated and forbidden to speak their last names. Within weeks, Gestapo agents had taken as many as 200 relatives from their homes, separating adults and children in retaliation - the German word Sippenhaft means “family punishment.” They took 46 children from 19 high-ranking Nazi families to a retreat in a tourist town in central Germany called Bad Sachsa.
The result was a systematic rampage of punishment that ensnared not only those who had tried to topple the regime but their far-flung family members too. But their plot to attack the dictator at his Wolf’s Lair compound failed, and an enraged Hitler demanded revenge. Themes: Hitler, Resistance, Operation Valkyrie, Revenge, Ghost Children, WW IIĭuring the summer of 1944, a secretive network of German officers and civilians conspired to assassinate Adolf Hitler. National Geographic Kids, Nonfiction, Jan. Ensnared in the Wolf’s Lair: Inside the 1944 Plot to Kill Hitler and the Ghost Children of His Revenge
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