The Watchmaker

Caroline Misner

Nov 2011 · Vagabondage Press LLC

About this ebook

In 1938, Germany was a dangerous place to be. The rise of the Third Reich made life precarious for Jews and their sympathizers. Anti-Semitism was on the rise throughout Europe thanks to Nazi propaganda. A nationwide boycott of businesses owned by Jews swept throughout Germany, culminating in Kristallnacht on November 9 and 10, 1938. Stormtroopers and civilians ransacked and destroyed Jewish homes and businesses, burned synagogues and murdered 91 innocent people. 30,000 men were rounded up and sent to concentration camps, where most of them perished.

Wilhelm Plum, a mild mannered shopkeeper, has turned a blind eye to the growing anti-Semitism in his country, naively believing that no harm will come to him or his young business partner, Ruben Geller, a dedicated and brilliant watchmaker. But as tension mounts throughout the fall of 1938, he can no longer ignore the imminent danger. When Wilhelm overhears his son, Hans, a Nazi sympathizer, plan the impending pogrom with a friend, Wilhelm must risk everything to save Ruben and family from a horrid fate.

About the author

Caroline Misner was born in a country that, at the time, was known as Czechoslovakia. She immigrated to Canada in the summer of 1969. Her work has appeared in numerous consumer and literary journals in Canada, the USA and the UK, most notably The Windsor Review, Prairie Journal and Dreamcatcher. Her work can be viewed online at www.thefurnacereview.com, www.glass-poetry.com and www.millerspondpoetry.com. Her short story “Strange Fruit” was nominated for the Writers’ Trust/McClelland-Steward Journey Anthology Prize in 2008. In the autumn of 2010, her poem “Piano Lesson” was nominated for The Pushcart Prize. She currently lives in Georgetown, Ontario where she continues to read, write and follow her muse, wherever it may take her.