Before World War II, two German boys enjoy playing piano, and one visits twice each week to teach the other. When the Nazis seize power, the lessons must end—one of the boys is Jewish.
Leo Bergner, the Jewish pupil, escapes Germany while his piano teacher, Bruno Franzmann, is called to serve the Fatherland. His assignment to work at a concentration camp turns to peril as the war nears an end. With the Allied forces closing in, he risks capture and prosecution as a war criminal.
After the war, Leo begins a career in banking and uncovers a conspiracy of further Jewish persecution, involving the assets of concentration camp victims. His investigation into the corrupt dealings of his own bank puts him in direct opposition to his beloved Israel, while also jeopardizing his career, his marriage, and his life.
Bruno escapes to Buenos Aires and must begin anew, lost in a strange land where only his wits can save him. He hatches an unscrupulous plot to finance a multi-national corporation, and in time, his efforts require a business trip to London—his first visit to Europe since he escaped.
After forty years, a lost family heirloom will decide their fate.
Wholesale Nazi thievery, often facilitated by the Vatican with the collusion of certain European banks, is one of the twentieth century's most shameful crimes. To this day, stolen assets remain to be fully recovered with many of the perpetrators never brought to justice. My book is fiction but is based on historical fact.