Moving on to other issues, it came as a surprise to me to find that large numbers of former Stasi employees had been able to obtain jobs in the German civil service—and we are talking about thousands of people. So it should not come as a surprise to you that a key character in The Nazi’s Son, Reiner Schwartz, is working in a senior role for the German Ministry of Defense. More detail on this topic can be found in this article in the German news magazine Der Spiegel: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/desk-jobs-for-secret-police-thousands-of-ex-stasi-still-work-for-german-civil-service-a-635230.html
Another article, about ex-Stasi staff working at the archives department of the former East German secret police, appeared in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/27/stasi-officers-still-employed-east-german-secret-police-archives
Those who enjoyed my account of Joe Johnson’s desperate escape from Russia into Finland via the Saimaa Canal and decide that a similar boat trip sounds appealing will find that it is actually quite feasible to achieve. A lot of leisure boats traverse the canal alongside the commercial traffic. Try these two videos to get a feel for how the waterway operates and the surrounding terrain.
The first is at: https://secure.action.news/watch?v=AMJ99WajV-A
The second, on YouTube, can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWHTetb2Ugw
There actually is an issue regarding the smuggling of illegal migrants through the canal from Russia into Finland, with the Finnish Border Guard taking action against the owners of boats used for this purpose. See this news story: http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland/finland-news/domestic/15165-hs-family-of-three-suspected-of-smuggling-over-70-people-to-finland.html
The Nazi’s Son is largely set during the weeks following the annexation of the Crimea by Russia in 2014, and most of the steps taken by NATO countries to send naval vessels into the Black Sea happened as described in the book. Perhaps the most dramatic incident during that period was when a destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, was repeatedly buzzed over a ninety-minute period by a Russian Sukhoi SU-24 fighter aircraft. This episode features in the book. However, in real life, the US president did not visit the ship and was not on board at the time—I invented that aspect for dramatic effect.
For an account by Reuters of that incident, see: https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-russia-blacksea/update-1-russian-jets-passes-near-u-s-ship-in-black-sea-provocative-pentagon-idUSL2N0N60V520140414
A number of other NATO ships were also sent to the region, including French and US vessels, as described in the book.
Yuri Severinov is described in the book as owning the fictional Krasnodar oil refinery near Tuapse, on Russia’s Black Sea coast. There actually is a real oil refinery in that area, the Tuapse refinery, owned by Russian oil and gas giant Rosneft. See: https://www.rosneft.com/business/Downstream/Neftepererabotka/OilRefineries/TuapseRefinery/
There were, of course, many other sources that I drew on while compiling The Nazi’s Son. I could not possibly list them all, but the ones I have listed above represent a reasonable selection and might form a starting point for any readers who want to investigate the details in this book further.
About the author and contact details
I have always had a love of writing and a passion for reading good thrillers. But despite having a long-standing dream of writing my own novels, it took me more than five decades to finally get around to completing the first.
The Nazi’s Son is the fifth in the Joe Johnson series of thrillers, which pulls together some of my other interests, particularly history, world news, and travel.
I studied history at Loughborough University and worked for many years as a business and financial journalist before becoming a corporate and financial communications adviser with several large energy companies, specializing in media relations.
Originally I came from Grantham, Lincolnshire, and I now live with my family in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, UK.
You can connect with me via these routes:
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.andrewturpin.com.
Facebook: @AndrewTurpinAuthor
Twitter: @AndrewTurpin
Instagram: @andrewturpin.author
Please also follow me on Bookbub and Amazon!
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/andrew-turpin
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Do get in touch with your comments and views on the books, or anything else for that matter. I enjoy hearing from readers and promise to reply.
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First published in the U.K. in 2019 by The Write Direction Publishing, St. Albans, U.K.
Copyright © 2019 Andrew Turpin
All rights reserved.
Ebook edition — The Nazi’s Son
ISBN: 978-1-78875-011-0
Andrew Turpin has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
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