Alex in Deutschland

Alex Schwarz is a second-generation Holocaust survivor haunted by the nightmare that was Nazi Germany. In 1939, Alex's father escaped the Third Reich and came to the United States. But Alex's grandparents and uncle perished in Nazi concentration camps. Now, in the 1960s, Alex wants to understand and escape from the dark shadow his father's grief and fears have cast over his youth.Then happenstance gives Alex a gift-or is it a burden? Alex learns he can see into the past. How will Alex and his girlfriend Lucy, a Soviet émigré, make use of this new and extraordinary capability? Alex in Deutschland tells its tale using adventure, cruelty, wonder and sadness from the nineteen-thirties, forties, fifties and sixties. Underlying it all, the book wrestles with the psyche of Hitler while addressing the question: What is fascism?