In 1983 a car was burned near a village in Northern Germany. A person died, then the culprit, employed at a major German dairy firm got fataly injured. How could this happen? A personal dispute – or perhaps, there’ve been traces that needed to be covered? A long and winding road leads towards different people of influence and power…
Fourty years previously, a division of German soldiers received an unusual assignment: to empty the Winter Palace in Leningrad of valuable art, and to send it all to Germany on Hitler’s command. The Third Reich had plans to set up an impressive art collection of stolen pieces around various places in Europe. The works was transported to a bunker in Munich.
Meanwhile in Berlin, a noble and respected museum inspector lost his job, as his museum of modern art was closed down. Earning his way, now doing menial jobs, he was one day assigned on a special task: to catalogue the stolen artpieces for the new Nazi museum. Would he take the job? Has he any alternative?
Seventy years later, the extremely rare jewels of the Russian Tsar turns up in the hands the CEO of a large German company. Possibly this has something to do with a Dane who was involved in fakes until he disappeared without trace. The Danish police have been put on the case, but their German colleagues go to great lengths in order to avoid scandal.
This book gives, with its many fine details, a remarkable insight into life during the Second World War, from soldiers who’s freezing to death in the unforgiving Russian winter, to ordinary people in Germany who tries to live their life in the bitterness of the Nazis.
