The Swastika Tattoo

By Geraldine Birch

A YA historical novel, The Swastika Tattoo is the story of Rudolf Meier, a young German prisoner of war whose love for Nazi Germany is as visible as the swastika tattoo on his forearm. After Rudolf and his U-boat (submarine) crewmates are captured by an American destroyer, Rudolf is sent to a POW camp in Arizona where he labors picking cotton for a Jewish farmer. It is there that he comes face-to-face with the bigotry and intolerance he learned as a Hitler Young. Through long months of internment, his only joy is his friendship with the farmer's son who shows him the true meaning of humanity, individualism, and democracy. Then, just as his repatriation to Germany is in sight, a murder in the camp makes Rudolf realize he may be the next target of the hard-core Nazis who really control the Arizona prison camp.

A study guide for high school teachers and students is included at the end of The Swastika Tattoo. This includes a short summary, discussion of the major theme of the book; intolerance, historical terms of World War II, German words and their meaning, glossary of terms, suggested essay questions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Trashy Novel Corp
• Release date: Sep 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301022854

Geraldine Birch

Geraldine Birch has been a newspaper reporter most of her life, having worked for various community newspapers in Southern California and Arizona. Her work included a ten-year stint as a free-lance writer for the Los Angeles Times.In 1991, she moved to Sedona, Arizona, where she worked as a reporter, editor, and political columnist for the Sedona Red Rock News. Birch’s political column “Gerrymandering,” was awarded a first place national award by the National Newspaper Association.Her writing has also appeared in the Arizona Republic, the Christian Science Monitor, Opium, Six Hens, and Fiction Attic Press.