Cupola: The Story of a Nazi Slave

Susan Merskey is freelance writer in London, Ontario.

The year is 1944. The Russians are advancing through Poland toward an
inevitable clash with the weakening German forces. Evana is young, tall,
fair, and beautiful—a perfect recruit for the Nazis’ “Strength
Through Joy” drive to produce the new master race. Along with other
girls possessing the requisite attributes, she works at the Krysztalon
Palace near Torun. Among the Germans who visit the Palace for relaxation
and enjoyment are Major Otto Kroetzer and Captain Karl Willuns. Although
forming relationships with the “clients” is frowned on, Evana forms
an attachment, which eventually saves both her life and that of the
other girls.

Lindy Hopper, a Canadian whose Polish-Ukrainian mother taught him
Polish during the long prairie winters, is a member of a crack RAF
bombing unit. Forced to bail out over Poland, he plants the C-bar
signaling device he carries, greatly increasing the attacking range of
other bombing units.

Duncan Innes, also known as Eric Foss, is an Englishman who was brought
up in Poland and grew up speaking German and Polish. On government
orders, he infiltrates the German lines around Torun, and Prisoner of
War Camp 357, playing a vital role for both the Allied Campaign and the
climax of this story.

The story of Evana, the Nazi slave of the title, is inextricably bound
up with the stories of these and many other people. The list of
principal characters at the beginning of the book is very helpful. The
descriptions of espionage and resistance, along with numerous other
events, add another dimension to our knowledge of the period.

The author, who served in Europe with the Royal Canadian Air Force, set
his story in the area around Torun because he spent six months as a
prisoner of war there. Cupola is Hobbs’s second novel; its tensions,
dangers, and romantic components combine to produce a gripping tale that
moves swiftly to its denouement. Recommended.