D-Day 75th Anniversary Blog Tour: Amanda Barratt

Posted on June 7, 2019 | 31 comments

Welcome back, friends! Today, it’s my absolute honor to host author (and fellow “Amanda”) Amanda Barratt for her wonderful D-Day blog tour post. Welcome, Amanda!

D-Day 75^th Anniversary Blog Tour

June 3-11, 2019

Our novels illuminate different aspects of the war—from the landing beaches of Normandy to Nazi-occupied Europe to the US Home Front. Each day, visit with a new author as we share about our stories, our research, and our unique settings. With each blog post, you’ll have the opportunity to win that author’s novel–plus a chance to win a packet of ALL NINE featured novels and a gorgeous signed hardback copy of Everything We Have: D-Day 6.6.44, the new commemorative book from the National World War II Museum!

Giveaway Details

For a chance to win ALL TEN books, please visit each blog, collect the answers to ALL SEVEN questions, and enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below or on the BLOG TOUR PAGE. The contest opens June 3, 2019 at 1 am PST and closes June 16, 2019 at 11 pm PST. The winner will be announced on Monday, June 17, 2019. *Note* Several of the titles will not be released until later—these will be mailed after the release dates.

To win the prize of ALL TEN books, you must have collected ALL SEVEN answers. The winner must be prepared to send ALL SEVEN answers within 48 hours of notification by email, or a new winner will be selected.

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Amanda Barratt

My Dearest Dietrich: A Novel of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Lost Love

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A staggering love illuminating the dark corners of a Nazi prison…

Renowned German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer is famous for his resistance to the Nazi regime and for his allegiance to God over government. But what few realize is that the last years of his life also held a love story that rivals any romance novel.

Maria von Wedemeyer knows the realities of war. Her beloved father and brother have both been killed on the battlefield. The last thing this spirited young woman needs is to fall for a man under constant surveillance by the Gestapo. How can she give another piece of her heart to a man so likely to share the same final fate? Yet when Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an old family friend, comes to comfort the von Wedemeyers after their losses, she discovers that love isn’t always logical.

Dietrich himself has determined to keep his distance from romantic attachments. There is too much work to be done for God, and his involvement in the conspiracy is far too important. But when he encounters a woman whose intelligence and conviction match his own, he’s unprepared for how easy it is to give away his heart.

With their deep love comes risk–and neither Dietrich nor Maria is prepared for just how great that risk soon becomes.

Based on detailed historical research, this true love story is at once beautiful and heartrending. My Dearest Dietrich sheds new light on a world-famous theologian . . . and the woman who changed his life.

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An Unlikely Hero: Claus von Stauffenberg and the Plot to Kill Hitler

I know that he who will act will go down in German history as a traitor; but he who can and does not, will be a traitor to his own conscience.

The man behind these words was a thirty-six-year-old colonel in the Germany army. His family descended from nobility. He was a husband, a father to four young children, a committed Christian.

Above all, he was a man determined to wrest his country away from the evil engulfing it.

His name was Claus von Stauffenberg. 75 years ago, in July 1944, Claus and other like-minded high-ranking officers prepared to enact plans to seize control of the German government and assassinate Adolf Hitler. Prior to this, many attempts had been made to end Hitler’s life and rule over Germany, including two only a few months before. Both failed. Claus joined the resistance shortly thereafter. After witnessing the butchery of the SS against Polish prisoners of war in 1939, Claus’s belief in the Third Reich and the man behind it, which had been waning for many years, turned cold. After sustaining injuries as an officer in Africa, including the loss of his left eye, Claus returned to Berlin to recover. When he was placed on duty at the General Army Office in Berlin, he became connected with others who shared his drive to take action.

On July 20^th, Claus flew to the Wolfsschanze (Wolf’s Lair), Hitler’s headquarters in East Prussia. In his black leather briefcase were two explosives which, in the underground bunker, would be lethal to all occupants. When Claus arrived, he discovered the meeting had been moved to a conference hut because of the extreme summer heat. Also, due to the loss of his right hand and two fingers on his left, Claus struggled to arm the bombs, and only managed to ignite one. He entered the conference room, placed his briefcase beneath the large oaken conference table, as close to Hitler as he could manage, then slipped from the room minutes later. As he drove away, “a deafening crack shattered the midday quiet and a bluish yellow flame rocketed skyward.” Claus flew back to Berlin convinced of Hitler’s death and determined to begin the next stage of the coup.

When Claus arrived, he discovered the steps his co-conspirators were supposed to have taken immediately had been delayed. Soon after, the grim word reached Claus at his office in Berlin.

Hitler had survived.

Hours fraught with tension passed as Claus fought to salvage the takeover. Now, the conspirators fought not only for Germany, but for their own lives. But it was too late. Loyalties crumbled and Claus was betrayed. On the morning of July 21^st, Claus von Stauffenberg was marched into the courtyard outside his office at the Bendlerblock. He and his comrades were executed by firing squad. Standing proud, shoulders thrown back, Claus shouted his final words.

Long live our sacred Germany!

In the following weeks, everyone with the slightest suspicion of involvement was rounded up by the Gestapo. The numbers rose into the thousands. Claus’s pregnant wife Nina was arrested, separated from her children, and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. Their children were taken to a foster home and given new names and identities. Nina survived her time in custody, gave birth to a baby boy, and was reunited with her children after the war. She never remarried.

While researching My Dearest Dietrich: A Novel of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Lost Love, I discovered the stories of Claus von Stauffenberg and other Germans who risked their lives because, as Claus put it, “We took this challenge before our Lord and our conscience, and it must be done, because this man, Hitler, he is the ultimate evil.”

Though the July 20^th plot didn’t succeed, and it took decades before the majority of Germans viewed Claus’s actions as anything but traitorous, he’s now remembered as one of the few of his countrymen who took action against a murderous regime. His office at the Bendlerblock now houses a memorial museum dedicated to the German resistance. A statue of Stauffenberg stands in the courtyard at the site of his execution, as tall and proud as he stood in his final moments.

The brave men and women of D-Day fought for freedom. It might be said that Claus von Stauffenberg, though his country stood on the opposite side of the conflict, fought with the same goal and aim. May we never forget the stories of heroism and sacrifice that sprang forth out of the horrors of World War II. All of them, however unlikely the heroes, deserve to be remembered.

About Amanda: ECPA best-selling author Amanda Barratt fell in love with writing in grade school when she wrote her first story—a spinoff of Jane Eyre. Now, Amanda writes romantic, historical fiction, penning stories of beauty and brokenness set against the backdrop of bygone eras not so very different from our own. Her novel My Dearest Dietrich: A Novel of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Lost Love, released from Kregel Publications in June 2019.

Amanda lives in the woods of Michigan with her fabulous family, where she can be found reading way too many books, plotting her next novel, and jotting down imaginary travel itineraries for her dream vacation to Europe.

Connect with her at www.facebook.com/amandabarrattauthor and visit her online at amandabarratt.net.

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Question:

(Write it down, or enter it in the main Rafflecopter giveaway right away)

What was the name of Claus von Stauffenberg’s wife?

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Rafflecopter Giveaway

To enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway below, enter your name and email address (we need these to notify the winner). Then select an author’s name and enter the answer to that author’s question. You only need to enter the Rafflecopter once to be entered in the giveaway, but you can earn up to seven entries by answering all seven questions in the Rafflecopter. But don’t forget…to win, you must have collected ALL SEVEN answers. You can enter the Rafflecopter each day, or you can enter all your answers at once any time before June 16, 2019 at 11 pm PST. US mailing addresses only, please.

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Bonus Giveaway:

For a chance to win a print copy of My Dearest Dietrich, please visit Amanda Barratt’s website at www.amandabarratt.net, and sign up for her author newsletter.

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Schedule for the D-Day 75^th Anniversary Blog Tour

Be sure to visit each site for a chance to win ALL NINE featured novels, plus the commemorative D-day book!

Note: Links to specific blog posts will go live on the post date.

June 3: AMANDA DYKES, author of Whose Waves These Are

June 4: CATHY GOHLKE, author of The Medallion

June 5: LIZ TOLSMA, author of When the Heart Sings

June 6: SARAH SUNDIN, author of the Sunrise at Normandy series: The Sea Before Us, The Sky Above Us, and The Land Beneath Us

June 7: AMANDA BARRATT, author of My Dearest Dietrich

June 10: VALERIE LUESSE, author of Almost Home

June 11: MELANIE DOBSON, author of Memories of Glass