A vintage suitcase is pulled from the trash by a young New York advertising executive brainstorming a campaign on her way to work. The account is Steinbach Luggage, the German answer to Louis Vuitton and Hermes. There is only one problem with the vintage bag—like Steinbach’s CEO, it is a Holocaust survivor, as evidenced by the name and other personal data painted on it.

The suitcase is hallowed memorabilia, and no one dares open it until it is determined if the owner is still alive. The Holocaust survivor turns out to be an eighty-nine-year-old member of New York’s Jewish aristocracy, a prominent philanthropist and surgeon. When he gives his consent, the documents inside the suitcase pique the interest of a New York Times reporter—whose investigation begins to unravel a devastating secret that has been locked away since the day Dachau was liberated ( )

3.5 stars

Stacey Dutton, a young go-getter at a New York ad agency, spots an old, high-end leather suitcase among the discarded storeroom belongings from a grand Manhattan apartment building being converted to condos. Her agency represents Steinbach & Co., the maker of the suitcase, and Stacey is inspired to grab the suitcase for use in an ad campaign. When it's found that the suitcase belongs to a prominent doctor and pillar of New York philanthropy, who is also a Holocaust survivor, the suitcase becomes much more than a prop in an ad campaign. But when Stacey's boyfriend, a New York Times reporter, finds discrepancies between the doctor's story and the artifacts found in the suitcase, a mystery tale begins.

In alternating chapters, we travel between contemporary New York, and Munich during the last year of World War II, where three friends are surgeons in a hospital, treating military and civilian victims of war wounds. This is an unlikely friendship, considering that one, Max Kleist, is an officer in the Waffen-SS, while Eva Rosenberg and Jacob Epstein are Jews working under an extremely rare exemption from the Nazi state's laws that forbade Jewish doctors to treat Aryan patients. This exemption is abruptly yanked, and Jake and Eva must go on the run to avoid falling into the Nazis' genocidal machine. Max, whose close relationship with his Jewish colleagues is known, and whose prominent family is suspected of working underground to help victims of Nazi persecution, is sent to serve as a medical officer at the Dachau extermination camp.

For Germany during World War II, Nazism and the cult of Hitler supplanted all other loyalties and beliefs. Soldiers swore fealty not to the Fatherland, but to Adolf Hitler personally. Formerly devout Catholics and Protestants converted to a faith in Nazism's confused melding of Nordic mythology and racial destiny. Even scientific truths were corrupted by Germany's new dogma of racialism, with its virulent anti-Semitism and belief in the superiority of Aryans. At Dachau, Max finds himself in an environment where he is expected to pervert his Hippocratic oath in the service of these twisted beliefs and aims. His family and his own destiny are held hostage to his choices.

There are some weaknesses in the book. The present-day characters lack the dimensionality of the World War II characters. The conclusion doesn't live up to the promise of the rest of the book. A plot twist is obvious (to die-hard mystery readers anyway) almost from the get-go. The writing in the early part of the book is overburdened with adjectives and adverbs, which bogs down the pace and makes it feel like the author is trying too hard. Fortunately, he snaps out of this and the writing becomes clean and assured. Despite its flaws, I recommend the book to readers of World War II-era novels. Author Dinallo poses difficult questions about moral choices in impossible circumstances, and challenges our black-and-white views of World War II survivors. The topic of doctors in Nazi Germany is particularly interesting, and one that is not often a focus of World War II fiction. Above all, the stories of Max, Jake and Eva are gripping.

Greg Dinallo is a former filmmaker and television and movie writer. He turned to novel writing 20 years ago and, before The German Suitcase, published five thrillers, including RED INK, which was named a New York Times Notable Book. The German Suitcase is Dinallo's first digital-only title, published on November 14, 2012 by Premier Digital Publishing.

Note: I received a publisher's review copy of The German Suitcase. ( )

Full of adventure, incident, humanity, horror, and mystery, this novel is everything to every reader. Using the device of parallel and convergent plotting in alternating chapters, the author tells the story of Stacey Dutton, a curious and bright young thing on Madison Ave. who finds a vintage Steinbach leather suitcase. It's perfect for her company’s ad campaign for the luggage maker.

While back in January 1945, SS Captain and MD, Maximillian Kleist, does his best to protect his felllow physicians -- his Jewish friend and his lover -- from the clutches of the relentless fanatic Nazi SS Commander, Steig, who is devoted to the goals of racial purification outlined by Hitler and enacted by Himmler.

In the present, Stacey and her boyfriend Adam, a NYT reporter, track down the owner of the suitcase, the elderly and respected Dr. Jacob Epstein, prominent retired orthopedic surgeon, prosthesis inventor, and donor to Jewish causes. But all is not as it appears, when Adam observes that the tattooed number on Dr. Epstein’s arm doesn’t match the font of the one in a photograph of an arm bearing the identical number that is discovered hidden among the contents of the old suitcase.

Ever mounting tension and plot twists reveal the truth and the fates of the heroic and damned whose lives are connected by the leather bag. Dinallo’s background in advertising serves him well in creating the atmosphere of the industry; his research into WWII and the geography of Germany and Italy in the WWII era is meticulous. He creates people who live and breathe and who raise before us the uncomfortable ambiguity of relative guilt and culpability for Holocaust war crimes. This is a book guaranteed to leave a lasting impression on the reader.

Received from NetGalley. ( )

The chapters in The German Suitcase alternate between present day New York and World War Two Germany. There is an old suitcase found in the garbage in NY, which turns out to have come from Germany with a Holocaust survivor many years before. It's an interesting premise for a novel, but both time periods in the story are filled with highly unlikely (well, all right...downright silly) situations and unnatural dialogue. I found the book a real chore to read and gave up after forcing myself through the first hundred pages or so. ( )

Warning, Spoilers!!! When a New York advertising executive finds a vintage suitcase in the trash, she immediately comes up with an advertising campaign for Steinbach Luggage. Her boss immediately recognizes the information painted on the bag and identifies it as he suitcase of a holocaust survivor. They immediately try to track down the survivor, Jacob. The book alternates between the present day and the story of Jacob, Kleist, Eva and Hannah.

I don't really understand why Eva decided to change her identity to Hannah. I thought that this took away from Jacob's sacrifice and Kleist's life. I think the book would have been more powerful without this detail. I also thought the book was a bit predictable. As soon as they took the passport photos, it became clear to me that present day Jacob was really Kleist. Overall, it wasn't a bad book, I just wished it had been more of a mystery. ( )