Facing the Enemy: How a Nazi Youth Camp in America Tested a Friendship (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781662680250)

What do you do when your best friend becomes the enemy?

Growing up in Newark, NJ, in the 1930s, Tommy Anspach and Benjy Puterman have always done everything together. It never mattered that Benjy was Jewish and Tommy was of German descent. But as Adolph Hitler and his Nazi party comes to power in Germany and war brews in Europe, everything changes. Tommy is sent to Camp Nordland, a Nazi youth camp for German Americans, where he quickly learns that Jews are the enemy. Heartbroken by the loss of his friend, Benjy forms a teen version of the Newark Minutemen, an anti-Nazi vigilante group, all the while hoping that Tommy will abandon his extremist beliefs. Will Benjy and Tommy be able to overcome their differences and be friends again?

Based on real-life events and groups like the Newark Minutemen and the pro-Nazi German American Bund, this daring novel-in-verse reveals the long history of American right-wing extremism, and its impact on the lives of two ordinary teens.

Author: Barbara Krasner
ISBN-10: 1662680252
ISBN-13: 9781662680250
Publisher: Calkins Creek Books
Language: English
Published: 12/05/2023
Pages: 368
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.23lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.20w x 1.30d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 10/01/2023
Publishers Weekly 10/02/2023
Booklist 11/01/2023 pg. 73