In this episode, we feature author Patrick Hicks and his historical novel, In The Shadow of Dora: A Novel of the Holocaust and the Apollo Program, published by Stephen F. Austin University Press.
In this work of historical fiction, Hicks tells the story of Jewish mathematician Eli Hessel, interned in the secret Nazi concentration camp, Dora-Mittelbau, buried deep inside a mountain in East Germany. Here, Eli is forced to help build the V2 rocket under the direction of engineer, Wernher von Braun.
Hicks reads:
"This is wasn’t an adventure. It wasn’t some kind of grand journey. No, it was a moment that thousands of souls had experienced at Dora-Mittelbau. Life or death, here or hereafter. The coming seconds would give him either the future or nothing. In that chamber where liquid oxygen was supposed to go, Eli let the rocket surround him and contain him. He was deep in its belly, and he found himself asking God to shield him. The tunnel had tried to kill him many times before but now, perhaps, it would save him."
Fortunate to survive the brutal conditions of the camp, after the war Eli immigrates to the United States only, ironically, to work again for von Braun but this time in NASA's Apollo program.
Patrick Hicks is the author of over ten books, including The Collector of Names, This London, Adoptable, and the critically acclaimed novel, The Commandant of Lubizec.
Winner of the Glimmer Train Fiction Award, his work has appeared on NPR, The PBS Newshour, and American Life in Poetry. Hicks has been nominated seven times for the Pushcart Prize and was a finalist for the High Plains Book Award, the Steinberg Essay Prize, and the Screencraft Cinematic Book Award.
After living in Europe for many years, he now lives in the Midwest where he is the Writer-in-Residence at Augustana University as well as a faculty member in the MFA program at the University of Nevada Reno at Lake Tahoe. His latest novel is Across the Lake, which is about the only all-female concentration camp in the Third Reich.
A special thank you to cantor, Abbie Strauss, who wrote and performed all of the music for this episode.
Strauss is a renowned composer, multi-instrumentalist, and recording artist. A member of the Grammy's Recording Academy, she founded the music school, The Institute of Jewish Rock and Judaism: Inside Out, driven by her desire to bring all people together as one in love and joy through music.
She also hosts the shows Sing Your BlesSings on JKids Radio and Shir Chadash through the Cantors Assembly. Strauss has recorded six albums available on all streaming platforms.
And, thanks to Emmy- winning composer and producer Silas Hite for mixing, mastering and providing special effects for this episode.
Generous funding for Arts & Letters Radio is provided by Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and from listeners like you.
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Executive Producer and Host: J. Bradley Minnick
Senior Producer: Mary Ellen Kubit
Episode Mixed and Mastered by: Silas Hite
Music: Abby Strauss
Sound Design and Effect: Silas Hite
