The Seduction of Eva Volk [Paperback]

C.D. Baker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 21, 2009

In World War II, American soldiers were shocked to discover thousands of German POW's carrying New Testaments. Christians serving Hitler? Never before undertaken in a novel, 'The Seduction of Eva Volk' explores the reality of this not-so-simple paradox from the German point of view. Through the eyes of young Eva Volk, the alluring charm of the Hitler movement is personified in a lover. Desperately seeking wholeness in her broken world, she is quickly swept away by the passions of love and war...until she finds herself facing the consequences of blindness. Her's is a story that serves as a warning to us all. Admittedly disturbing, Baker's important novel is rooted deeply in years of research including interviews with Manfred Rommel--the son of the famous German Fieldmarshal and countless veterans of both the battlefield and the German home front. His work will forever change the way you understand history, and yourself.

Editorial Reviews

Review

See the Amazon.com listing page for reviews. --Author

Baker's latest novel offers an engrossing, chilling view from inside of one of history's most haunting times, ultimately begging the questions few dare to ask...but should. --Dr. Ken Curtis, founder Christian History Institute

Baker's comprehensive research offers an incredibly accurate picture of village life under National Socialism. The American reader may be astonished at the German perspective as historical certainties lose their accustomed contour. --Johann Voss, author of 'Black Edelweiss' and veteran of the Waffen-SS

As uncomfortable as it is, this novel deserves an honored place in Holocaust literature. --Rabbi Howard Abel Hirsch of the Center for Jewish-Christian Dialogue, Colorado Springs, Colorado

From the Author

This book is a good example of the proverbial 'hot potato.' For that reason, major publishers have been rejecting it as fast as my poor agent has presented it.

The idea that good people could support Nazism really is a threatening concept. Yet that is exactly what happened to the Christian nation of Germany. This book deals with how easy it was for good people to fall victim to the seductions of evil. Told from the perspective of the German people, I have attempted a first-of-a-kind exploration of the human condition thrown into a perfect storm. 

I confess a certain frustration with the publishing establishment; this is a story that needs to be told.

--C. D. Baker, author

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 378 pages
• Publisher: PrestonSpeed Publications; First edition (September 21, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931587507
• ISBN-13: 978-1931587501
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,334,335 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

C.D. Baker's first novel, 'A Journey of Souls,' was released in 2000 and re-released in 2004 as 'Crusade of Tears'-- a Christee Award nominee. He has written six historical novels and two books of Christian reflections. He has a master's degree in divinity from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Baker's meticulously researched work is described as authentic and vulnerable, with memorable characterization and thoughtful spirituality. His specialty is the discovery of the untold story.

Baker writes from his small farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he raises livestock with an interest in natural/organic methods and a passion for humane treatment.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Human Portrait of Self-Deception, Denial and the Reality of Truth, December 26, 2009

By 

Alan Crippen (Colorado Springs, Colorado) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Seduction of Eva Volk (Paperback)

The Seduction of Eva Volk

Years ago I remember my fascination with journalist William Shirer's book The Nightmare Years 1930-1940. His aptly titled story is a personal memoir of his life as an American foreign correspondent in Europe during the rise of Adolph Hitler's Third Reich. Shirer's record of events reads like an adventure novel beginning with an ambush in troubled Afghanistan's Kyber Pass. Throughout the book Shirer grapples with the ideal of truth, its pursuit, knowability, application and relevance, especially to oneself. Alas, with the same earnest seriousness of Shirer author C.D. Baker offers a novel of like gravity with all the credibility of an historical narrative for those "nightmare years." A gripping yarn told from the perspective of a bucolic German village on the banks of the Mosel River in the Reisling grape growing county, Baker's The Seduction of Eva Volk grapples with the same questions about truth, especially its grip on the darkest regions of the human heart's capacity for self-deception. How is it that Germany and its good people (at the time a largely Christian nation and culture) could have embraced Hitler's Nazi regime of evil? How is it that the good German people could have tolerated and even participated in a government that was directly or indirectly responsible for the slaughter of 28.5 million souls, including the systematic and technologically efficient genocide of 5.8 million European Jews? These questions have haunted historians, moral philosophers, ethicists, and everyone willing to grapple with the nightmare years of Germany's Third Reich. Baker has the courage to tackle these questions through the multi-dimensional characters of everyday people in everyday places, the likes of whom could be our own neighbors. In doing so he offers a credible answer to the hard questions as well as a disturbing portait of the bad politics, even deathly politics for which normal, everyday people are capable not only of tolerating, but of serving with a morally ambiguous complicity. The Seduction of Eva Volk is a masterpiece as a moral essay about human nature in its depths of depravity, and it is simultaneously a compelling commentary on the capacity of human moral immagination to know the truth in the depths of one's conscience and to overcome deceit and self-deception. Although the truth may ultimately set one free, it is all too often not without paying a very high price for being decieved and for psychologically sustaining self-deception by denial.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read for every student of history or someone just looking for a compelling story!, April 26, 2010

By 

Dan Panetti "Worldview Director" (Plano, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Seduction of Eva Volk (Paperback)

First I need to thank Alan Crippen and the John Jay Institute for sending this book to me to read. What a fascinating read - highly recommended to anyone interested in not merely a great story, but also a very profound look into the heart and soul of the people of Germany at the time of Hitler's rise to power and influence. I've always been tremendously interested in this time period of history - and to simply think that all Germans were evil and to blame the atrocities of the death camps on the entire nation always seemed inadequate to me. But the nagging question about what did most of the German people really think and know is at the core of this wonderful historical novel. C.D. Baker does a masterful job painting a picture of a young woman and her family and community struggling with their faith and the real and difficult situations that faced this nation following the debacle of WWI. Threats from the Bolsheviks from the west coupled with extreme nationalistic pride of law-abiding Germans fueled by Hitler's initial moral stance against abortion skyrocketed Hitler's fame and power almost overnight. And, of course, the Jewish factor was a huge element - the ability to make Jews the scapegoats and to silence dissidents were both essential elements to the rise of the National Socialist Party. Baker does a great job developing essential characters and weaving in their story lines to create an informative and interesting read and I would highly recommend this book to every student of history as well as those just looking for a good book with a compelling story to read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping Tale with a Compelling Theme, December 21, 2009

By 

R. Schuler "Ster" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Seduction of Eva Volk (Paperback)

The Seduction of Eva Volk will grip readers with the pace and tension of its plot and captivate them with fully human characters, struggling with the complexities of life as they are caught up in one of the great tragic dramas of history. The thoughtful will find here a work of fine literature that is unafraid to delve into the flawed nature of humanity, so that we might better understand ourselves, and the heights and depths to which we as individuals, and collectively as a society, are capable. Baker's brave work allows the reader to draw his or her own parallels with contemporary situations, by revealing that the full scope of history must be coaxed into consciousness if individuals - and human societies - are to escape subtle yet deadly descents into evil, and instead draw forth for emulation the inspirational and heroic.