The Betrayal

 The story opens in November 1944, in war-torn Germany, where Karl and Greta Schmidt, members of the anti-Nazi Underground, hide with their infant son, Johann. Their trusted comrade, Ulrich Kreitz, is revealed to be a double agent who betrays them to the Gestapo. As Allied forces attack, Ulrich's duplicity leads to the deaths of Karl, Greta, and Johann's grandmother, but Johann survives and is sent to an orphanage, his identity erased. Decades later, in 1972 Los Angeles, Heinrich Traupman (renamed from Johann, his name when he was the baby in World War 2) is now a German immigrant and orphan, struggling to find his place after a troubled past in Germany, including time in a mental institution for killing Neo-Nazis. Heinrich becomes entangled with a group of American Neo-Nazis led by Ulrich (who betrayed Heinrich's parents and is now an old man). Wilford Tal (a wealthy financier), and Hans Frisch (the current leader of the Greater Neo-Nazi Association of America, GNAA). The group is rife with internal power struggles, betrayals, and criminal activity, including political assassinations orchestrated by Ulrich and his associates. Heinrich, seeking revenge for his parents' deaths at the hands of Ulrich Kreitz, infiltrates the group by proving his loyalty through violence. He becomes close to Ulrich, not realizing at first that Ulrich is the man responsible for his family's destruction. The story is a chilling tale of people traumatized and broken by the cycle of betrayal, violence, and the enduring legacy of Nazism.