The Spider, The Fly, And The Web

Europe 1945. The dark storm that has plunged the world into war for a second time still rages across the continent. Death and destruction mark every street, town, and country. For those fightingthe war it has been a long and costly five years.Hitler's military forces are fighting on two fronts and losing both. With the Americans and British cutting through the countryside in the west and the Russians pushing forward in the east: time isrunning out for the Third Reich.Unfortunately, the suffering is not limited to just the battlefield. It is in these final months that the biggest horror in human history is uncovered: the Nazi Death Camps. Allied soldiers find hundredsof thousands of people rounded up and held captive in makeshift prisons. Starvation, torture, and murder are commonplace. One ofthe worst camps is found in Austria. It is called Mauthausen.Camp Commandant Franz Reichart's orders from Berlin are clear: Vernichtung durch arbeit - Extermination by work. Prisoners areliterally worked to death as slave labor in the camp rock quarry below. The ones who live on suffer with the knowledge that there is little hope. Many look for a way out. Death is the quickest.However, there is a glimpse of promise for two children who make an escape during the chaos of a nightime bombing raid. Hana and Ilan Freimann must navigate the perils ahead of them and find their way in a world that is not theirs.Reichart also flees Mauthausen as enemy forces draw near. Not only are the Allies serching for him, but members of a war crimes tribunal being assembled in Nuremberg. He is a wanted man whois trying to find a route to escape justice and his past.The church provides sanctuary for both parties, but salvation is another matter. Time does not heal all wounds.