Foreword

I had an idea for a story and produced a rough outline of the plot. It was to be a simple tale of greed and lust for power. Initially, there was no intent to provide a moral or lesson for the reader. That is still not one my goals. However we do need to remember that organizations with the best of intentions change. After the changes, their goals and activities may not be beneficial for their society and the organization’s supporters may not be aware of the organization’s new direction.

As I began to write The Footlocker, the plot evolved. Greed is still part of the story, but not as originally envisioned. Lust as originally envisioned was forgotten. As the story took shape, a lesson in living one’s life started to emerge.

The lesson of this story is that it is not enough to pick good friends and join good organizations. We need to periodically step back and reevaluate our friends and the organizations that we support. We all change over time, and sometimes those changes are negative.

In The Footlocker, Hans starts out as a young, impressionable, college student, who joins the Nazi Party for good reasons. He doesn’t talk much about his background, and rises to a position of power in the Nazi Party. However, an event forces Hans to reevaluate his actions and those of the Nazi Party. He does not like the changes he sees in the party and he is extremely angry about what the party did to his and his wife’s families. He decides to seek revenge for the wrongs inflicted on him, his wife, and their families. He also decides to make amends, to the best of his ability, to the people he and the party had harmed.

So, how does one go about making amends, obtaining revenge, and remaining a free man living an affluent lifestyle? Especially, when that man is actually a war criminal and does not want to face the consequences of his past actions?

This story is totally fictional. The specific events and circumstances described by the story did not happen; although similar events and circumstances did occur before, during, and after WW II. Most of the information about the Nazi Party came from two Wikipedia articles: the German Workers Party and the Nazi Party, which was also known as the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.

Most of us believe that the Nazi Party was always a bad organization. That perception is based on the party during the late 30’s and 40’s. However, as I read the Wikipedia articles it became apparent that the party did not start out that way.

The beliefs and opinions of its founders were common to many Germans, which is probably why so many people joined the party in the early 20’s. At that time, the Nazi Party was just one of the many political parties that were struggling to help the German people to recover from the financial ruin caused within Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. I will let my readers read the articles and form their own opinions about the party’s early years. Hitler led the German people onto a path that I like to think they would not have tread if they had known where it led.

I have noticed a parallelism between, the rise of the Nazi Party and the events of today’s world. Today’s politicians are not all that different from Adolf Hitler and the senior members of the Nazi Party in that they publicly profess to work for the people. Observation of their activities shows they actually work to force their personal and party agendas on the people they are supposed to serve and often serve those who provide them with wealth and luxury. This is nothing new, but very vexing.

There is a lesson to be learned by examining how Hitler came to power. Hopefully, we won’t have to relive the reign of another corrupt and ruthless leader who believes he can control the world. But there are leaders like Hitler out there, and they will try to dominate the world if we allow it.

The Footlocker addresses many things that people do not know or do not want to remember. It is about how easy it is to corrupt a person without their being aware of what is happening to them. It is also about redemption and trying to make amends for what you did in the past.

I hope you enjoy the story.

REP