Facing the Enemy: How a Nazi Youth Camp in America Tested a Friendship

Benjy Puterman, who is Jewish, and Tommy Anspach, a German American, have been friends forever and do everything together. Until, that is, Tommy’s father joins a local bund and decides Tommy should go to Camp Nordland, a summer camp for Nazi youth. At first, Tommy is excited about the camp. He feels like he belongs, and he accepts the warped idea that Jews are a lower class, and they are the true enemy.

His father is drinking too much and buying into the Nazi ways completely. Benjy is heartbroken and misses his friend. After some time, people start to turn against the Nazi movement. Tommy begins to understand how wrong things are, and he misses his friend, but is it too late for him to get safely out?

Barbara Krasner has written a well-researched historical fiction in verse that shines a light on a dark period in our country, a time we must never forget, now more than ever. Her poetry is extraordinary, mostly free verse but with several structured poems included, voicing both Benjy’s and Tommy’s thoughts and experiences. Each poem tells a little of Benjy’s or Tommy’s story, with a few voicing both boys. Don’t miss this!