About The Prisoners of War Series

Since the dawn of the 20th century, war has been a chronic, ubiquitous element of American life. In the past 125 years, the U.S. has committed military personnel, equipment, arms, ammunition, and tactical support in dozens of wars, including two world wars, numerous regional conflagrations, and scores of smaller localized conflicts, interventions, and peacekeeping operations. The total costs, in human life and economic terms, are incalculable and ongoing.

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The trajectory of the nation has been irrevocably altered by its involvement in so many conflicts for so many years. War is now inexorably woven into the fabric of life in the United States, in ways that are easily recognized - casualty counts, defense budgets, and resource allocations that consume ever larger portions of the nation’s human and material wealth - and in ways that are not readily apparent. Does it have to be this way?

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The books in the Prisoners of War Series are historical novels that examine war’s immediate and lingering effects on ordinary people at a human level, including those who fought and those who were spared from physical conflict but whose lives were nevertheless fundamentally affected. The Series chronicles two families from World War I through the present. The Mueller and the Unruh families were both originally from Germany but come from very different backgrounds and traditions. Their lives intersected unexpectedly during World War II.

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The Muellers were a Catholic farm family with deep ancestral roots in Olpe, a small Westfalen city east of Köln and the Rhine River. For generations, men in the family fought for princes and kaisers, up through World War I. When Hitler was elected and then destroyed German democracy and declared himself fuehrer, the Muellers, who were not Nazi party members, did not condone fascism or Hitler’s aggression against neighboring countries, but neither did they oppose him. Like so many other Germans who suffered through World War I and the punitive terms imposed by the Versailles Treaty, the Muellers believed their prosperity and dignity would be restored because Hitler promised to make Germany great again. When the time came, the family’s two sons willingly joined the Wehmacht to fight for the Third Reich and vanquish their enemies.

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The Unruhs were also farmers; they lived east of Peabody, Kansas on land they homesteaded in the 1870s.They were Mennonites, a branch of the Anabaptist radical reformation that began in Europe in the sixteenth century and challenged both the Catholic and Protestant state religions of the day. Mennonites believe that God requires Christians to practice adult baptism, separate church from state completely, offer hospitality to all, and live lives of radical pacifism, eschewing violence even in self-defense. For these beliefs, the family was persecuted across Germany, Poland, and Ukraine before immigrating to the United States. In Kansas, these peace pilgrims found a home, sanctuary, and the freedom to live their faith with minimal state interference.

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The Spoils of Victory, Book One in the Prisoners of War Series, begins in May 1943 in Tunisia where Rolf Mueller is severely wounded then captured along with nearly three hundred thousand other German soldiers. Within months, they are shipped to prison camps that sprouted up all over the United States. Rolf was first sent to a camp in Concordia, Kansas, then to a subcamp in Peabody, where he and other POWs are assigned to work for the Unruhs on their farm. There, at work in the fields and barns and at meals around the Unruh kitchen table where the men ate with the family every workday, friendships were forged and love blossomed unexpectedly between Rolf and Loretta, the eldest Unruh daughter, in surreal circumstances. Inevitably, there were also tensions and conflicts that were manifested in minor incidents and tragic betrayals. The harsh realities of war were never far from sight.

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Book Two in the Series focuses on the aftermath of World War II and its lingering effects and lifelong consequences for both families, in both the United States and Germany. Publication is planned for early 2026.

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In subsequent books, the Muellers and Unruhs endure new challenges that arise out of America’s wars from the 1950s in Korea through the present shadow wars in the Middle East.

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In this Prisoners of War Series, the author invites readers to take a long view and consider several war-related questions through the prism of the personal experiences of individuals and families such as the Muellers and the Unruhs: In World War II and in America’s subsequent wars, who were the winners and who were the losers? What were the real costs of these wars, and who paid them? Who were the prisoners of these wars? Is it realistic to expect former enemies to reconcile? Is peace a viable alternative to endless war? If so, how might it be achieved?

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The issues that have brought the United States into war so frequently since 1900 are complex, and vastly different solutions have been promulgated by honest, well-intentioned people. The author does not presume to offer answers to the questions above, only seeks to offer in the Prisoners of War Series a more personal perspective from which readers might evaluate these and other questions about war and find answers for themselves.

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Daniel J. Markowitz

Series author