“Once We Were Brothers” by Ronald H. Balson – Time Doesn’t Forget

We would like to think that all the Nazis were either trialed or outright executed at the end of the Second World War, but as you probably know, the truth is that countless people, many of them heinous murderers and criminals, have managed to escape the country and change their identities. 

Even today, the hunt for the few survivors of that lot is still on, and throughout the last sixty years many fell victim to it.

Once We Were Brothers by Ronald H. Balson is partly based on these events, for it starts with a wealthy and respected philanthropist, Elliot Rosenzweig, being suddenly accused of being a Nazi SS officer, nicknamed the Butcher of Zamosc. 

The man who accused him is Solomon, claiming that when he was but a young boy, Rosenzweig was taken in by his family after being abandoned, only to betray them once the Nazis marched into town. In hopes of proving his story true Solomon hires an attorney, Catherine Lockhart, to help him manage his investigation. As you can very well tell, Once We Were Brothers is the kind of story which has two parts to it. 

On one hand, we are in modern times and are following Solomon’s efforts to bring the truth to light (or at least what he believes to be the truth). On the other, we are taken back sixty years into the past and get to witness first-hand what happened to Solomon and his family when he was just a child.

You can rest assured that both stories are equally gripping and interesting in their own rights. The first one has all the appeal of a mystery and quest for revenge, while the second one is a tale of coming-of-age, of losing one’s innocence, of suffering betrayal at the hands of the person you would suspect the least. 

Each story is heart-wrenching in its own right, and it really does help to see the story in its full context in order to understand it and what the characters are going through.

Apart from the whole Holocaust survivor and hunt for the Nazi themes, the book is also quite legally-geared, which shouldn't be surprising considering the author’s biography. On numerous occasions we are taken quite deeply into the world of legal procedures and such, which would feel like a drag if the author didn’t know when to stop or how to explain the more complex things in a simple manner. 

In the end, this is a very heavy book that touches on some of the most important themes in this life, touching on both the absolute worst and best the human spirit has to offer.

 If you are in need of a novel to shake you up mentally and set your grey cells off into chaos, this is definitely one you shouldn't pass up on.

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Ronald H. Balson  Ronald H. Balson primarily considers himself as an attorney with the firm Stone, Pogrund and Korey, operating in the Chicago area. His many cases have taken him across the U.S. as well as on the international scene, and he even became an author when he wrote his widely-acclaimed book, Once We Were Brothers.