Warsaw Requiem (novel)
Warsaw Requiem (1993) is the sixth novel of Bodie and Brock Thoene's Zion Covenant Series. Until 2005, it constituted the final novel of the series, but three new novels—London Refrain, Paris Encore, and Dunkirk Crescendo, all incorporating material from 1996's The Twilight of Courage, and flashforwards tying-in to other Thoene series (such as Zion Legacy and A.D. Chronicles)—were released within the space of one year.
Plot Summary
Immediately following the Gulf War, David Kopecky, (the son of Warsaw Rabbi Aaron Lubetkin—who had been sent into Russia by Aaron's priest friend Father Kopecky, and took the priest's name to hide his Jewish heritage), receives a letter from his sister Rachel Sachar (wife of Moshe Sachar) in Jerusalem, telling him that she and their youngest sibling Yacov have survived the war. David has been raised as a Catholic in Russia, and has only recently come to learn of his Jewishness. He boards a flight to Jerusalem with his family, and reflects that the "extended family" of Haj Amin Husseini (including Yasir Arafat and Faisal Husseini), as well as other Palestinian militants, have never given up its vendetta against Jews or the idea to "finish what [...] started".
The injured SS Agent Alexander Hess has compiled a report of an elaborate conspiracy tying Peter Wallich, Lucy Strasbourg and the Ibsens to Elisa Lindheim and Winston Churchill—which finds ready audience with Adolf [...], who promotes Hess to Colonel.
Samuel Orde, meanwhile, is expelled from Palestine Mandate due to his sticking to the Balfour Declaration and the Neville Chamberlain Government's departure from it in a foolish attempt to pacify Haj Amin Husseini. Returning to London, Orde starts a new job as a TENS correspondent under Murphy's supervision, and is sent to cover events in Warsaw.
Due to an administrative error, Helen Ibsen is released from Ravensbrück concentration camp and makes her way to the London home where the Lindheims and Murphys are staying.
At the nameless concentration camp (near the pre-1939 German-Polish border) where he has been taken, Karl Ibsen has been subjected to several types (some subtle, others not) of torture—such as being forced to watch the hangings of his Jewish converts (including Richard Kalner and a former atheist), false reports by Hess that his children are doing well in [...] custody (however, Hess' technique backfires when he cannot answer a question by Karl, who rejoices that his children are not in custody), and physical tortures such as deprivation and breaking of finger-bones.
The Ibsen and Kalner children, along with Alfie, apply for visas to go to London. Alfie is accepted for a "special" visa, as are Mark, Jamie and Lori; Jacob's application is rejected however, due to his lack of knowledge of English. Jacob and Lori then decide to get married so that he can join her as her husband on a derivative visa.
Elisa goes into labour two weeks after her due date, delivering a daughter (whom she names Katy) at a London hospital which Murphy notes ruefully "may be older than his nation, the U.S.". Churchill assigns an agent, Dr. Grogan to protect Elisa against assassins sent by [...] (as he knows that the German dictator has many reasons to wish her death, as well as that of Murphy—and that Nazis have been making contact with Irish Republican Army members).
With Peter's help, Lucy finds an apartment in Danzig, where she gives birth to a son—and is constantly on the watch for Wolf (from whom she fled, and who seeks to capture her so he can then [...] her in Germany) as well as Hess (who she knows will seek revenge—and who is out to eliminate her; he is also out to eliminate Wolf, whom he is following, so that he will not be able to reveal secrets. When Wolf finds her and her son one day, she flees from him to the docks of Danzig, where a ship is waiting to take the refugees to Britain—and hands the baby to Lori. Alfie then puts his own boarding-nametag on the child, and stays behind with Jacob. As Hess and Wolf approach the two boys, Orde appears and drives them away.
By the time the refugee ship reaches Britain, Lori has spun a tale that she had married Jacob to legitimise their child (which Helen does not believe, but does not reveal the truth of the matter), which looks plausible enough for Dr. Grogan to believe. Hess' paid IRA assassins place a bomb in the Murphys' home, while the children and Helen are inside—but the bomb is detected by Grogan who drives Helen (and the two children) out of the house before it explodes, [...] him.
Lucy, meantime, has moved to Warsaw and taken up an apartment near to that formerly occupied by Dorbransky; again, Wolf follows her, even more determined to have her killed publicly. He interrogates the current occupants of Dorbransky's apartment, a Jewish family from Krakow, while the husband is away at work. Hess sends a deputy, Gustav Ahlmann to bring Wolf in for "new orders". After receiving a punch meant for Wolf (from the husband of the family Wolf had interrogated), Ahlmann goes to Wolf's apartment and arrests him to give him the new orders.
Murphy carries a packet to Warsaw to be given to Orde with false passports for Jacob and Alfie, and also for Rachel Lubetkin granddaughter of Jerusalem rabbi Shlomo Lebovitz (who had petitioned Orde to help the family of his son-in-law Warsaw rabbi Aaron Lubetkin). Elisa and Lori decide to ask the TENS office to notify Orde of the trip; only Lori goes however, due to Katy crying from hunger and baby-Alfie doing a "sympathy wail". At the TENS office, Murphy's colleague Harvey Terrill, a secret IRA sympathiser, sends the wire; however, because Lori has possibly witnessed a transaction between him and IRA assassin Alan Farell, he asks Farell to dispose of her and sends a wire to the Polish government warning them of Murphy's flight in.
Farell takes Lori to the bell-tower of St. Paul's Cathedral, where Winston Churchill is soon to give a speech. He has packed the bell-tower with explosives to kill Churchill at that point. Murphy spots Farell attempting to leave and pursues him back into the bell-tower. As he has booby-trapped the explosives to be triggered from a gun-blast, Alan attempts to kill Murphy with his pistol which theoretically should trigger the explosive; however, the recoil of the gun causes Farell to lose his balance and fall to his death—and the explosives' booby-trap fails to activate. Lori is found by Murphy, released from the bell-tower and taken home.
At Warsaw airport, Murphy is detained—and Elisa's Guarnerius violin seized; however, the customs officers allow him to retain the case (where the documents are). Murphy rushes out of the airport and asks a taxi driver to deliver the case to Orde at the TENS office. The extra passport for Rachel is handed to the Jewish Quarter mailman.
Prisoners from the nameless camp, including Karl, are taken on a journey to Gleiwitz on August 31, 1939 and then injected with a [...] and dressed in Polish uniforms. Wolf, also dressed in Polish uniform, is to supervise them in the operation (which has been delegated to Hess for oversight). The prisoners are then laid near the radio tower, which is blown-up; Hess kills Wolf with a Polish-Army-issue sidearm.
The next day, September 1, 1939, Germany invades Poland starting World War II.