The Mascot / Mark Kurzem / 396 pages

In this book the author tells the story of his Jewish father's Nazi boyhood.  Alex Kurzem kept his past a secret for sixty-three years.  Then one day in 1997 he shows up on his son's doorstep carrying his old suitcase ready to share his secret with his son.  Inside the suitcase were papers and photographs from his past.  His father always carried this suitcase with him whenever he left the house and no one was permitted to see what was inside.  Alex was five years old and lived in Russia when a Nazi death squad came to his village and massacred all the Jewish people including Alex's family.  Alex escaped into the forest.  After wandering around for several weeks he was picked up by a group of Latvian SS soldiers.  They ended up taking him in and turning him into a mascot soldier giving him a new name and his own uniforms.  He spent most of his time with the soldiers, but was also living some with a member's family.  At the end of the war he emigrates to Australia with this family.  Alex does not remember his own name, his family's names, or the name of his village.  He does know that he is Jewish.  The author tells the story of how he and his father, with the help of the contents of the suitcase,  solve the mystery of who Alex is, where he is from, and what happened to his family.