House of Ghosts

House of Ghosts is a gripping mystery that takes readers through some of the most shrouded history of the twentieth century. In August 1944, Allied forces launched a top-secret aerial assault on the I. G. Farben oil and rubber plant, the flight plan taking bombers directly over the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp five miles away. Considering the known threat to the Jewish population, why did Allies bypass Hitler’s most notorious extermination camp without once trying to knock out the gas chambers or railways? At the estate sale of the late Preston Swedge, an alcoholic recluse and World War II veteran, a diary including details of that 1944 aerial assault is found by retired detective Joe Henderson, which includes descriptions of a rogue attempt by a Jewish-American pilot, Paul Rothstein, to drop bombs on Auschwitz. What follows is Henderson’s determined search for the truth about the failed attempt to save 300,000 Jews.