Historical Fiction
Date Published: October 6, 2020
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
Based on a true story about fighting fascism in 1930s New Jersey, Newark Minutemen tells an unforgettable tale about forbidden love, intrigue and a courageous man’s search for avenge….
During the Great Depression, Jewish boxer Yael Newman meets Krista Brecht, daughter of the German-American Nazi high command. When his affections turn real, his friends warn him against crossing the line. When Krista leaves for American Nazi summer camp in Long Island, New York, he swears to rescue her. But his mission becomes much more when he’s recruited into the Newark Minutemen by the Jewish mob and FBI to go undercover and fight the American Nazis who are taking over America.
Newark Minutemen Optioned first film
Interview with Leslie K. Barry
For those interested in exploring the subject or theme of your book, where should they start?
Newark Minutemen starts and ends with a little known, but very major event before WW2 at Madison Square Garden in NYC on President’s Day 1939. Twenty-five thousand German American Nazi Bund members filled the garden to rally for an American Nazi party to support Hitler while 200K protested outside. Footage from this event possessed me to write the family story of the Newark Minutemen, about a resistance group of Jewish boxers organized by the mob and FBI to thwart the rising party when no one else would. You can find links to footage on NewarkMinutemen.com.
WATCH i23news interview: https://youtu.be/eFp9FDxv-yE
How did you become involved with the subject or theme of your book?
Growing up, my ninety-five year old Mom born in 1925 and the family shared stories about escaping Russian pogroms, the Great Depression, scarlet fever and polio pandemics and the War. As kids, we didn’t pay that much attention. But at her 90th, she and her cousins began talking about her older brother Harry who was a Jewish boxer fighting the fascist party in America. The subject led me on a journey with my Mom to uncover the truth behind this legend. We visited her cousins, read through hundreds of FBI documents, mined ancestry.com and discovered first source diaries in archive basements.
Read Jerusalem Post: https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/story-of-jewish-boxer-recruited-by-fbi-to-fight-nazis-to-become-a-movie-642917?fbclid=IwAR2G-8S0WVGHVoIz0f5mtjEIgaQOsTNp5CvbQAXR3dDdhd-mY0xNwBcj2kE
Read Aish.com
https://www.aish.com/jw/s/Newark-Minutemen-Fighting-Nazis-in-New-Jersey.html?s=hp2
What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them?
Newark Minutemen was a screenplay I originally wrote with the intention of capturing our family legacy. But as I wrapped myself in the story, it became much more. The Newark Minutemen were a group of unlikely Jewish boxers who stood up against hatred, despite America’s complacency. As I layered a star-crossed love affair over the historical backdrop, standing up for what is right echoed throughout the story and beyond.
Read VARIETY News Movie deal and book launch: https://variety.com/2020/film/news/newark-minutemen-james-corden-1234755361/
Anything you would like to say to your readers and fans?
Ask your parents what life was like for them and WHY. You will be amazed when you delve into the context how much you don’t know and how familiar their challenges were. Here’s what I discovered:
Newark Minutemen is based-on-true novel that begins in 1933 America at the triple bewitching hour of Hitlers reign, FDRs presidency and the dusk of prohibition. At the time, Americans were divided between a socialist vs fascist approach to healing America’s economic woes. The fascist activities were often dangerous and manipulative but government’s hands were tied by first amendment rights. As a result, most Americans ignored marches and rallies of the extremes. What Depression-struck Americans had not realized was that Nazi Germany had planted seeds in America many years before Germany had fired a bullet to begin WW2.
With a self-proclaimed American Hitler at the helm, Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn, a German immigrant living in New York, the Reich created a multi-million dollar national presence called the German-American Bund. Kuhn managed and unified tens of thousands of American-Nazi Bund members into hundreds of cells in every American city and managed 25 Nazi youth camps across the US. These camps indoctrinated youth with Nazi ideology, culture and military training. Kuhn’s six-company corporation generated millions. He exploited US resources like the NRA and National guard to equip his army with guns and training. Later, the FBI tracked millions of dollars in leading banks to Germany that proved ties between the American Bund and German Nazis.
Finally the FBI approached the Jewish mafia, one of the few factions during the depression with money and power. The G-men engaged the mafia to join in an unholy alliance to help thwart the rising Nazi party.
READ NJ.com
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
Beyond the incredible sharing with my Mom as she told the backstory, unearthing the buried history of America was shocking. Then to blend the personal history with the historical facts in engaging way that sent a message was rewarding. Below are some questions to explore about the journey this book will take you on.
1. What effects does the author achieve by blending personal history and historical fact?
2. Why has this history buried in American history? Why has it never been told?
3. What is the effect of the story beginning and ending with the same moment of Presidents Day 1939?
4. How would the world be different if Fuhrer Kuhn and the German American Bund had achieved their objectives?
5. How does Yael reconcile loving Krista who is defined as his mortal enemy? How does Krista deal with her identity during the impending relationship?
6. What are the most difficult images in the story? Physical? Emotional?
7. How do you feel about the Yael’s journey of avenge? What are the moral complexities of right and wrong in this story?
8. What motivates Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn? What makes home charismatic to his followers? What makes MobKing Longie Zwillman charismatic? How are these two alike and different?
9. In what ways are Longie and the mafia heroic? How do they respond to the crises? How are they able to bring their community together?
10. What do the historical details and cameos of the story add?
11. Much is at stake in Newark Minutemen— the fate of America's minorities especially Jews, the larger fate of Europe and of Western civilization, but also how America will define itself. What does the novel suggest about what it means to be an American, and to be a Jewish American?
12.What does the flashforward to the end of ww2 add to the novel?
13. Hatred is timeless. What is relevance in this story to hatred in society today?
Can you tell us a little bit about your next books or what you have planned for the future?
There’s a lot of interest around the period of Newark Minutemen and I am considering prequels or side stories. But I’m also entertaining other American stories that have never been told.
How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing a long time, but this is the first story that life has allowed me to published.
Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Newark Minutemen?
Like the timeless Casablanca, Newark Minutemen pits star-crossed lovers against a world ripped apart. Both follow irresistible anti-heroes who struggle in a love triangle and risk their lives to fight fascism and racial prejudice. Newark Minutemen is presented by four narrators on both sides of the cause to give the reader empathy for the heroes and villains.
If you could spend the day with one of the characters from Newark Minutemen who would it be? Please tell us why you chose this particular character, where you would go and what you would do.
MobKing Longie Zwillman, the Gatsby of Gangsters as he was affectionately called, is an anti-hero who I’d choose to spend time with. Writing about Newark Minutemen gave me a new perspective on the 1930 gangsters who propped up America during the Great Depression. After the 1929 crash, the Italian and Jewish mafia were the ones who had money and power. Longie Zwillman was the most powerful in Newark. While gangsters were not known to be good guys, Longie was called the “Robin Hood” of the neighborhood. My Mom’s cousin was his barber and Longie helped family escape from Europe. For others, Longie supported soup kitchens to finding Lindbergh’s baby. I’m guess that spending the day on the heels of Longie would be an adventure.
About the Author
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Twitter: @NMinutemen
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