Finished: Once We Were Brothers (Balson) The story of two twelve year old boys growing up in Zamosck, Poland right as Hitler is coming on the scene. Ben Solomon is Jewish and lives with his hard-working parents and sister. Otto Piatek is not Jewish, and the son of a down-on-his-luck father and a German mother who deserted him. Desperate for work and to get his son food, Otto's father goes to Mr. Solomon to ask for a job at his factory. Mrs. Solomon immediately takes Otto for food and a bath, and the father leaves Otto with them while he gets back on his feet. Otto ends up becoming part of the family, like a brother to Ben and Becca. They all go to school together, and grow very close. When Otto is 15, his German mother shows up at the door with the father, who had also eventually abandoned Otto. His mother wanted to take him with them since she now had a good job working as a secretary for Himmler, Reich Leader of Hitler's SS. Otto refuses to leave the Solomons, who he now considers family, to go with the people who abandoned him. His mother warns that she knows things and that it is going to get dangerous for the Jewish people. Otto stays and the world goes on. Hitler does gain more and more power and the Jewish people begin to lose their privileges slowly but surely. Despite all the warning signs, the Solomons are like so many Jewish families who really can't believe that things could escalate to dangerous proportions, so they don't leave Poland when they can. By the time Otto and Ben are 17, Otto's mother returns once again and is far more insistent that Otto comes with her. She has secured him a job under Himmler and he needs to get away from the Jewish family and take his rightful place. He refuses again, but then Ben's father talks with him and says maybe he should go so that he could at least be someone they would have on their side on the inside. That is the beginning of the end for everyone involved. Otto becomes part of the SS, and though at first he tries to get the Solomon family and friends food and other supplies, he eventually falls under the "charms" of the Third Reich and becomes one of them. Ben and his beloved girlfriend Hannah, Abraham and Leah Solomon and their daughter, Becca, and all their friends in Zamosc suffer the horrors of the Holocaust as we later learn from Ben who survived. As the story opens, Ben is 83 years old in 2004 and he has dressed up to attend an opera in Chicago with an ulterior motive in mind. He has recently seen a documentary about Chicago millionaire and benefactor, Elliot Rosenzweig and knows that he will be at the opera on the same evening. When Ben comes face to face with Elliot, he pulls out an empty WWII pistol and points it at Elliot's head. He accuses him of being a former Nazi SS Officer known as the Butcher of Zamosc...Otto Pietak! What ensues is a suspenseful, painful story as Ben hires attorney Catherine Lockhart to bring Otto Pietak to justice. However, Elliott denies being Otto and he has the money and power to see that Ben's accusations will never see a courtroom. Or does he? It's a heartbreaking book, as we hear every detail of what happened during the horrific time. Well written and such a compelling story, as all stories from the Holocaust are, but so horrifying to this day. It will never not be horrifying.