Cover for Latest Novel

The Cover says it all......

Coming soon:

The latest novel from James R. Vance, 'Something Old, Something New'.

Something Old, Something New

EXTRACTS from the NOVEL

'He said he gave the order to open fire in one of the barns. He went into detail about the whole affair, describing how wretched he felt but as an SS officer, he could not question or refuse to carry out an order. I sensed he needed to offload the remorse that was consuming his inner soul. He leaned back against one of the cabin walls, and looked skywards as if seeking redemption; he was in tears.'


'They were all responsible…even those who did not fire the weapons. Every one of those soldiers in the Das Reich Division was guilty by association. Many of those who fired the bullets were conscripts from Alsace'


'I think his resolve to revisit the area where the soldiers of the Das Reich Division committed their dreadful atrocities became his way of confronting his demons. I really cannot imagine his state of mind, and of course, we will never know. When he cried in my arms that night in the garden, he repeatedly stated that they were SS soldiers following orders. None of this excuses what took place, nor will we ever understand what drove these maniacs to act in that way in the name of Hitler’s Third Reich.'

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Something Old, Something New

Interesting articles and video, coinciding with the theme of my new novel (out soon), 'Something Old, Something New':
http://www.lepopulaire.fr/limousin/actualite/2014/01/20/oradour-l-ex-waffen-ss-torture-par-le-massacre-se-dit-pret-a-etre-juge_1841643.html 
If you don't understand French, the 80 year old German admits he was at Oradour-sur-Glane as a teenage soldier of the Waffen SS Das Reich. He reckons he heard the explosion in the church & the cries of the women & children but he was positioned on the edge of the town. The soldiers had to obey orders to shoot from their mad superiors.

Robert Hébras, one of the survivors who lost his mother
& sisters in the atrocity, says that no witnesses ever admit
to firing the guns but how did 642 people die?
The memory may have haunted the SS soldier's soul
 but what about those who were massacred?
The question about who did what at Oradour remains.

He has a point.
 
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