Publisher's Synopsis
NOTE: This is a 127-page screenplay, not a novel.
After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, my father, an 18-year-old Pole, was able to avoid the wrath of the German army for two years by escaping from various involuntary work farms. In 1941 when Germany invaded Russia, he was rounded up and forced into manual labor back in Germany due to the shortage of able-bodied men. Once America entered the war, my father, who had dual citizenship (a story for another time), was arrested and spent the remaining 3+ years of the war in a Nazi POW camp.
The memories of my youth were filled with stories of death and survival. While friends watched cartoons, I viewed programs detailing the Nazi devastation of Europe, including the documentary series, "World At War". I believe my family's curiosity about the horrors was an attempt to understand the emotional, mental, and physical pain; our father suffered and how those events molded him into whom he became.
While this story has nothing to do with my father's plight, the catalysts for its creation derived from my research into the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units). The two questions I formulated as a result: First, I wondered how members of the Einsatzgruppen dealt with returning home to their families and fielding questions about what they had experienced. The soldiers, sworn to secrecy, could not explain to anyone exactly what they were doing, which was killing innocent civilians. Second, while researching the Einsatzgruppen and viewing the horrendous photos, I wondered who took those photos because even documenting these atrocities was against the rules and could result in severe punishment. If not, then there would be many more photographs from this time instead of the same few we see repeated in most history books (as well as the cover of this screenplay).
"A SAVAGE HORDE" is a fictional account of one of those young soldiers who, brainwashed by Goebbels propaganda machine, eagerly offers to fight for the German army on the Russian Front, but is instead assigned to one of the Einsatzgruppen death squads. Shocked and disaffected at the madness he witnesses, he believes his only option to stop this senseless killing is to alert the Allies of the truth in the hopes that providing this information will pressure the world into swiftly engaging and defeating the Nazi war machine.
Accolades:
R/C/C - Spec Scout
Top 20 - WriteMovies
Top 30 - Scriptapalooza
Top 5% - American Zoetrope
Top 10% - Academy Nicholl Fellowship
