June J McInerney

The Prisoner's Portrait June J McInerney

From the author of "Forty-Thirty" and "The Basset Chronicles" comes this seminal historical novel about German prisoners of war housed in Phoenixville PA. Forced against his will to join the German Wehrmacht Medical Korps during World War II, young Franz Weberhardt, finds himself one of the 250 prisoners transported to Valley Forge General Hospital to assist in the care of 3,000 American war-wounded. A talented artist who longs for nothing more than peace and to return home to be with his mother and childhood sweetheart, Franz faces daunting challenges, threats of betrayal, budding romance, gifts of true friendship, and a crisis of faith. He struggles through his loneliness and sorrow by painting a portrait of Martin Luther, whose life and beliefs he has admired since childhood. Franz's story and his oil painting are the allegorical basis of this page-turning narrative that explores the stark realities of the lives of 480,000 WWII PWs who were incarcerated in over 500 PW camps across the continental United States.