Oskar Bachmann always imagined that giving his first lecture would be the defining moment of his life. It was, but not in the way he expected…
Leaving Fatherland examines the nuances of human relationships through wartime This year the UK celebrated the memory of the Normandy landings, remembering all those who made the ultimate sacrifice in a huge turning point in WW2, one which marked the start of a long campaign which convinced the German high command that defeat was inevitable.
But 2024 also marks another wartime anniversary, much less impactful of course but one with a personal significance for my family – it is 80 years since the arrival of the first German prisoners of war to Pingley Camp (otherwise known as Camp 81) in Brigg, Lincolnshire.
Two years after these first German arrivals, a 31 year old Luftwaffe Ju-88 camera operator, shot down by the RAF in the North African desert, arrived at the camp following a four year incarceration in a Canada. That man was my Uncle Werner Döhr, and his life story inspired my new novel, Leaving Fatherland.
Werner Döhr in 1940
Werner’s experiences before the Second World War in the US at Bates College in Maine, and his desert air crash that left him alone and stranded for three days without water, had been talked about by my mother many times as I grew up. However, no one had ever researched his story properly. I knew it was one I wanted to tell and had thought about it for years.
When I finished my first bout of research and began writing, I realised just how challenging the task would be and how I needed to develop a deeper, more complex story to make it work as a novel. Trips to Germany and many hours of reading and watching historical footage were involved in creating the scenes in the book.
What I learned in researching Werner’s life made me realise the complexity of ethics the war presented to many young Germans – those who were anything but Nazi. Werner’s father was a committed Social Democrat who helped found free schools in the country.
Werner himself was an academic who abhorred the rhetoric of the Nazis. Yet, like many others, Werner was forced to do his military service under the Nazis, training in reconnaissance at Schönwalde air base near Berlin. His studies in the US were interrupted by the outbreak of war and he returned to duty in the Luftwaffe.
Another element of complexity that enriched my novel was my Aunty Roslyn’s fraternisation with Werner during his time as a POW. This would lead to Werner attending mealtimes around my mother’s family dinner table in Kirton Lindsey.
He would sit alongside his host, my grandfather Fred Day, an artillery gunner at Ypres in the First World War, my Aunty Mary, a conscientious objector, twice imprisoned for refusing to make bombs; and my Uncle Roland, an officer on Algerine class minesweeper HMS Rifleman. This scene and its contradictions convinced me I needed to write a novel that would examine the nuances of personal relationships during wartime.
Leaving Fatherland does not follow Werner’s own life story, rather it uses certain elements and themes to inspire. In the novel, we follow my book-loving protagonist Oskar Bachmann through an abusive childhood in Nazi Germany through a war, a failed marriage, and forty years of research, as he seeks out the real reason why his father beat him as a child. Ultimately, it is a tale of discovering one’s true identity.
Matt Graydon
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About the author
Matt Graydon has loved writing since childhood. In his early career he trained and then worked as a journalist for local and national newspapers, developing research skills that proved vital in his historical fiction writing. He later worked as a senior public relations executive for major corporations in a global context, interacting with people from many cultures around the world. In recent years he rekindled his love of creative writing, attending expert writing courses by Faber and others to develop his craft. He is an active member of the UK’s Society of Authors and belongs to the Phoenix Writing Group in Dorking. He has had both poetry and short stories published, most recently Saigo No Tatakai, an account of a kamikaze attack in the Second World War told from both sides. Matt lives in Surrey, with his wife, adult children and an unruly cockapoo. When not writing, he spends as much time as possible outside gardening, or engaging in astronomy and photography. Find out more from Matt's Website:
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