The Alphabet House

The Alphabet House by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Two young British pilots are shot down while they are flying a reconnaissance mission near Dresdan, Germany. Once they are on the ground, the Germans are quick to send a patrol to eliminate the downed pilots. The pilots are not exactly sure where they've landed, but they do know they have to find a way to save themselves from their two worst enemies, the freezing cold temperatures and the Germans. When they stumble upon a train loaded down with senior SS officers who have been wounded on the Eastern Front, they decide to take the place of two of the officers. After pitching their bodies through the window of the train, they climb into the dirty, stinking beds, hoping that they will live through the train ride.

When the train finally reaches its destination, these two young pilots find themselves in a remote village in Germany in a hospital for the mentally insane. Somehow they need to convince the Germans that they are indeed insane until they can find a way to escape. With each day they are imprisoned in the hospital, the daily rounds of shock treatments and experimental drugs make their dreams of escape more distant.

The atrocities of WWII are incomprehensible at times and this stories just brings to light more of the terrible injustices that were inflicted in that terrible war.