A young German boy and his father are inseparable. They are bound by love and respect. Their two lives are one until the father is called away to serve in the Kaiser’s army in 1914. The father serves with distinction and becomes a highly recognized hero within the Fatherland. Near the end of the war, however, he is grievously wounded when a British tank rolls over one side of his body. When he returns he finds the son’s love has not diminished despite his hideous condition. His wife, however, will have nothing to do with him. Finally, he uses his service revolver to end his physical and psychological trauma. This paves the way for the mother to openly cavort with other men to the outrage of the teenage boy. After killing her as she labored beneath the corpulent Jewish manufacturer who had previously employed the husband the boy is caught and imprisoned at Landsberg – in the cell across from his is Adolf HItler.
Hitler takes the boy under his “wing” and after his release moves him through an intensive exposure to the army where Heinz, the boy, excels; where he has found a true home under the tuteledge of his mentor, Adolf Hitler. The boy becomes Hitler’s key to paving the way for the German Anchlus to retake Europe and becomes known as “Hitler’s Key, or Der Schlussel as he reaches the top ranks of the army.
The final assignment given Heinz by his mentor is to assassinate FDR so as to throw the U.S. chain of command into a tailspin and allow time to regroup on the western front. Heinz is intentionally captured and sent to a POW camp in the U.S. where he encounters xx, an Amish farmboy from central Indiana. XX has foresaken his religious beliefs to help his country and serves as a Military Police Escort Guard at Camp Atterbury in Indiana.
Heinz befriends the POW camp guard and when they are out on assignment to pick tomatoes for the canning factories Heinz escapes. After a tedious trip to Warm Springs, Georgia, he makes good on his assignment and assassinates FDR. XX has been close on his heels after escaping the temporary POW camp at Windfall, Indiana, and manages to encounter Brigadfuhrer Heinz Rheinhard as he escaping through the woods after his kill-shot.
Only one Secret Service Agent and FDR’s doctor saw what happened to the President whose casket was never opened. Did Heinz Rhinehard (or some real German agent) succeed in assassinating the President? What would we do today? We would “close ranks” and lie to the public and indicate that the President died simply of a cerebral hemmorhage, aka natural causes. To tell the truth would make us look too vulnerable.
