A gifted scientist and engineer, the developer of Nazi Germany’s V-2 rocket guidance system, Moses Mendelssohn is also a member of the legendary Mendelssohn family that includes his namesake, the noted 18th century philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, the 19th century genius composer Felix Mendelssohn, and the legendary Mendelssohn family of German bankers.

Although his family converted to Lutheranism in the 19th century, the Mendelssohns are considered simply as Jews by the Nazi regime, and therefore targeted. But without Moses's expertise, the missile will fail as Germany’s ultimate weapon. Moses’s wife and son, both also considered Jews, disappear from Berlin, and Moses learns that they have been kidnapped by the Nazis. He knows that if the V-2 fails, his family will perish, as will he.

The V-2 must fly so that his family may be saved.

Terence Clarke is a novelist (Mercury House, Ballantine Books, and others), a short-story writer (The Yale Review, The Antioch Review, Catamaran, The CharitonReview, Tampa Review, Kindle Singles, and many others), a journalist (Substack.com, San Francisco Chronicle, Salon.com, Huffington Post), a developmental editor of fiction and non-fiction books, and a translator of literature from Spanish to English. He is also co-founder and former editorial director at Astor & Lenox (www.astorandlenox.com). His books are available everywhere, in print and digital editions.

Ron Kaufman studied European diplomatic history at the University of California, Berkeley in the early 1950s. It was taught by a former officer of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) who had been active in World War II. Ron went on to receive an MBA in Real Estate Research and Urban Land Economics. Eventually he was instrumental to the restoration of the signature northeast waterfront neighborhood in San Francisco, an effort heralded in several architectural and real estate journals and magazines. That project is the subject of Ron’s non-fiction book The Old North Waterfront. Ron’s mother’s family was from Lida, Lithuania and emigrated to the U.S. in the early 1900s. His father’s family was from Russia and Germany. Ron has devoted all his adult life to serving the Jewish and general communities. Ron is married to Barbara Kaufman (former President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors), has three children (Steve, Karen, and Nirmada and a son-in-law Brian Perlman) and four grandchildren (Olivia, Anna, Zev, and Ari.) He has lived and worked in San Francisco since 1959.

Terence Clarke and Ron Kaufman - photos courtesy of the authors