Murder on the White Continent

It is 1938. The world is moving inexorably towards the outbreak of war. In Germany, the military High Command is preparing its grand strategy for the coming conflict. Chief among their aims is to secure a foothold in Antarctica as a platform for naval bases that would challenge the supremacy of the British and American fleets. The Nazis are also conducting advanced research on rocket propulsion and atomic weapons, both of which might be deployed in Antarctica beyond the threat of hostile militaries. The isolation and inhospitable environment would make these bases virtually unassailable.

Pursuant to this effort, the Nazis recruit an American physicist from Princeton University, a colleague of Professor Einstein, to lead an expedition to the White Continent. This top secret operation code named "Orca", could tip the balance of the coming war. The professor, Rudy Vogel, is well known for his research on the extraction of uranium from seawater. Vogel is an American citizen of German descent. Using deceit and blackmail the Germans get Vogel to accept this assignment. To keep an eye on Vogel, the Germans assign a menacing agent, Oskar Schumer, a former SA Brownshirt to shadow him and ensure his loyalty.

In 2018, an American polar research team uncovers a body buried in the ice while on a scientific mission in Antarctica. The murder victim, wearing the uniform of a German naval officer, displays an ID badge with the name "Rudy Vogel". Mysteriously, Vogel's leather bound journal had earlier been discovered in a museum in the Falkland Islands over 1000 miles away. Confounding the issue even further is an Internet search under the name "Rudolf Vogel" revealing Vogel had been lost at sea in a boating accident off Cape May, New Jersey in 1938.

What follows is a detective story of how a team of scientists, historians, and military officers piece together the clues of this 80-year-old murder mystery.

From the halls of power in Washington and Berlin, to the slums of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, to the doomed vessel the Admiral Graf Spree, and the shadowy world of the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, Murder on the White Continent tells a story of an unknown chapter of history.