Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor

In 1964, siblings Ruth and Hans reunited in Germany in a bid to exorcise the ghosts of the past through a large bonfire. Despite their fondest wishes, the sins of the Kuehn family wouldn’t die with the incriminating documents they set aflame that winter’s night. Christine Kuehn, Hans’ daughter, noticed how reticent Hans could be in discussing his father, Otto. Christine wondered if Hans was hiding something about the family’s past. Still, this curiosity would only be magnified with a phone call asking about the Kuehns and their residence in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, up to and including the attack by Japan on December 7th, 1941. Otto Kuehn hailed from Germany, had served the fatherland during World War I and fell under the sway of the Nazi ideology. His service to the Reich would not only include his acting as a covert agent, but his family as well, leading to consequences decades later.

Author Christine Kuehn excavates a painful yet illuminating aspect of her family history in the engrossing memoir Family of Spies. Kuehn provides a wealth of research in the search for the truth about her family’s painful past, and the result is a truly remarkable and memorable book.