Norman Beaupré

Marginal Enemies Norman Beaupré

Two boys grow up during World War II, Gerard in New England, Morgen in Berlin. They live parallel lives: their families experience similar changes, similar suffering. The world says they are enemies. What makes an enemy? Why are people designated as enemies? If these two later met, what would they think of each other?

WWII and the Hitler's elimination of the undesirables alter the daily lives of both boys immeasurably. Morgen's father, a pacifist doctor, deserts his own troops and escapes with a Viennese friend, himself a marked man. The parallel situations of the two boys and their families balance the two sides of the war. We see, not the propaganda, but the real effects the war had on civilians in both countries. We also see the 'forgotten' undesirables such as Gypsies, homosexuals, blacks and Japanese-Americans. Woven into all these lives is the quest for sanity and freedom from hatred.