Navigating trauma, faith, love, and loyalty, The Sooner You Forget is the story of one WWII pilot’s search to find true liberation decades after imprisonment. Author Christopher Bensinger talks to Book Glow about the novel.

About the Book and Historical Inspiration

The Sooner You Forget is based on a lesser-known chapter of World War II history involving an American pilot sent to a Jewish labor camp. What inspired you to tell this particular story?

I was writing about a teenager who aimlessly searches for meaning after his dream of becoming a professional baseball player is shattered. I hadn’t yet found a solution for his journey when I serendipitously stumbled upon an obscure article in an old Life Magazine mentioning that WWII American soldiers were tortured, most of them to death at an undisclosed Nazi slave labor camp. After catching my breath, I knew instantly I had the backdrop to my novel. My lost boy would go to war. There were so many rich themes around what happened to these young men: faith, friendship, secrecy, abandonment, love, survival, trauma. The challenge was to weave all these themes into a compelling, coherent narrative.

How much of the novel is rooted in real events, and what kind of research did you conduct to bring authenticity to the depiction of the Berga 2 prison camp?

The Berga 2 prison camp was real. It took over a year to compile the research and lay down a timeline. This was challenging on two levels. Many survivors were forced to sign an oath of secrecy about what happened to them—so the accountings were thin. And then there was a complete lack of disclosure from both the German and American governments that Berga 2 existed. No day of remembrance, no memorials, no plaques. I researched the internet, non-fiction books, and the only documentary on the subject. The time period, the war elements, survivor accountings, faith traditions, the factory where my protagonist works before going off to war were heavily researched. The characters, the love story, the family dynamics, how my protagonist resolves his true liberation at the end of his life are of course of my own imagination.

Charlton Buckley, the protagonist, is mistakenly sent to a Jewish prison camp despite his Christian background. Why did you choose to frame the narrative around this unique twist?

I wanted the story opened up, told from an unconventional point of view and hoped the readers might be more enlightened and empathetic to the generational trauma suffered by Jews and non-Jews alike. Creating my protagonist as a catholic yet identified as a Jew added a layer that allowed for a deeper transformation to take place for Charlton and for the reader. Not only did American Jewish soldiers end up in death camps but non-Jewish American soldiers at Berga 2 were subjected to the same horrors as the Jews that were taken from their homes, separated, tortured and exterminated in concentration camps. I wanted the reader to be looking through the eyes of (an “outsider”) a catholic struggling with their own faith while being subjected to the same horror of Hitler’s “final solution.” (to rid the world of Jews). A line in the novel reads: “We all have the same blood pumping through our veins.”

On Characters and Themes

Charlton’s personal struggles—with trauma, faith, identity, and love—are deeply moving. How did you approach building such a layered character?

I’m smiling. One could write a novel on this question. How does one build a layered protagonist? My honest response is I don’t really know. It’s the miracle of creativity; hard to explain, harder to do. I guess I learned to trust a kind of stream of consciousness, to listen to the characters, to feel what they feel. I think empathy has a lot to do with it. I let Charlton grow in the moments—let him breathe, hoping the reader would take a ride into his soul; to suffer with him, to laugh, to cry, to break open. And with some validation from the help I received, to trust my instincts.

Sandee Gold, a Jewish girl and Charlton’s love interest, plays a critical role in the early chapters. What does her character represent in contrast to Charlton’s environment and upbringing?

Charlton’s sense of self is reflected in the physical condition of the home he grew up in. “The house had been taking a beating for years…” while Sandee’s house is pristine, well cared for, orderly. Sandee represents a safe haven, a reliable force. Seeing the joy in her family around their Jewish faith was so foreign to him. He felt loved and nurtured by them and their faith, unlike what he experienced at home. Sandee emotionally anchors Charlton in the midst of his dangerous and chaotic homelife and post war internal upheaval.

The theme of silence—Charlton’s decades-long secret about the camp—is powerful. What does the novel say about memory, denial, and the cost of keeping secrets?

Secrets and denial are deadly and have been known to bring down dynasties. In the novel, Charlton’s secret sets off a spiral of perpetual psychological carnage and generational trauma. He states, “Berga still beats like a second heart inside my chest.” Truth and justice are natural to the human condition and when in conflict around those tenants, whether they are self-inflicted or by oppression—we suffer greatly. Memories will haunt us until they break through the shield of denial. Truth, willingly or not will find its way to the surface like a sunken treasure ship burdened by the weight of barnacles gets dredged up from the bottom of the sea.

Author’s Background and Process

You’ve had a diverse career as a real estate executive and a Tony Award–winning theatrical producer. What motivated you to write this debut novel at this stage in your life?

Primarily, writing a novel offered the opportunity for me to be the actor, director, lighting designer, sound editor. In the theatre or in business you collaborate with others to achieve a common goal. But as a writer you get to embody all of those roles, to bring to life each element of a story; you get to call all the shots. That was both liberating and terrifying. Secondly, I wanted to learn something new, to challenge myself to bring to fruition this beast called a novel. And lastly, while writing The Sooner You Forget I learned about my own family history with the holocaust, further motivating me to cross the finish line.

How did your family’s Jewish history and the stories of relatives lost in WWII influence your writing?

Although I was born with a Jewish father, he married a gentile and never practiced nor mentioned his Jewish faith. Nor did my grandfather. Only when I met a distant cousin (while I was writing this novel) who wrote the Bensinger family biography did I learn of the atrocities that fell upon my Jewish lineage during the holocaust. Growing up around with my father and grandfather (who did marry a Jew but whose family changed their name to avoid Jewish persecution) there was something missing- a perceptible void of faith that I believe resulted in unconscious shame over the loss their Jewish heritage. Assimilation into high society (which sadly my patriarchs did quite well without blinking) required shedding their Jewish identity, leaving it on the shores of Europe. It motivated my writing and is why faith is such an important part of Charlton’s journey.

Were there particular books, films, or historical texts that influenced the tone and style of The Sooner You Forget?

While writing The Sooner You Forget I entered a novel writing class at UCLA’s extension program. Our professor, Mark Sarvas, a brilliant educator and award winning novelist (Memento Park) had us reading a novel a week. During the three-year program I was able to pick up styles of writing that appealed to me and influenced my writing. Authors like Banville, Roth, Vonnegut, Hemmingway, Baldwin, Russo and more from whom I learned so much. For historical reference I relied on the only books I could find on the subject: Given Up For Dead, by Flint Whitlock, Forgotten Victims, by Mitchell G. Gard, and Soldiers and Slaves by Roger Cohen. Charles Guggenheim, a Jew himself in WWII, luckily left behind his unit due to an illness as his unit went on to be captured, produced a documentary about Berga entitled, Berga, Soldiers of Another War. These references along with my own research into relevant areas like the Conference on Jewish Materials Claims against Germany made it into the novel. As far as films, our professor refused to allow us to use cinema as a way to inform our writing. I did my best to rely on my mind’s eye to create the tone and style of the novel.

Craft and Narrative Choices

The novel opens with a vivid, traumatic dream sequence. Why did you choose to start the book this way?

I have professional musical theatre in my back ground and before the curtain goes up at many shows an overture is played; little bits of songs the audience will hear throughout the show. A prologue, and in particular, the dream acts in the same way: to present the tone and themes that will be woven throughout the narrative. It’s a heads up, a disclaimer that this novel will be going to some pretty dark places. It’s a risk to start a novel with a dream, but I held to my guns on this. Our trauma plays out in both our dreams and in our reality and I felt starting the prologue with a dream set the tone.

How did you balance the horrors of war with moments of beauty, redemption, and love throughout the narrative?

A blank page is like a white canvas where you start out painting a solid back ground, then with each stroke comes varied shades of different colors until a shape begins to form. Each element of the novel needs to be attended to when building out a single moment. I tried to be mindful that within dark shades there is light. And thank goodness for the miracle of nature and the human spirit to call on. A flower grows through concrete. Saving one life saves all. It’s all there for the writer. But it takes toiling on the canvas to access it.

The storytelling is highly cinematic. Do you envision this story being adapted for the screen someday?

Do you know Steven Spielberg? I kid… but if you know him, please send him my novel. Of course, I would love to see The Sooner You Forget adapted into a limited series or film. I need to sell a few more copies first.

Reader Takeaways and Reflections

What do you hope readers will take away from Charlton’s journey?

That this isn’t a cautionary tale. Jews didn’t start the holocaust. The holocaust is not fake news. What happened during WWII to six million Jews happened and must never happen again. We are living in times where anti-Semitism is on a historic rise. I want us to ask ourselves that if an old man at the end of his life can liberate himself from excruciating servitude by breaking an oath of secrecy with his own government for the betterment of mankind, maybe we can find the courage to let go of our secrets, fight for human decency and live a more honest and just life.

In a world where the memory of the Holocaust risks fading, what role do you think fiction can play in keeping history alive?

I would argue that historical fiction is as essential an art form as any other. Just as sculptures and monuments rise from the ground in city squares, paintings adorn museums, and symphonies ring through the rafters in music halls capturing a time, so does a historical novel. It marks an actual period or event while using the imagination of the writer that allows the reader to experience fictionally our evolution as a specie, and learn what it means to be human and in the case of my novel—to never forget.

What’s next for you as an author? Do you plan to write another novel?

I’m working on a children’s story about a possum who heals a broken family.

For more information, visit TheSoonerYouForget.com

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