Names, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer and St. Maximilian Kolbe are justifiably well known as men who suffered religious persecution at the hands of the Nazi Regime. And yet, neither fits into the mold of people who fill the history books as having suffered during the Holocaust. Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran minister, and Kolbe was a Roman Catholic priest. Hitler's persecution of the majority of the people under his control was not a plan of mass internments, but psychological warfare. Christians were not to be exterminated but reeducated, and those who resisted were removed in order to make the masses compliant to the regime's wishes. A historical novel about Hitler's persecution of Catholics, the first book in The Dorfmeister's of Innsbruck trilogy, Dark Days, tells the story of an extended family, their friends, and their enemies during a time of confusion as society, kinships, and friendships are forced into alignment with the ruling political power. Set among the Austrian Alps of Tyrol, the story revolves around brother and sister, Josef and Lisbeth Dorfmeister, whose parents were killed by the Nazi Regime. The elder of the two, Lisbeth, had been her father's secretary for years and she too is arrested and tortured several times by the Gestapo, but each time is freed; although, she is followed around Innsbruck and finally Austria by one of her interrogators. Lisbeth, and to a lesser extent her toddler-aged brother, Josef, learn that not all family is understanding, not all friends are trustworthy, and not all enemies are to be feared. Populating Josef's and Lisbeth's world are their father's brother and his wife and four sons, and their mother's two sisters and the children of one of those aunts. As a toddler, Josef has few friends, but Lisbeth's best friend, Marguerite, is a thoughtful soul. A transplant from Vienna who was once the friend of Lisbeth's mother and aunts and Marguerite's mother, Frau Csaszar becomes a friend and second mother to the two young women. Herr Kapitan Friedrich Mettelstadt, Oberscharfuhrer Bauer, Doktor Schmitt, and Cousin SS Oberleutant Alois Dorfmeister, represent the Nazi establishment who persecute in words or deeds Lisbeth, Josef, Pater Corelli, Tante Schwester Clara, and more indirectly everyone who tries to live in Nazi Austria as a devote Catholic and non-Party member.