Research Resources
When writing historical fiction, I like to include as much accuracy as possible surrounding the fictional protagonist and her inner circle of friends, family, and co-workers. This includes weather conditions, cost of living, slang and cultural vernacular, available technology, music and entertainment, hairstyles and fashion, current events that would affect the public’s day-to-day life, Jewish holidays, pop-culture, first names and surnames (both for the time period and for the country of origin), popular foods and beverages, and how World War II and the Vietnam War affected daily life. However, when writing about the Holocaust, it’s even more important to do reliable research and include only hard facts rather than hearsay or speculation. That being said, I do purposefully alter Auschwitz prisoner serial number tattoos. While my research shows that tattoos of prisoner numbers at Auschwitz concluded with number 202,499 by the time the camp was liberated in January, 1945, I’ve added an 8 to the front of tattooed numbers referenced in the Changeling Series so as not to accidentally duplicate a real Holocaust victim's number.
In addition to a modest collection of history books on World War II, vintage medical textbooks, autobiographies of Holocaust survivors, and personal interviews of people who lived through the periods of time featured in my novels, below are several of the references I’ve used to write The Changeling of the Third Reich series…

- Historical Newspapers for news, current events, pricing, weather
- Vanderbilt News Archive for news, current events, pricing, weather
- The National Library of Medicine for medical practices and technology
- The Hebrew Calendar for Jewish Holidays
- The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum for facts surrounding the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp
- The Dachau Concentration Camp and Memorial Site for facts surrounding the Dachau Concentration Camp
- The Bergen-Belsen Memorial for facts surrounding the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp
- The Ravensbrück Memorial for facts surrounding the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp
- The United States Holocaust Museum for facts surrounding the Holocaust
- The Holocaust Encyclopedia for facts surrounding the Holocaust
- The Florida Holocaust Museum for facts surrounding the Holocaust
- The National Archives for autobiographies of liberated survivors
- Imperial War Museums for eye-witness accounts of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen
- The Weiner Holocaust Library for information about Displaced Persons Camps
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Fireside Chat transcripts for facts surrounding World War II
- Audio Clips of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s speeches for facts surrounding World War II
- The BBC for facts surrounding the World War II Blitzkrieg attacks on the United Kingdom
- Radio Oranje transmissions for facts surrounding the German occupation of The Netherlands during World War II
- Social Security Name Database for American names appropriate to the time period
- Baby Name Database for German names appropriate to the time period
- UK Baby Name Database for British names appropriate to the time period