Every page of Family of Spies is filled with new revelations. I can’t even imagine how author Christine Kuehn felt when she uncovered her family history, stories that went back just two generations that she didn’t know. However, it took her thirty years to research, write and open the story to others. Her note does reveal the shock. “Christine Kuehn was cocooned in the sanctity of a quiet suburban life when a letter from a historian in 1994 pierced that bubble, sending her on a thirty-year quest to discover the truth behind a horrendous family secret kept hidden for half a century.”
To put it bluntly, Kuehn had no idea her grandparents Otto and Friedl Kuehn, and her Aunt Ruth, were Nazi spies sent to Hawaii to spy for the Japanese, to hide as sleepers for five years, and to provide the Japanese with the information and signals that would lead to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Her father, Eberhard, had never answered questions about his family or his past. He had so many reasons not to talk about them.
Kuehn never set out to find her grandparents through a genealogical search as so many people do. A letter came out of the blue, saying the writer wanted to know information about her aunt and her father. She couldn’t believe her grandparents were spies until she and her husband searched through indexes of books about World War II, and found her grandfather listed time and again. She even found her aunt listed in a book, The World’s 30 Greatest Women Spies.
Without going into detail, Kuehn compiled a riveting account of her family’s fall under the spell of Nazi propaganda in pre-war Germany, their involvement in the party, their role in Hawaii, and the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. She details her in-depth research using the National Archives, her fear of exposing the truth, and her reunion with family members. Her father’s story is a heartbreaking one, and her own search for answers is heart-wrenching. Kuehn’s account brings the history and her family to life.
Family of Spies Is a moving, affecting story. When we search for answers about our family, we may not be prepared to uncover the truth, whether it’s about Nazis in the family, slaveholders, slave traders, witch hunters, or people we now consider horrible. Christine Kuehn wasn’t even searching when the truth hunted her down.
Family of Spies by Christine Kuehn. Celadon Books, 2025. 272p.
FTC Full Disclosure – Library book
