Wisconsin actor and playwright Jim DeVita has written a novel inspired by a resistance movement in Nazi Germany.
DeVita, a 1987 graduate of UWM’s theater program, says a group of university students in Munich who agitated against the Nazis are the inspiration for his novel “The Silenced,” published by HarperCollins in June.
Known as the White Rose, the group of five students and their philosophy professor distributed a series of anti-Nazi leaflets in the early 1940s. All six were captured and executed by the Nazi government.
“Everybody should know about the White Rose and what they did,” says DeVita. “If such people as they exist, then there is hope.”
Though inspired by the White Rose, “The Silenced” is not historical fiction, as it takes place about 20 years in the future.
“It’s kind of the idea of what they (the White Rose) did and who they were and I kind of expanded on that and made fictional characters and a fictional country,” says DeVita. He admits he’s not sure exactly which genre his novel fits into. “I’ve seen it listed as ‘sci-fi’ or 'action-adventure',” he says.
Completing “The Silenced” was a long process for DeVita, who had to fit his writing in with his job as an actor and director with the American Players Theatre in Spring Green. He wrote the first draft in 1999 after learning of the White Rose from a newspaper clipping on a college bulletin board.
HarperCollins passed on the book twice before finally committing to it about two years ago, says DeVita. After he signed a contract with the publisher it still went through several major revisions. DeVita says his editors wanted to be careful about how the book was presented.
“It’s a difficult subjects because we’re dealing with human rights and censorship,” say DeVita.
“The Silenced” is DeVita’s second published book. He wrote “Blue,” a 2001 novel about a boy who wants to become a marlin. DeVita credits Milwaukee’s First Stage Children’s Theater with giving him his first break in writing. He has been the company’s resident playwright since the early 1990s.
“The Silenced” tells the story a young woman named Marena who fights the oppressive rule of the Zero Tolerance Party. DeVita says he got plenty of ideas for the fictional rulers from current events.
“Wherever I looked there were things that dealt with the themes in the book like human rights and censorship,” says DeVita, who says he drew upon events in countries such as North Korea, China and Chile.
But DeVita says he tried to avoid depicting all the Zero Tolerance Party characters as unadulterated villains.
“I didn’t want to paint black and white bad characters. I think the reader gets ahead of you if you say ‘Oh there’s the bad guy,’” says DeVita. “I’m obviously on one side of the argument. But I don’t give any easy answers in the book.”
DeVita says the spirit of the White Rose resistors who are mirrored in his protagonist Marena have made an impact on his life.
“Part of the book for me was the question of what do you do when you feel strongly about something,” says DeVita. I’m not saying I act on those (injustices) all the time. I don’t. But I do feel more ashamed when I don’t now and I do think that’s important.”
You can see a video trailer of the “The Silenced” at jamesdevita.com/trailer. DeVita expects Milwaukee will be included in his summer book signing tour and an autumn tour of schools and libraries.
