Hey, welcome to In The Thick. This is a podcast about politics, race and culture from a POC perspective.

I'm Maria Inohosa.

And I'm Holy Ulverie.

We have a special guest joining us today.

In our Harlem studio is Alexis Clark. She's a journalist and she wrote this book that

caught my eye and this is what I wanted to tell you Alexis because we just met.

Like when I was a little girl, a Mexican girl growing up on the

south side of Chicago a million years ago way back when. When I realized what

happened during World War II with the Germans and the Nazis, literally it became an obsession.

And so you as an African American woman writing a book based on a real life story. The name of the book is

enemies in love. It's a true love story about a black army nurse,

Eleanor Powell, and a German prisoner of war, Frederick Albert, who they met at a POW camp in Arizona,

it's called Camp Florence.

So, okay, so figure this out, black nurse, white, Nazi POW, and they fall in love.

But like this is happening when you have Jim Crow, so it's like their love was kind of like this act of rebellion against Jim Crow essentially and against Naziism and kind of all about love and hope.

And even though Frederick Albert, you know, he was somebody who is essentially a reluctant

Nazi. He did enlist, but he really, you know, he said that he really didn't believe in all of that he falls in love with

a black woman which is like an overt act against Naziism and white supremacy and

of course you know this war involved over two dozen countries it was one of the deadliest global conflicts killing over 50 million people,

including the Holocaust and the genocide of the Jewish people

to the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

So your book is basically talking, you know, you know, from the perspective of the woman, Eleanor

...