Norman Emilio Barrientos

Messerschmitt's Apprentice Norman Emilio Barrientos

A moving tale of a young man's career aspirations colliding with Germany's war build up during the 1930's while balancing his personal life with the increasing demands of total war. Armand Kindermann is a talented and ambitious industrial designer who is taken by Willy Messerschmitt's vision and drive to develop advanced planes, even though Messerschmitt is only in his thirties and runs just a start-up company. As a loyal and committed plane designer, Armand rises up the ranks till he is reporting directly to Messserschmitt on the Me 262 jet and the Me 163 rocket fighter. Yet, blocking Armand's steady advancement is his old university classmate, Dieter Fleischen, now a SA Brownshirt, who derides and sneers at Armand's lack of Nazi Party loyalty. Moreover, Dieter clouds his relationship with his eventual wife and then conducts espionage on the Messerschmitt company. Following an air raid over the plant, Armand loses his wife and he sinks into a depression that shakes his whole belief in the war that his industrialist company and Germany have been pursuing. Following this turn of events, Armand takes on the system with an avengence and pursues an illicit affair with an Italian Jewish slave worker at the aviation plant. Only that Fleischen, now a Party official, is on to Armand, and exacts a measure of his own punishment that leads to Armand being conscripted into the local militia. How will Armand resolve his love with the slave worker while he deals with serving under Dieter's fanactical command for Hitler's last-ditch defense effort for the Fatherland?