00-01.The Heart Mender - Andy Andrews

Chapter 2A WEEK LATER, I WAS STILL NO CLOSER TO ANSWERING MYquestion. Where had this stuff come from? At least theInternet, with its various search engines, had begun to fill insome of the blanks about what the actual pieces were. Andthe swastika embossed on the medal gave me some idea ofwhat I might find.After rushing inside and fanning out the items on thekitchen table for my astonished wife, I retreated to my officeand cranked up the computer. The first word I searched wasKriegsmarine, the script on the man’s hat in the first picture.I quickly found that it was the name of the German navycontrolled by the Nazi regime until 1945. Previously titledthe Reichsmarine, the Kriegsmarine was formed in May of1935 after Germany passed the “Law for the Reconstructionof the National Defense Force.” This law brought back intoexistence a German military presence that had been essentiallybanned by the Treaty of Versailles at the end of WorldWar I.I next typed in Kriegsmarine buttons and was instantlyrewarded. There, on my computer screen, was an enlargement,front and back view, of a button exactly like theeight in my possession. The front of the button proudly13