Shortlisted for the US National Jewish Book Award: Best Novel

What if Israel had existed in 1938? The story of Israel’s first ambassador… to Adolf Hitler

“You will sup with the Devil, Dan. You will do everything the Devil requires. Whatever it takes, you will maintain the transfer of Jews from Germany to Israel. Remember not to fear him. After all, he thinks it is you who is the Devil.”

1937. The British Cabinet accepts the recommendations of the Peel Commission, establishing a Jewish state: Israel.

Dan Lavi is a young diplomat sent to serve as the country’s first ambassador to Berlin, to save as many Jews as possible under a controversial agreement with Hitler’s regime. Amid the terror and atrocities of the Third Reich, Dan struggles to maintain relations with those who want him dead, to negotiate Nazi Party politics and Allied pressures, and to stop the Final Solution — even if it costs him everything.

An alternative historical novel co-written with Yehuda Avner, author of The Prime Ministers.

Get the US edition. Get the UK edition.

Matt writes:
I teamed up with Yehuda Avner, a former top adviser to Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Menachem Begin and author of the best-selling memoir ‘The Prime Ministers,’ to write ‘The Ambassador,’ a thriller set in Nazi Germany.

What if Israel had existed in 1938 and there had been a refuge for Jews during the Holocaust? That’s the question ‘The Ambassador’ posits. The novel’s main character is Dan Lavi, Israel’s ambassador to Berlin — to Hitler.

‘The Ambassador’ is published by Toby Press.

Reviews

Drags us to the dark gates of hell — Times of Israel