AN AMAZON BESTSELLER
"This is the multigenerational saga of one extended family's struggles-spanning several countries and two world wars-and their indomitable determination to persevere and prosper. A gripping and often lyrical narrative." -Robert Goldsborough, Nero Book Award-winning author
In a world full of wrong, one family did all they could to survive and stay on the right side of humanity.
Amid the chaos of World War I, Adolf “Adi” Dindinger, a young German soldier, falls in love with Tatjana Wiczewski, a Russian Jewish woman living in Eastern Europe. When Bolshevik forces burn her village, Adi and Tatjana flee to Poland, where forged German citizenship papers conceal Tatjana’s Jewish heritage and allow them to build a life together. They marry and raise four children, but as tensions between Germany and Poland intensify, the secret protecting their family becomes increasingly dangerous.
When World War II breaks out, the children—now young adults and teenagers—enter worlds of chemical engineering, music, figure skating, and espionage. Under the Third Reich, their abilities make them valuable; their family’s hidden past makes them targets.
As the war tightens its grip, the Dindingers face impossible choices: protect themselves or protect others; remain silent or risk everything. In a world where morality is distorted by power, even small acts of conscience can carry deadly consequences.
Dr. Ruth Hillelson, the daughter of the youngest Dindinger sibling, reconstructs her family’s extraordinary story from inherited letters, official documents, photographs, and family testimony—materials preserved for decades and eventually passed down to her. In The Right Side of Wrong, those fragments reveal a deeply human story of trials and triumphs that is both poignant and extremely relevant today.
A native of Rhode Island, whose early years included the study of piano and competitive figure skating, Dr. Ruth Leanna Hillelson went on to devote her life to the art and science of plastic and reconstructive surgery. She was among the first female undergraduates of Johns Hopkins University, where she directed a National Science Foundation research grant at the age of eighteen. She completed her medical education at Harvard University, authoring a seminal research paper on tissue flap necrosis and salvage.Dr. Hillelson's surgical training included residencies and postgraduate fellowships in general and plastic surgery at the University of Virginia, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Kansas, along with advanced training in craniofacial and maxillofacial reconstruction at the University of Virginia. She achieved international acclaim for her techniques in breast reconstruction after mastectomy and her innovations in radiofrequency skin tightening, lecturing in this field across three continents. Drawing on her background in chemistry and skin physiology, she also developed a line of bioactive skin products, Iridesse Skin Care. She currently serves as Chief of Plastic Surgery and Aesthetics at the Hillelson-Whipple Clinic in Richmond, Virginia.Both memoir and history, this book continues Dr. Hillelson's lifelong pursuit of knowledge into a more personal dimension, reconstructing her family's journey through terrible tragedies, narrow escapes, resistance efforts, and the lasting scars of survival. Reflecting years of tireless effort and dedication, it chronicles the extraordinary courage of her grandparents, her uncles, her aunt, and her mother, who risked their lives to resist the Third Reich and aid the Allies during World War II. The book stands as both a tribute to her family's bravery and a testament to Dr. Hillelson's ability to intertwine personal narrative with academic depth as only a scientist can do.Dr. Hillelson lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband, Dr. Terry L. Whipple, their two charming and affectionate dogs, and their two beloved horses.
