Daniel J. Markowitz
Advocate for peace, equality, justice, and respect for all.
Daniel Markowitz is a descendant of German and Slovenian immigrants who came to America in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Born in 1954 and raised in Olpe, Kansas, at the edge of the Flint Hills, he grew up listening to his grandparents’ and other beloved elders’ stories of their home countries, traditions, and the hardships and joys experienced on their way to stability and prosperity.
His love for history and storytelling grew out of their often humorous and sometimes hyperbolic oral chronicles.
He earned degrees from Emporia State University (social sciences) and the University of Kansas (law) and spent decades in quixotic pursuit of success in a career for which he was ill-suited, before embarking on a trial-and-error journey for authenticity and purpose.
The Spoils of Victory, Markowitz’ first novel and book one in the Prisoners of War series, focuses on a largely forgotten aspect of the history of World War II – the confinement and employment of hundreds of thousands of German POWs throughout the United States from 1943 to 1946. Publication of the second book in the series is anticipated in early 2026.
Markowitz is a passionate advocate for peace, equality, justice, and respect for all, especially the marginalized and the forgotten. He has five children and five grandchildren and lives near the beaches of Baja California, where the big skies, low horizons, and undulating waves of the Pacific Ocean remind him of the rippling tallgrass prairies of home.
The Spoils of Victory
Book 1 of the Prisoners of War Series
The Spoils of Victory is a story of everyday Germans and Americans caught up in the global cataclysm that was World War II, but this story takes place far from the battlefields.
Rolf Mueller is a young corporal from Olpe, Germany, who came of age in the Nazi era and, like so many, was swept up by Hitler's promise to make Germany great again. In the Wehrmacht, he fought his way across Europe and North Africa before being wounded and captured in Tunisia in 1943 with the remnants of Rommel's Afrika Korps. The Spoils of Victory chronicles his journey as a POW from the blood-soaked sands of the Sahara to the fields and meadows of Kansas.
On his journey, Rolf is influenced by guards, other POWs, and civilians. No one has a greater impact on him than the Unruhs, a tight-knit Mennonite family living on Doyle Creek east of Peabody, descendants of German peace pilgrims who left Russia for America decades earlier to stay true to their religious beliefs.
Due to the critical wartime labor shortage, the Unruhs are willing to hire Rolf and other POWs to work on their farm. But the irony and the risks - Hitler's warriors working for pacifists to save the harvest and feed America - are not lost on anyone.
On the farm, Loretta, the eldest Unruh daughter, is embarking on her own uncharted journey in a world rapidly changing due to war, modernization, and evolving social mores. She must decide whether and how to pursue her personal dreams while still honoring the family and religious traditions that define and sustain her.
Dan Markowitz brings a historian’s curiosity, an attorney’s attention to detail, and a philosopher’s appreciation for moral complexities in this story of German POW’s working among Kansas Mennonites in WWII. It is a tale well worth reading – and pondering. I’m looking forward to more.
– Wynn M. Goering, Ph.D., Chair, Bethel College (KS) Board of Directors