The German Spies at Pearl Harbor? Those Were My Grandparents (with Chris­tine Kuehn & Mark Schiponi)

What happens when you discover that the reason your father never speaks about his parents or his childhood growing up in Hawaii is because his mother, father, and older sister were Nazi spies? And not just any Nazi spies–the spies sent by Berlin to help the Japanese surveil Pearl Harbor?

Chris­tine Kuehn was living a qui­et sub­ur­ban life when a mys­te­ri­ous let­ter in 1994 pierced that bub­ble, send­ing her on a thir­ty-year quest to dis­cov­er the truth behind a hor­ren­dous fam­i­ly secret kept hid­den for half a cen­tu­ry. The result is the new book, FAMILY OF SPIES. Fol­low­ing a career in jour­nal­ism, pub­lic rela­tions, and non­prof­its, Chris­tine now lives in Mary­land with her hus­band, Mark Schiponi, who helped her research the book for 30 years.

In this conversation, Greg Olear talks to the couple about how the book came to be, the long and unusual research process, and the emotional impact of learning the truth.