Who were the collaborators in wartime France?
A Nazi war criminal extradited to France from Canada. A soldier’s war memorabilia, including a rambling diary, photos, and a loose page torn from a German ledger book. A 1944 prison escape involving leaders of the French Resistance. A country terrified to learn the truth about collaboration during the war and what happened to its legendary hero.
David Benson prepares to go to Paris to take on his first professional hockey coaching job. He carries with him the still vivid memories of his father who was killed in a traffic accident in France just weeks before.
However, even before leaving, he is confronted with new information about his father’s death and the role he played while gathering evidence against the Nazi. As France wrestles with a looming war crimes trial, he seeks answers about his father’s mysterious death, who might have been responsible and why. This leads him to connect with people whose pasts are inexorably linked to the present and which put him and a young woman in harm’s way.
Set mainly in Paris in 1980, The Burden of Guilt asks who the real heroes were during the Nazi occupation of France. Are there still secrets that need to be hidden and, if so, why?