He comes across as doing what is needed for the plot in the moment rather than as a fully developed person. Very little is known of him or his motivations. In contrast, the man who arrives to fight the evil entity, Glaeken, is a bit of a two-dimensional deus ex machina, although he is a sexy deus ex machina.
They are people with fully developed lives prior to the rise of the Nazis, and they are presented as just people, not saints. Magda is torn between loyalty to her sickly father and desires to live out her own life as she so chooses. He also is in chronic pain and acts like it, rather than acting like a saint. Professor Cuza is a man of his time, using his daughter’s help academically but not giving her any credit for it. Similarly, Magda and her father Professor Cuza are well-rounded. Having both present keeps the book from simply demonizing all Germans and yet recognizes the evil of Nazism and those who used it to their advantage. They are a good mix of morally ethical people who are caught up in a regime following orders and see no way out (the army men) and evil men who enjoy inflicting pain upon others and are taking advantage of the regime to be governmentally sanctioned bullies, rapists, and murderers. The characterization of the Germans is handled well. I mean, really, what an idea! Most of the book executes this idea with intrigue and finesse, although the end leaves a bit to be desired. It’s hard not to pick up a book that basically advertises itself as a vampire killing Nazis and the only ones who can stop the vampires are a Jewish professor and his daughter. But what is more evil? The mysterious entity killing the Germans or the Nazis?
When the SS sends for them, they are sure it is the beginning of the end. They also just so happen to be the only experts on the keep.
Professor Cuza and his daughter Magda are Romanian Jews who have already been pushed out of their work in academia. He is sure he can solve this mystery quickly. SS Major Kaempffer wishes to solve this mystery as soon as possible so he may start his new promotion of running the extermination camp for Romania. It should be a quiet assignment, but when the German soldiers start being killed one a night by having their throats ripped out, the SS is sent to investigate. They set up to guard the place in a building known as the keep. But he’s also a hero from the First World War, so the Nazi regime deals with him by sending he and a small troop to Romania to guard a pass the Russians could possibly use. Captain Klaus Woermann isn’t a fan of the Nazis or the SS and doesn’t exactly keep this a secret.
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