Eli Elbogen

Memoir

Not my story, my grandfather's.

Glen "Whitey" Sandberg was a 19-year-old ball turret gunner in the 484th bomb group. He was shot down over Yugoslavia in 1945. He later wrote about his experience as a prisoner of war, but passed away before completing it. I took it upon myself to finish his story.

The memoir follows my grandfather's transport as a Nazi prisoner from Zagreb to Berlin. His journey is punctuated by three distinctive train rides — aboard a freight train carrying concentration camp prisoners, aboard a hospital train carrying wounded German soldiers, and aboard a first class passenger train carrying decorated Nazi officers. 

I know one day I will write my grandfather's story for the screen. I know it in my bones. Until that time comes, it lives as a manuscript.

Gefangen: German Cargo

A true account of an American prisoner during World War II. Read an excerpt from the memoir.

Fiction

Before screenwriting, fiction was my creative outlet. 

And, in a way, I still write fiction when I develop movie treatments and outlines. Here are a couple short stories I've written in the past. 

HELLO, STRANGER

"I no longer conceptualize time or temperature or hunger, or most any other abiotic factor as I’m accustomed to. Not since the spliff, however long ago that was. And I have a selfish yet soulful urge to write it all down."

Poetry

PoeMS were my entry into writing.

Though I focus most of my time on copywriting and screenwriting, I still write poems when inspiration strikes.
Sometimes it flows all day.

* Artwork by Mike Nilmeier