FROM OUR EDITORS

Wolfgang Samuel's personal narrative of life in the aftermath of World War II holds you hostage until the last page. In 1945, as the German army crumbles under the advance of Russian troops, young Wolfgang, his mother, and his little sister Ingrid flee to avoid capture. (His Luftwaffe officer father is away, fighting the Allies in the West.) In squalid refugee camps, the Samuels scavenge and steal for survival, while youthful, innocent Wolfgang finds himself thrust into the unlikely role of family provider. Return to Communist-"liberated" Strasburg brings only a terrifying new round of arbitrary arrest, rape, hunger, and sleepless fear; Wolfgang somehow fends off these nightmares with improvised games in the rubble.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In this gripping account a boy and his mother are wrenched from their tranquil lives to forge a path through the storm of war and the rubble of its aftermath. In the past there has been a spectrum of books and films that share other German World War II experiences. However, told from the perspective of a ten-year-old, this book is rare. The boy and his mother must prevail over hunger and despair, or die.

In the Third Reich young Wolfgang Samuel and his family are content but alone. The father, a Luftwaffe officer, is away fighting the Allies in the West. In 1945 as Berlin and nearby communities crumble, young Wolfgang, his mother Hedy, and little sister Ingrid flee the advancing Russian army. They have no inkling of the chaos ahead. In Strasburg, a small town north of Berlin where they find refuge, Wolfgang begins to comprehend the evils the Nazi regime brought to Germany. As the Reich collapses, mother, son, and daughter flee again just ahead of the Russian charge.

In the chaos of defeat they struggle to find food and shelter. Death stalks the primitive camps that are their temporary havens, and the child becomes the family provider. Under the crushing responsibility Wolfgang becomes his mother's and sister's mainstay. When they return to Strasburg, the Communists in control are as brutal as the Nazis. In the violent atmosphere of arbitrary arrest, rape, hunger, and fear, the boy and his mother persist. Pursued by Communist police through a fierce blizzard, they escape to the West, but even in the English zone, the constant search for food, warmth, and shelter dominates their lives, and the mother's sacrifices become the boy's nightmares.

Although this is a time of deepest despair, Wolfgang hangs on to the thinnest thread of hope. In June 1948 with the arrival of the Americans flying the Berlin Airlift, Wolfgang begins a new journey.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In 1945 Samuel, then 10 years old, fled his home in Sagan, Germany, with his mother and younger sister, escaping just ahead of the Russian army's arrival. The author's memoir vividly depicts what it was like to be a child refugee (confused and frightened) in postwar Germany, constantly searching for food and a haven. Since Hedy, the author's mother, had been planning to divorce his father (a Luftwaffe officer), she refused to join him, but instead took Samuel and his sister to stay with her parents in the small town of Strasburg, which shortly became a Russian-occupied zone. Although the author had earlier viewed his mother as self-centered and unloving, he describes how his image of her changed during their years on the run, when he saw her make heroic efforts to keep her children alive. Attractive to men and clever, Hedy used her wits and charm, exchanging sex for food for her children. Their situation improved after the author's father found them and managed their transportation to a barracks in the American zone. Samuel's parents divorced and, in 1950, Hedy married a U.S. Army sergeant. The author moved with them to the U.S., where he completed his education and began a 30-year career in the air force. He has produced an engrossing and powerful narrative. Maps. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Samuel's memoir recalls a boyhood in war-ravaged Germany during the final terrifying months of World War II and the hopelessness of the following years spent itnerned in inhumane and debilitating refugee camps. The son of a Luftwaffe officer and now himself a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, he recounts, with plainspoken and expressive first-person commentary, the danger and fear he faced fleeing from an advancing Russian army. What results is a gripping account of war, hunger, sickness, rape, and abuse-literally a race with death. Samuel vividly describes the refugee life of deprivation and humiliation, where sex is currency and hunger constant. He speaks emotionally of the love and strength of his brave mother ("my hero and friend") and her valiant and eventually successful struggle to protect and care for her family with the father away at war. This deeply emotional and moving memoir clearly illustrates that the military collapse of Nazi Germany was eclipsed by the greater tragedy of the German nation. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.-John E. Hodgkins, Yarmouth, MA

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Samuel was 10 years old when he, his mother, and younger sister fled the advancing Russian army in Germany in the final days of World War II. Describing the events many years later, Samuel still vividly remembers the disorientation, terror, hunger, and desperation that dogged their lives until 1951 when they arrived in the United States. The voice of a little boy develops into that of a young man as he writes of his mother's indomitable spirit and the degrading extremes she went to in order to obtain food and shelter for her children. The boy is ill-prepared to assume the crushing responsibility for keeping his family together and alive after the war years when he finds himself a refugee and outcast in his own country. There is a thread of hope, an appreciation for random kindness, and an ability to look beyond the depravity of humankind that pervades this brave and poignant memoir of a man who went on to serve 30 years in the U.S. Air Force and retired as a colonel.-Cynthia J. Rieben, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Ella Leffland - The New York Times Book Review

[A] compelling memoir of what it was to become a refugee overnight and to remain one for six years...Samuel's all-absorbing eye for detail is especially telling in his depiction of life under the Communists after the family returned to Strasburg . . . He is faithful to the child's voice; he does not explain or revise it with adult commentary.