Dimensions
129 x 198 x 27mm
The incredible, true recollections of a little boy's struggle to survive in post-war Germany.
As the third Reich crumbled in 1945, scores of Germans fled the advancing Russian troops. Among them was a little boy named Wolfgang Samuel, who left his home with his mother and sister and ended up in war-torn Strasbourg before being forced farther west into a disease-ridden refugee camp.
'German Boy' is the vivid, true story of their fight for survival, as the tables of power turned and, for reasons Wolfgang was too young to understand, his broken family suffered arbitrary arrest, rape, hunger and constant fear.
Because his estranged father was off fighting the war as a Luftwaffe officer, young Wolfgang was forced to become the head of his household, scavenging for provisions and scraps with which to feed his family. Despite his best efforts, his mother still found herself forced to do the unthinkable to survive, and his mother's sacrifices became young Wolfgang's worst nightmares.
Somehow, with the resilience only children can muster, he maintained his youth and innocence in little ways - making friends with other little refugees, playing with shrapnel, delighting in the planes flown by the Americans and the candies the GIs brought.
The book ends as the Samuels begin life anew in America, where Wolfgang will eventually embark on a thirty-year career in the US Air Force.
Bringing fresh insight to the dark history of Nazi Germany and the horror left in its wake, 'German Boy' records the valuable recollections of an innocent's incredible journey.
