Ollie Weiss, the author's name for himself, was born in 1924 in a small town in Germany. When his father dies on the first day of school, Ollie feels deserted in an unfair, harsh world. He joins the Hitler Youth at ten and begins to greet his mother with "Heil Hitler" instead of "Good Morning". When Ollie signs up for the infantry he is willing to die for his beloved Fuhrer, the saviour of his Fatherland. But his years of brainwashing quickly wear off as he reaches the brink of insanity defending a corridor west of Stalingrad.
Following a tour of duty in France, Ollie is sent back to the Russian front. By this time, he hates his rifle and his uniform as much as himself, and his holier-than-God Fuhrer has fallen from great heights of the pedestal he'd put him on. Incredibly broken spectacles buy him a train ticket back to Heimat. Ollie turns his back on Hitler and his war and goes AWOL. He is captured, sentenced and jailed only to be pardoned on Hitler's birthday in 1945. Ollie is just 21.
'Too Young to be a Hero' is an extraordinarily true story of survival, moral conflict and of heartache.
