German Boy: A Refugee S Story

A refugee child's witness to Nazi defeat, Soviet occupation, and his family's debacle in war What was the experience of war for a child in bombed and ravaged Germany? In this memoir the voice of innocence is heard. "This is great stuff," exclaims Stephen E. Ambrose. "I love this book." 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. Wolfgang W. E. Samuel was commissioned through the Air Force ROTC at the University of Colorado and is a graduate of the National War College. He served in the U.S. Air Force for thirty years until his retirement in 1985 as a colonel. His writing has been published in several military journals, including Parameters, the U.S. Army War College quarterly.

Author: Wolfgang W. E. Samuel
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: 06/07/2012
Pages: 374
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.80lbs
Size: 9.35h x 6.54w x 1.33d
ISBN: 9781578062744


Review Citation(s):
School Library Journal 01/01/2000 pg. 945
Kirkus Reviews 07/01/2000 pg. 945
Publishers Weekly 07/17/2000 pg. 183
Library Journal 07/01/2000 pg. 108
Booklist 08/01/2000 pg. 2107
New York Times 09/03/2000 pg. 10
School Library Journal 06/01/2001 pg. 188

About the Author
Wolfgang W. E. Samuel, Colonel, US Air Force (Ret.), was born in Germany in 1935 and immigrated to the United States in 1951 at age sixteen with an eighth-grade education and no English-language skills. Upon graduation from the University of Colorado, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the US Air Force, then flew over one hundred strategic reconnaissance missions against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He is author of multiple books published by University Press of Mississippi. Stephen E. Ambrose (1936-2002) was director emeritus of the Eisenhower Center, Boyd Professor of History at the University of New Orleans, and president of the National D-Day Museum. He was the author of many books, including The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation: From the Louisiana Purchase to Today. His compilation of 1,400 oral histories from American veterans and authorship of over twenty books established him as one of the foremost historians of the Second World War in Europe.