German Boy: A Refugee's Story (Willie Morris Books in Memoir and Biography) [Hardcover]

Wolfgang W. E. Samuel (Author), Stephen E. Ambrose (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2000

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.

Editorial Reviews

From 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 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From 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, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 372 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578062748
• ISBN-13: 978-1578062744
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #418,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Wolfgang W. E. Samuel was born in Germany in 1935, immigrated to the United States at age 16, and finished high school in Denver, Colorado, two years later. He graduated from the University of Colorado in 1960 and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. Wolfgang served 30 years in the U.S. Air Force, flew strategic reconnaissance against the Soviet Union in the Cold War years and combat against North Vietnam; being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross three times and numerous Air Medals. He obtained an MBA from Arizona State University and graduated from the National War College at Ft McNair, Wash DC. After retirement from the Air Force in the rank of colonel, he worked for a defense contractor in the Washington area, then retired once again to write German Boy, his first book, which was introduced by Stephen Ambrose and very favorably reviewed by the New York Times. German Boy is Wolfgang's story of survival in WWII Germany and the immediate postwar years. Other books followed.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, October 17, 2000

By 

Thomas B. Gross (Winchester, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: German Boy: A Refugee's Story (Willie Morris Books in Memoir and Biography) (Hardcover)

I knew a man once who had served as a Sergeant in the British occupation forces in Germany after World War II. As one who majored for a time in German Literature and studied in Munich in the mid-Seventies, I had imagined this would have been an interesting time to be in Germany and was surprised when he spoke of it as a very depressing experience for him personally. After reading "German Boy" I understand why he felt that way. Until I read this book I never really understood what immediate post-war Germany was like for the natives.

Before reading "German Boy" my images of post-war Germany were mostly formed from reading Heinrich Boell novels and watching German film productions such as "Heimat" and "Wir Wunderkinder". I had imagined somehow that as soon as even the Russians and certainly the British and Americans came to liberate the German people, the war was over for them, and prosperity followed rapidly. Samuels shows in detail why for him and many people like him, the war did not end until really the Berlin Airlift and currency reform in 1949 brought a relative prosperity to at least his area of Germany. For example, for about three years, from age 9 to 12, he basically wore the same clothes. During this time he did not wear underwear until his Mother's future husband, an American GI, gave him a pair in 1949.

This is a very adult book written from the point-of-view of a pre-teen. One of the major themes of the story is how his mother was forced to sell her body to feed her family. He tells the story from the point of view of a boy who does not really understand exactly what sex is. That understood, I think this would be an inspirational book for any 12-year-old boy, and I am going to encourage my own son to read it next.

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars German Boy: A Refugee's Story, October 18, 2000

By 

Harold Hendler (Riverside, CA & Hannover,Germany) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: German Boy: A Refugee's Story (Willie Morris Books in Memoir and Biography) (Hardcover)

Review: German Boy is a beautifully written and moving story about life in Germany during the period 1945-1949. From the very beginning, I felt like I waa part of the ten year old German boy's world. His photographic memory retained the details of events and conversations which he relates in a pleasing and exciting manner. There is a universal message to be learned from the way the author saw the war, dictatorship and the goodness and badness in people. We are reminded that all human beings have the same hopes and fears. The reader will be surprised to discover how the author was influenced in 1948 by the United States humanitarian effort, - "The Berlin Airlift". I highly recommend this book, and predict that it will one of the top ten this year. A must Read Book

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written, moving memoir of a German refugee, November 27, 2005

By 

Erik Gfesser (Lombard, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: German Boy: A Child in War (Paperback)

Very well written page-turner memoir that reads like a novel about a German refugee from East Germany making his way with his mother to West Germany and finally the United States. Innumerable books have been written against Germans since World War II, which unfortunately have equated Germans with supporters of the political establishment during the war. This account shows that many Germans living in Germany (especially East Germany) suffered during the war and did not support the government at that time. The horrid living conditions, lack of food, and the falling of Wolfgang's mother into periodic prostitution to save her family, combined with the author's gradual realization that God had a part in his survival, can bring tears to even the most stoic readers. Another memoir, by Elizabeth Walter called "Barefoot in the Rubble", although not as well written, presents and even more moving account of displaced Germans living in Yugoslavia following World War II.