As a teenage frontline medic
in the German Air Force and
as a prisoner of war, this book
of recollections by Han-man
will take the reader back to
the chaotic times of GermanyÕs
total defeat at the end of the
Second World War. It is also
a book full of fascinating and
sometimes amusing anecdotes
and revelations.Ê
The story begins, early in 1945, with the firebombing
of his hometown Magdeburg. Afterwards, he was sent
at the age of 18, to the front lines to assist a surgeon
who never showed up.
Wounded and captured by Soviet military forces,
he was forced into walking endless exhausting miles
leading to the gates of Auschwitz to become a starving
prisoner of war.
Released, Han-man returned home only to find himself
a prisoner again, this time confined by what
Winston Churchill called ÒThe Iron CurtainÓ in the then
Soviet occupied regions of East Germany.