Boy with a White Flag

This memoir is an account of the effects on an ordinary German boy of the horrors of Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship—the persecution of Jews, concentration camps, and the organized disappearance of mentally and physically disabled human beings. Efforts of a devoted mother to protect him from the influences of Nazi ideology are hampered by the leanings of some members of their extended family and the involuntary participation of the boy’s father in the Nazi army. She teaches her son to be secretive, relying on him to warn her about possible detection as she tunes the radio to the forbidden BBC in an effort to obtain accurate information about the war. They escape the bombings of Cologne only to face grave dangers from slave laborers sent from the Gross-Rosen concentration camp to the dairy where the mother works. Following their escape to the home of a hostile family member, they welcome the arrival of American soldiers, their liberators. This is a turning point for the brave boy who becomes the head of the family. Scarcity of food during the post-war years and the absence of his father force the boy to connive and steal to stave off their hunger. Following a serious illness during adolescence that teaches him to study and think analytically, his thirst for knowledge lifts him well beyond his humble beginnings. The author uses dialogue and humor to paint his story against the backdrop of history.