The Boy Who Went to War: The Story of a Reluctant German Soldier in WWII

About this book

A powerful and true story of warfare and human survival that exposes a side of World War II that is unknown by many this is the story of Wolfram Achele a boy whose childhood was stolen by a war in which he had no choice but to fight. Giles Milton has been a writer and historian for many years writing about people and places that history has forgotten. But it took his young daughters depiction of a swastika on an imaginary family shield - the swastika representing Germany - for Giles to uncover the incredible dark story of his own family and his father-in-laws life under Hitlers regime. As German citizens during World War II Wolfram and his Bohemian artist parents survived one of the most brutal eras of history. Wolfram who was only nine years old when Hitler came to power lived through the rise and fall of the Third Reich from the earliest street marches to the final defeat of the Nazi regime. Conscripted into Hitlers army he witnessed the brutality of war - first on the Russian front and then on the Normandy beaches. Seen through German eyes and written with remarkable sensitivity The Boy Who Went to War is a powerful story of warfare and human survival and a reminder to us all that civilians on both sides suffered the consequences of Hitlers war.