While still a child in Germany during World War II, Al Bartsch and his family escaped the horror of the battlefield and the advancing Soviet army. Losing everything they owned, they were forced to
survive in a destroyed land. Out of the ashes, however, life slowly recovered and he moved on to a
new beginning and a new life in America. Still, at eighty-two years the memories haunt him as they have haunted him his whole life. This narrative is rooted in events of his life between the ages of five and twelve and teen-age conversations with his mother as well as recollections of his early life in America. This is his story and that of his brave and determined mother.
The author and his wife live in retirement in the Pacific Northwest.
