She was a young German Jew.
He was an ardent member of the Hitler Youth.
This is the story of their parallel journey through World War II.
Helen Waterford and Alfons Heck were born just a few miles from each other in the German Rhineland. But their lives took radically different courses: Helen's to the Auschwitz extermination camp; Alfons to a high rank in the Hitler Youth.
While Helen was hiding in Amsterdam, Alfons was a fanatic believer in Hitler's "master race." While she was crammed in a cattle car bound for the death camp Auschwitz, he was a teenage commander of frontline troops, ready to fight and die for the glory of Hitler and the Fatherland. Excerpted from their respective autobiographies, this book tells both of their stories in their own words, side-by-side, in an overwhelming account of the nightmare that was WWII. The riveting stories of these two remarkable people must stand as a powerful lesson to us all.
Helen Waterford's story is excerpted from her book, Commitment to the Dead: One Woman's Journey toward Understanding. Alfons Heck's is excerpted from his two books, A Child of Hitler: Germany in the Days When God Wore a Swastika and The Burden of Hitler's Legacy.
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