Max had enjoyed the camaraderie in the Hitler Youth organisation. His week at the Berlin Olympics was a life-time highlight. He saw the Führer and fell in love with Inge. He loved the Third Reich.
Russia was where it started going wrong. He knew primal fear as the ruthless Red Army attacked in countless numbers.
He was repulsed at the order to march innocent Jews to the SS awaiting in the forest. What would a refusal mean? The reality was unspoken but understood; there was no escape.
Posted to Berlin, Max knew that each successive air raid edged him closer to death. The nightly terror was tempered by wonderful days spent with Inge.
Until her nurses' barracks were struck by a bomb.
If he searched for her, his desertion meant death. The German army was being over-run. Max, a sadder and a wiser man, had come little by little to understand the cause for which he had pledged his life; he also knew that cause was lost.
But how could he survive? How could he find Inge?
An impelling and rare exposé of Nazi Germany. Based on the true story of a recruit to the Hitler Youth.