In this book Jean Gros tells his life story from his youth to his release from captivity as a
prisoner of war. He was born in 1922 as the child of German-Romanian settlers under the name
Ioan Grosz in the Romanian Banat. The family lives in the small village of Ivanda near the
city of Timisoara where they run a small farm. In this environment characterised by simple
living conditions Ioan experiences a carefree and mostly happy childhood. This ends however
when he begins a butcher's apprenticeship in a neighbouring village. From now on he has to
face the first hardships of life. However this period of his life is still proceeding along
the usual lines for the time and the region. This all changes abruptly when the Third Reich
sets out to recruit new soldiers from the ranks of the Romanian Germans. Ioan also gets caught
up in the mills of the Nazi war machine and like most of his compatriots ends up in the
Waffen SS. As the book progresses it describes his traumatic war experiences and the depriving
circumstances under which the missions are carried out. During his sorties he is also wounded
several times. Despite all adversity he tries to maintain contact with his family and
childhood sweetheart but this is not always successful and the uncertainty about his family's
circumstances becomes his constant companion. The war ends for him with another wound and years
of imprisonment. The vivid description of the events takes the reader on a journey through
Jean's life which is exemplary for that of many young Romanian-Germans of that era. The reader
also gets an impression of the way of life and the further fate of this ethnic community.
