"A YA memoir of an 18-year old part-Jewish youth who, despite his heritage, is drafted into Hitler's army and sent to serve on the Russian front"--

"Few people are aware that in the aftermath of German and Soviet invasions and division of Poland, more than 1.5 million people were deported from their homes in Eastern Poland to remote parts of Russia. Half of them died in labor camps and prisons or simply vanished, some were drafted into the Russian army, and a small number returned to Poland after the war. Those who made it out of Russia alive were lucky--and nine-year-old Krystyna Mihulka was...

The scale of death and destruction during the Battle of Stalingrad during late 1942 and early 1943 remains unprecedneted in the history of warfare. The annihilation of General von Paulus' 6th Army epitomised the devastating defeat of Hitler's ambition to conquer Stalin's Soviet Union. After the successful Operation Blue offensive 6th Army reached the River Volga north of Stalingrad in summer 1942. With over-extended supply lines and facing steely...