Publisher's Synopsis
At the winding down of the World War Two, confusion reigned. The allied armies jockeyed for position against the Russian Army in an effort to determine who would control what parts of Germany. Because of the shifting lines of possession, even after Manny's small family gained relative safety at Castle Willigrad, they were faced again with the threat of rape, mayhem and starvation from the Red menace. For Manny and his family, the threat of rape did become a reality. Even though Manny's mechanically brilliant father did return to the family, he couldn't prevent his family from losing the little that they had to the malevolent Russian conquerors. With Manny's father leading the family, they began their odyssey back to the family farm and the longed-for reunion with the grandparents. Hunger and fear followed their journey. The German economy was in ruins, and German money was useless. The Red Army had driven all livestock from eastern Germany into Russia, and with all the livestock gone, no milk or meat was available. Farmers accustomed to plowing with their draft animals could no longer plow their fields. Because the Russian conquest took place during planting time, nothing was planted that first year, and after the collapse of Germany, the Russians did not ship in food and essential items as the Americans did. Starvation was rampant, and desperate German citizens fought to the death over a scrap of bread. Faced with losing his family to starvation, Manny's father agreed to a plan to trade Manny to a successful farmer for a steady supply of food. The effect on Manny was immediate and lasting. Manny grew up under those bitter experiences and vowed that one day he would escape. His desire to escape and to get even with the Red conquerors led to his agreeing to spy for western intelligence. He and four friends agreed to pass intelligence information to a western contact and did so successfully, However, he and his friends were discovered, and they fled from East Berlin seconds ahead of Red assassins. While the result.of their spying made newspapers worldwide, not all Manny's friends made good their escape to the West. Many more things happened to Manny as he tried to grow into a normal life during those tumultuous times. He did grow into a realization of who he was and what he wanted to be. He was one of the few Germans in East Germany who understood early what was missing under their Red overlords, and more than anything else, he knew that he wanted to be free of their tyranny. He did ultimately escape from East Berlin. He did make his way to Canada where he worked for a time as a bricklayer. He used his Canadian identity to gain entrance to the east coast of America. An Italian brick layer living in America hired Manny, and the Italian taught Manny English. Manny did eventually leave the east coast and travel across America to the west coast. From there, he traveled to Lubbock, Texas, where he met and eventually married Buddy Holly's sister.Some of the above described events will be revealed in the third volume to follow this volume in the trilogy, MAKING A RUN FOR IT FROM BERLIN TO TEXAS.
