Imag­ine a Ger­man Jew who was a dec­o­rat­ed Ger­man sol­dier in WWI, a pro­tes­tor in Cologne at the start of Hitler’s reign of ter­ror, and hero­ic sol­dier in the Amer­i­can Army in WWII. This is the sto­ry of Richard Stern whose pho­to­graph of his protest hangs in mul­ti­ple Ger­man muse­ums, show­ing a rare Jew­ish protest in Nazi Ger­many. He was the author’s great uncle.

Richard Stern was strong­ly ded­i­cat­ed to the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty. He was a strong sup­port­er of the demo­c­ra­t­ic prin­ci­ples of the Ger­man Weimar Repub­lic. He was strong­ly opposed to the Nazi Par­ty. He was also ded­i­cat­ed to his fam­i­ly and friends. He kept try­ing to help his fam­i­ly, friends, and Jews. Stern’s his­to­ry con­nect­ed to the Holo­caust is unique. This book tells his full sto­ry, his con­nec­tion to Ger­man Jew­ish his­to­ry, along with how the Shoah impact­ed his fam­i­ly. His his­to­ry is very rel­e­vant today.