Just published: The Jew with the Iron Cross

To let you know that my memoir of being drafted into the German Wehrmacht (as a quarter Jew) sent to fight on the Eastern Front in 43-44, captured by the Russians and eventually returned home in the first transport of prisoners from Russia, has just been published and is avavilable for purchase by calling 1-800-AUTHORS or going online to www.iUniverse.com bookstore. It meant a great deal to me to relieve these experiences of over 60 tears ago. They have continued to inflluence the remainder of my life, as a professional artist. It's not a hero's story, but what tells in great detail what it was like to fight on the losing side in a war you didn't believe in.

 

Very interesting, could you tell us more about yourself and your life? It's not everyday that we have the honour to meet a veteran.

 

Hello, I am 82 yrs old and have been a lifelong professional artist, living in Mexico for the past thirty years. If you read my book, you will see that I have nothing bad to say about the Russians. In spite of the fact that I almost died in the POW camp, the Russians tried to keep me alive (and succeeded) and they had barely enough medecines to treat their own citizens and soldiers. My paintings have been very much inflluenced (though not obviously) by my experiences as a young man in the Ukraine and Romania. You can see my paintings, if you wish,by going to www.georgrauch.com I also studied architecture and engineering, have a number of patents, so we have a few things in common. Due to the TB I contracted in the POW camp, I spent over two years in a 3/4 body cast in an alpine sanatorium. There I had my best training as an artist, since I drew my fellow patients as they lay nude in the healing sun (we had no medecine for TB then) What else would you like to know?

 

Hello, I am 82 yrs old and have been a lifelong professional artist, living in Mexico for the past thirty years. If you read my book, you will see that I have nothing bad to say about the Russians. In spite of the fact that I almost died in the POW camp, the Russians tried to keep me alive (and succeeded) and they had barely enough medecines to treat their own citizens and soldiers. My paintings have been very much inflluenced (though not obviously) by my experiences as a young man in the Ukraine and Romania. You can see my paintings, if you wish,by going to www.georgrauch.com I also studied architecture and engineering, have a number of patents, so we have a few things in common. Due to the TB I contracted in the POW camp, I spent over two years in a 3/4 body cast in an alpine sanatorium. There I had my best training as an artist, since I drew my fellow patients as they lay nude in the healing sun (we had no medecine for TB then) What else would you like to know?

 

How bout a little about your service in the Whermacht? What were the circumstances of your conscription? Where did you train? What unit or units did you serve with and where?

Thanks

 

Reaching the age where all the young men were drafted into the Wehrmacht, I had no choice but to go. A printed order came by mail. I had my basic training at NAA 17 (Nachrichtung Abteilung 17) Breitensee in Vienna. Following that I was transferred to an Officer's training camp in Brun, Czechoslovakia. Because of my Jewish blood, I couldn't picture myself commanding a company of German soldiers against the Russians. I managed to get kicked out of Officer's Training School and was sent as an infantry radio man to the front. Infantry Division 282, Regiment 158. I served primarily in south eastern Ukraine during the German retreat of 43-44. When the Romanians changed sides, I was captured near Jasi, close to the Romanian border and remained a prisoner of the Russians in Kiev until October 45. Due to my near dead physical condition, I was in the first transport of non-Germans from Russia to the west. All of this information is gone into in much greater detail in my book.

 

Your life sounds very interesting sir. I look forward to picking up your book.