Witness to the Storm ― A Jewish Journey from Nazi Berlin to the 82nd Airborne, 1920?945

On June 6, 1944, Werner T. Angress parachuted down from a C-47 into German-occupied France with the 82nd Airborne Division. Nine days later, he was captured behind enemy lines and, concealing his identity as a German-born Jew, became a prisoner of war. Eventually, he was freed by US forces, rejoined the fight, crossed Europe as a battlefield interrogator, and participated in the liberation of a concentration camp. Although he was an American soldier, less than ten years before he had been an enthusiastically patriotic German-Jewish boy. Rejected and threatened by the Nazi regime, the Angress family fled to Amsterdam to escape persecution and death, and young Angress then found his way to the United States. In Witness to the Storm, Angress weaves the spellbinding story of his life, including his escape from Germany, his new life in the United States, and his experiences in World War II. A testament to the power of perseverance and forgiveness, Witness to the Storm is the compelling tale of one man's struggle to rescue the country that had betrayed him.

Werner T. Angress escaped from Nazi Germany in 1937 and served in World War II with the 82nd Airborne Division. Brave and resourceful, he was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart for his service. After the war, he had a distinguished career as a history professor in the United States, teaching for over 25 years. He chose to spend his retirement in Berlin, teaching schoolchildren about what it was like to grow up Jewish under the Third Reich and working to promote tolerance and peace. He was the author of Stillborn Revolution: The Communist Bid for Power in Germany and Between Fear and Hope: Jewish Youth in the Third Reich.