Surviving the Reich: The World War II Saga of a Jewish-American GI

The memoirs of a Jewish-American soldier who is taken as a POW by the Germans and survives against all odds. Ivan Goldstein was a nineteen-year-old green-as-grass soldier heading into his first battle: the Battle of the Bulge, World War II’s fiercest engagement between the American army and Hitler’s army. A bow gunner on a Sherman tank, Private Goldstein was only hours into his first battle when his tank was hit by an enemy shell, and he was almost killed. Goldstein escapes with his life . . . only to be captured by the Germans. This could be the story of many young men from what has rightly been called “the Greatest Generation,” but Goldstein is not any young man. He is an American Jew. And when a German officer learns this, the officer says, “In the morning, take the Jew out and shoot him.” What follows is an epic story of survival in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds that is sure to engage everyone interested in the war against the Third Reich. Read more