From the time I was a little boy in Germany, God had His protective hands on me. My mother used to say that I had a "schutzengel" (guardian angel). This must have been true, because how else could I have survived under the reign of the Third Reich? How could a boy escape death not once, but numerous times? I encountered explosions that sent my body airborne. War scenes where it seemed like the world was coming to an end. I spent nights sitting in fearful silence in our air raid shelter as the sound of bombs came closer and closer. I endured a train air attack; one blast which ripped a big hole in the side of the train where I had stood just moments before. On another occasion, my life passed before my eyes as I nearly drowned. I should have been dead. So, then why did I survive? In reflecting back on my life during the rule of Adolf Hitler, it seems like it was just a dream.