Foreign Relations: Memories of Germany and England

Product Description

Foreign Relations

This is the true story of how young Alexander Oppenheim, born in 1925, the son of a rich Berlin banking family, became Alexander Oldham who, aged seventeen, joined the British Army and fought against his mother country in the last months of the War.

Into this personal account, Oldham weaves a brilliant historical reconstruction of life in a cultured and prosperous Berlin - until the darkening shadows of Hitler’s anti-semitic laws steadily reduced the freedoms that he enjoyed and threatened his very existence.

Why? Alexander’s family was Jewish by birth but generations before had converted to Lutheranism, an act which was to provide no defence in Hitler’s Germany.

Writing, remarkably, without animosity, Alexander Oldham combines the warmth of his childhood  and his intriguing family life with a meticulous and historical exploration of the brutal political processes that forced him, aged twelve, to flee his Berlin childhood to take on a new identity and make a new life in Britain.

• A unique reminder of what it takes to save your life by escaping to make a new life in a new country with a new culture and a new language.
• Brilliant personal account of the devastating impact Hitler’s brutal laws on his own people.
• A story that is as important today as it was in the 1930s and 40s.

Reviews

A rich and rewarding portrait of a boy and his times, with lessons that should never be forgotten.