-
Theme Statement
In Georg Rauch's book, Unlikely Warrior, he conveys the message that your own experiences and encounters do not shape the identity of others, and should not change how you see them. -
Choose Friends Wisely
Georg's friends stop talking to him after they discover his ancestry, and he begins to spend time with other friends sharing his Non-Aryan status. Almost in an instant, he lost all of his friends simply because their parents were not fond of "people like him". -
Hiding Out In Attic
As a teenager in the beginning of the war, his parents' friends sometimes had to hide out in their attic. Although he himself was Jewish, his dad had been in a previous war, and it put them in an interesting spot, with no need to hide. This is when he began to realize just how cruel it all was, and he began his love of engineering, where he started to make security contraptions all around his household for if the Nazis came. -
Intercepted Radio Transmission
He and his cousin had began experimenting and he decided to create a radio from his to his cousins room downstairs. This eventually got picked up by German officers who came to his house to ask about it, while at the same time, there were Jewish in their attic. This frightened him to his core, and he began to feel great remorse. He says this might have been his luckiest day. -
Start of His Time in WWII
Unexpectedly, they show up to his door and ask for the son of the family. Georg steps up, and is whisked away to be part of the war, and they are oblivious as to his Jewish Heritage. He does not want to be part of the war at all, and definitely not on the other side. -
Haas and His Friends
He tries his best to stay away from everyone and not get attached to others, but he does, and he would have ended up regretting it if he had not, as they got him through the war. He met others that had not wanted to be in the war, and learned that many did not share the same beliefs as Hitler. He also met Haas, who is fully German, but does not share the beliefs either, and the two of them begin working together. -
The Dead Boy
While raiding a town for supplies, something he does not want to do, he happens upon a seventeen year old Jewish boy, and unknowingly asks his officer what to do with him. He orders him to kill him, but he cannot, will not do the deed, so Haas comes and does it for him. Although a good man, he knows what needs to be done, and doesn't want him to suffer that pain. This is a defining moment in his life, and causes all of his actions later on. He is still devastated to this day. -
Russian Camp
Him and his squad get taken by the Russians, and move to a Russian camp for war crimes. -
Working for the Other Side
Georg is tired of trying to get through the war merely surviving, so because of his background in technology he decides to try leaking information to the Allies, something that a Russian Officer had recently told him about. -
Freedom
As part of his deal, the Russians let him go now that the war has ended. Still just twenty one years old, he sets out for a new life, finding his way back to his parents. -
Writing a Book
After meeting the love of his life, he moves to the United States, where he then starts writing his book, Unlikely Warrior: A Jewish Soldier in Hitler's Army. He wrote it because he didn't want people getting the wrong understanding/impression of him based off of the fact that he was in Hitler's Army
