ALEX BUCHNER was born in 1920 in Starnberg, Bavaria. Having left school, he volunteered to join the German Army Mountain Troops in 1939. By the end of the war he was a first lieutenant and an officer commanding a company. He spent two months in an American prisoner-of-war camp and was released on 25 July 1945. After re-armament and the founding of the Bundeswehr, he remained engaged with the army and retired as a major (reserve).
A native English speaker of German and Danish descent, Janice W. Ancker holds a PhD in Germanic Languages and Literatures from University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, with a focus on 20th century European social and political history. She grew up listening to stories and experiences of family members who served during World War II. Later, as a military family member, she lived and taught in Germany for more than ten years. She is the translator of Jutland (M. Epkenhans) Hitler’s Wehrmacht (R. Müller), and The Forgotten Front: The Eastern Theater of World War I, 1914–1915 (G. Gross).
