Under the SS Shadow

A true story. A former Hitler Youth, an SS major's son, runs for his life in war-torn Europe, sees his father shot down by guerrillas, rebuilds his life from the ruins, leaves Hitler's SS emblem for another symbol.

Excerpts from UNDER THE SS SHADOW:

* “In an official declaration, my father stated that he and his family had left the state church. We were Gottglaubig. The SS symbol became the point of reference for our family.”

* “We of the Hitler Youth were going forward with Hitler, we were sure. Several years later, as I huddled in a foxhole, I wondered where we were going or where we could go.”

* “I feel like a man sitting in a car that's going down a hill," my father said, "but it's too late to get out.” * “May 7, 1945, Germany officially surrendered to the Western Allies. On May 9, Russian troops marched into Berlin. I could not even guess what the future held for me.”

* “Augsburg is about fifty miles from Dachau, location of the infamous concentration camp. Only after the war did we discover what had happened at our doorstep.”

Traugott Vogel, born in Heidelberg, Germany, is the son of a former SS officer. He came to the United States in 1974 to become pastor of a church in Texas. Shirley Stephens, with whom Traugott collaborated in writing his story, is the author of three other books and countless articles, a long-time editor, and a wife and mother. Other books to her credit: My Daughter Susan Smith, the story of a troubled young mother who sent her children to their deaths in a South Carolina lake. Breaking Crime's Vicious Cycle, the gripping, true-life story of hardened criminal Don Dennis and his conversion and transformation into a life of service to inmates; and A New Testament View of Women, a biblical study of what the New Testament really says about women.