Escape From Berlin: The True Story of an American Student Trapped in Hitler's Germany - Paperback

by Walter K. Asbeck (Author)

More than seventy years after the end of World War II, the atrocities committed by Hitler's regime still resonate through history as some of the worst examples of human cruelty. In examining these events from a modern perspective, many questions come to mind. Why didn't the German citizens stand up and do something? How did they let this tyrant take control right before their eyes?

Dr. Walter K. Asbeck was in a unique situation at the time. After arriving in Berlin in 1939, he lived in the city as an American student during the height of the Nazi regime, giving him a front row seat to the beginnings of the Second World War. From this vantage point, he saw how the average German felt about Hitler. The rise of the Nazi regime had created prosperous conditions within Germany while the United States was struggling through the Great Depression.

But escaping Hitler's Germany as an American citizen was no small feat, and Walt and his family found themselves stranded in the midst of wartime. Escape from Berlin is the captivating first-hand account of these memorable years-straight from a man who experienced it all.

Author Biography

Dr. Walter K. Asbeck was born in Hagen, Germany, before immigrating with his parents to the United States at the age of eight. After growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, he studied chemical engineering at Case Western Reserve University and accepted a full-time scholarship to the Technical University in Berlin to earn his doctorate.

He spent a year traveling the world with a friend before arriving in Berlin in 1939, where he lived as a student at the onset of World War II.

Since returning to the United States, Dr. Asbeck has published groundbreaking research regarding latex paints, working with the Sherwin-Williams Company and the Union Carbide Corporation. He also invented the Amphibious Travel Craft, a luxury recreational vehicle that can be driven like a motor home and can also navigate like a cabin cruiser down lakes and rivers.

Dr. Asbeck, who recently celebrated his hundredth birthday, lives in Cleveland, Ohio, with his daughter and her family.