Dr. Walter Leopold was born in 1898 in Ottweiler, Germany, the son of a cantor. Sincere about his Jewish faith but not orthodox, he fought in WWI for the German Imperial Army and received an Iron Cross for bravery in the Macedonia campaigns. After the war he attended Heidelberg University, earning his doctorate with the hope of serving in the new Weimar Republic. Finding his path blocked because of his religion he secured work within the Jewish community becoming the director of the Reichenheim Orphanage in Berlin. There he met his future wife, Hilda Bluemlein, a pediatric nurse and daughter of a prosperous factory owner in Leipzig. In 1930, they relocated to Leipzig where Walter worked in the Gemeinde - the city's semi-autonomous Jewish administration. Although his mother and two brothers emigrated to the United States after the Nazi's took power, Walter, Hilda and their daughter Anneliese, born in 1937, remained in Germany. As an anti-Fascist activist, Walter engaged in resistance activities throughout the war. His battle against the Nazi death machine is the story of this memoir.
