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H. R. R. Furmanski
H. R. R. Furmanski was born in East Prussia in January 1913, one year before the outbreak of World War I. His parents owned a bakeshop, which his mother continued to run whilst his...view moreH. R. R. Furmanski was born in East Prussia in January 1913, one year before the outbreak of World War I. His parents owned a bakeshop, which his mother continued to run whilst his father was sent to war for four years. Although Furmanski dreamed of becoming a doctor, and was sent to a prestigious German high school, he ended up, reluctantly, following in his father’s footsteps and became a master baker.
As World War II approached, his father joined the Nazi party—something which Furmanski himself was against doing himself. Invariably called upon to serve in the German Army, he was once again not granted his wish by his father to defer the order to serve, and joined the military in 1939.
In April 1942, he was ordered to the front, and captured by the Russian Army in December that same year. He would go on to recount the traumatic events he and his family lived through during this difficult time in his brief 1960 autobiography, Life Can Be Cruel: The Story of a German P.O.W. in Russia.
Unable to resume his life in his native Germany after the end of the war, Furmanski decided to free himself from his painful past and immigrated to the United States in the 1950s.view less