Life from the Ashes

Guenter L. Grothe was born in Melchow, Germany, in 1931, at the height of the great depression. Adolf Hitler was becoming a political powerhouse, promising jobs and proposing the reclaiming of that portion of Poland that had been removed from Germany as part of the World War I armistice. His agenda was popular with the general public, and he was elected chancellor in 1933. Hitler then began his autocratic rule.

In the late 1930s, life for Grothe and his family was pleasant and calm, but after Hitler's army invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, the war rapidly escalated to World War II, against the reservations of most of the German population. The Grothe family lived through the relentless destruction, but as Germany succumbed, a lawless army of Russians rampaged through eastern Germany murdering, looting, and raping. The Grothe family survived but lost everything. Destitute and living under an oppressive communist regime, they tirelessly strived to survive, rebuild, and restore dignity to their lives.

Under threat of arrest, Grothe defected and had to wait three years before getting a visa to come to the United States of America, where he became the independent owner of a successful dental laboratory.

Join Grothe as he looks back at surviving the horrors of a dictatorial, dispassionate, regime that viewed German workers as slaves, and how he immigrated to America to achieve his American Dream.

Kendall B. Krogstad has forged the Grothe memoir into a readable excursion into living through the horrors of WWII and rising through the ashes of war to become a successful businessman and the epitome of the American Dream.
Krogstad is also the author of Exploration Pilot - The Flying Adventure, which is a compelling account of his extraordinary, often risky missions, including gripping episodes of calamities and near disasters, finally ending in an enigmatic, criminal incident.

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