THE BOYS IN THE LIGHT is a rare account of conflict, terror, salvation and family cohesion that details the often perilous but always remarkably loyal connection among young men who are facing death yet are still able to act to save themselves and others. It was a relationship born in near failure and ending in undeniable triumph.

"Willner’s work undoubtedly will be read and recommended by those who appreciate seeing its deeply researched history come to new light and by those who see the promise of higher aspirations in its intimate view of human caring."

Nina Willner’s father, Eddie, should have led a comfortable life as the only son of middle-class parents who, like most Jewish citizens of their region of Germany, were fully assimilated with their Christian neighbors. But the pervasive evil of Hitler’s hatred of Jews would lead 16-year-old Eddie to a narrow escape from annihilation. Forced to flee, he; his father, Siegfried; and his best friend, Mike, became laborers at Auschwitz III, while his mother was murdered in a Nazi gas chamber.

The conditions were appalling, and more than once the prisoners barely evaded the brutal hanging that could have been their fate for the smallest infraction. Still, the two starving Jewish boys escaped and came into contact with Company D, a unit of 3rd Armored Division tankers. They were “saved” by being given kitchen work and were encouraged by its leader, 23-year-old Elmer Hovland, and its head cook, Sammy DeCola (dubbed “Pepsi”). These forged friendships would span years, continents, and life’s many twists and turns.

Willner, a former US Army intelligence officer and a world advocate for human rights, has painted a memorable portrait of men at war, fleeing tyranny and upholding high moral values. THE BOYS IN THE LIGHT covers the most horrific scenarios in contrast with the embedded uplift in this saga of the alienation of war and the overarching qualities of camaraderie.

Willner’s work undoubtedly will be read and recommended by those who appreciate seeing its deeply researched history come to new light and by those who see the promise of higher aspirations in its intimate view of human caring.