Witness to the Storm, Werner T. Angress
Witness to the Storm, Werner T. Angress
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Witness to the Storm
A Jewish Journey from Nazi Berlin to the 82nd Airborne, 1920–1945

Author: Werner T. Angress

Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki

Unabridged: 27 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/01/2019

Synopsis

On June 6, 1944, Werner T. Angress parachuted down from a C-47 into German-occupied France with the 82nd Airborne Division. Nine days later, he was captured behind enemy lines and, concealing his identity as a German-born Jew, became a prisoner of war. Eventually, he was freed by US forces, rejoined the fight, and participated in the liberation of a concentration camp. Although he was an American soldier, less than ten years before he had been an enthusiastically patriotic German-Jewish boy. Rejected and threatened by the Nazi regime, the Angress family fled to Amsterdam to escape persecution and death, and young Angress then found his way to the United States. In Witness to the Storm, Angress weaves the spellbinding story of his life, including his escape from Germany, his new life in the United States, and his experiences in World War II. A testament to the power of perseverance and forgiveness, Witness to the Storm is the powerful tale of one man’s struggle to fight for and rescue the country that had betrayed him.

About Werner T. Angress

Werner T. Angress (1920–2010) was a German-Jewish refugee, WWII veteran, and professor of history; he taught European history at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, for twenty-five years. Werner Angress (then Tom) escaped Nazi Germany when he was seventeen and joined the US Army in 1941, serving as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division, and making his first jump into Normandy on D-Day. He interrogated German prisoners at the French front lines and later at the Battle of the Bulge, and was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service as well as the Purple Heart. Along with many articles, he published three books: Stillborn Revolution: The Communist Bid for Power in Germany, 1921-1923 (Princeton, 1963); Between Fear & Hope: Jewish Youth in the Third Reich (Columbia, 1988); and the German edition of his autobiography—Immer etwas abseits: Jugenderinnerungen eines judischen Berliners, 1920-1945 (Berlin: Edition Hentrich, 2005). In 1988 he retired to Berlin, where he spoke frequently at schools and memorial sites about his youth under the Nazis. He continued to mentor students, and to use his skills as a teacher and writer to intervene on behalf of disadvantaged groups, including Turkish immigrants in Germany and East Germans after reunification.

About Claire Bloom

Claire Bloom, CBE, is an English film and stage actress, known for leading roles in plays such as Streetcar Named Desire, A Doll’s House, and Long Day’s Journey into Night, along with nearly sixty films and countless television roles, during a career spanning over six decades. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 Queen’s birthday honors for services to drama.

About Stefan Rudnicki

Stefan Rudnicki first became involved with audiobooks in 1994. Now a Grammy-winning audiobook producer, he has worked on more than five thousand audiobooks as a narrator, writer, producer, or director. He has narrated more than nine hundred audiobooks. A recipient of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards, he was presented the coveted Audie Award for solo narration in 2005, 2007, and 2014, and was named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices in 2012.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bob on May 29, 2021

A life well-lived recalled A “60 Minutes” episode acquainted me with “the Ritchie Boys,” Jewish German immigrants who chose to serve their new country in fighting their birth homeland during WWII. Werner Angress was one of them, and after reading a more general history of these remarkable patriots, I......more

Goodreads review by Rosemary on September 02, 2023

I highly recommend "Witness to the Storm." I did skim the first part of the book as the childhood background seemed as if it would be more appealing to family readers. The just of it was Werner's father was a successful hard-working businessman who spent little time with the children and his mother......more

Goodreads review by Jeff on January 09, 2023

Unique and compelling memoir Werner Angress' memoir covers aspects of the Third Reich that I wasn't expecting, mainly growing up as a Jewish boy in the Thirties and being in Jewish youth groups paradoxically sponsored by the Nazi government itself. His further adventures, such as parachuting into Nor......more

Goodreads review by Julia on August 16, 2023

Idk if the narration was part of what I didn’t like about it I like the history but it was hard to listen to and keep up with at times. The last part was much as what I heard in another book but elaborated a little and I liked that. I still liked hearing the story just took me longer to get through.......more

Goodreads review by Pamela on March 20, 2025

another WWII experience I have read so many World War II books… I should’ve been keeping count! But this one is an aspect I had never read about before: what it was like growing up as Hitler was coming to power, escaping Nazi Germany, and then going back to fight against the Germans. Fascinating sto......more

Quotes

“A gem…A gripping, suspenseful story…Sober, frank, and humane.” Journal of Central European History

“This is an extraordinary memoir, self-ironic and humane, dealing with one of the darkest chapters of twentieth century history.” Konrad H. Jarausch, Lurcy Professor of European Civilization, Department of History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

“This autobiography deserves to be placed next to Victor Klemperer’s I Will Bear Witness as a vivid account of the Nazi years…Readers will find in these pages the unforgettable depiction of a turbulent life.” Allan Mitchell, author of Nazi Paris

Awards

  • Independent Publisher Book Award
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