Additional information
by Wolfram R. Forster (Author)
Wolfram Forster grew up in Berlin during the reign of Hitler. It was a time when German citizens were so deprived of freedom that a dentist was executed simply for confiding in a patient that he held a shadow of doubt about the fate of Hitler's war. While Wolfram and his family struggled to live any kind of normal life during the height of World War II, he clung to two dreams for his future: to someday live in America and to become a doctor. To have any hope of realizing those dreams, however, he would need to navigate an endless trail of fear, terror, heartbreak, confusion, injustice and the constant threat of annihilation while living in Europe at a time when life was turned upside down. First, he had to survive the relentless Allied bombing of Berlin. One day he discovered his neighborhood movie theater blown to pieces just hours after sirens blared as a signal for him and his mother to get out, and a factory where he was assigned to work was destroyed on the day he was forced to stay home with an illness. Still, he marveled at the American B-17s and B-24s soaring in formation over his city and vowed that one day he would fly in one. Called to serve as a German soldier in the final months of the war, he was captured by the Allies and held as a POW by three different national militaries: the Americans, the French, and the Russians. Finally, almost two years after the end of the war, he gained his freedom. Over time, and overcoming many new obstacles, he found his way to fulfill those two childhood goals, becoming a noted radiologist treating patients from inside the power circles of Washington, DC and going on to serve as a Colonel in the U.S. Army. Farewell, Berlin tells the almost unimaginable story of Wolfram Forster. With honesty, warmth and vivid detail, it provides a close-up look inside a world rarely glimpsed by anyone who has ever been curious about the long years of bloodshed and turmoil of World War II. Includes 35 family photos and memorabilia and one map.
Author Biography
Wolfram Forster was born in Berlin on October 22, 1925. As a teenager during WWII, he completed high school and began his medical studies at Berlin University in 1944. He was an eyewitness to the massive bombing attacks by the British and American Air Forces and the strangulation of thought and speech by the Nazi government as well as the dire consequences suffered by those who openly disagreed with Adolph Hitler. Being drafted into the Wehrmacht only 6 months before the war in Europe ended, he was taken prisoner by 9th US Army forces and spent the next 22 months as a POW in American, French and Soviet custody. Coming home in March 1947, he resumed his medical studies in 1948 at Humboldt University and finally graduated from the Free University of Berlin with a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1954. After his internship in Passaic, NJ (1954/55) he served as a medical officer in the US Air Force at Bitburg AB. During this time, he married his wife Gertie and prepared for his legal immigration to the US. He returned to America to assume his medical residency in 1957. After certification by the American Board of Radiology, he spent his professional life in Washington, DC as a partner in a high profile radiology practice. In 1981, he joined the US Army Reserve (97th ARCOM) and retired in 1991 with the rank of Colonel. He now lives with his wife Sarah (Gertie passed away in 1993) in San Diego, CA. His daughter Sharon is a veterinarian practicing in Oregon and his daughter Suzie is a retired pediatrician living with her husband (also a radiologist) in South Carolina.
