Joachim von Elbe's compelling autobiographical account spans most of the twentieth century. Born in 1902 in Hamm, Germany, he attended the Gymnasium in Neuwied-on-the-Rhine. A student of history and law at the universities of Hamburg, Kiel, and Berlin, he graduated to become research associate at the Institute for Foreign Public Law and International Law in Berlin.
Under Hitler, having been classified a Mongrel of the Second Degree because of his non-Aryan grandmother, he was dismissed from the public service and subsequently emigrated to the United States where he studied law at Yale...