BETWEEN THE LINES

After retiring from social work in 1977, Frazier and his wife led counseling workshops throughout the world, including his native Germany, where they focused on WWII's long-lasting effects. Here, he combines his previously unpublished memoirs, written in 1944–45 and set aside for half a century, with his WWII-era letters to his mother. Frazier was born Ulrich Heinicke in 1921 and was raised in Berlin with a Jewish stepfather. He dropped out of the Hitler Youth movement as the Nazis gained power, and his family emigrated in 1937 to Portland, Ore., where he attended high school and college. After basic training in Wyoming in 1943, he was assigned to rescue Allied personnel caught behind German lines during the Normandy invasion. Later, Frazier's team worked with Italian partisans in the Alps, and in 1945 he retrieved important documents from German cities. Though his prose lacks flair, Frazier's story can nevertheless be compelling as it shifts between plodding diaristic details and harrowing descriptions of his wartime activities—e.g., rescuing a man trapped for nine days in the snow or sniffing out hidden SS personnel files before their destruction. Along with a family tree and maps, more than 150 photographs have been culled from family albums and Frazier's own WWII snapshots, but unfortunately they are reproduced rather murkily. (Nov. 1)