Lucky Victim: An Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times, 1933-1946

In a genteel memoir of limited appeal, the author, a professor at the University of Virginia, describes his exile from Germany as a teenager during Hitler's early years in power and his gradual absorption into American society. For safety, his parents (Jewish mother, gentile father) sent him to Holland, then England, finally to the U.S. Schmitt attended Washington and Lee University and the University of Chicago, and returned to Germany during WW II as an American citizen wearing the uniform of the U.S. Army. His wartime duties consisted mainly of interrogating German POWs (``I vacillated between hostility and pity''), and he spent most of his free time searching for members of his family. His father had died in the war, but Schmitt was reunited with his mother and brother, and brought them to the U.S. after the war. Photos. (Oct.)