Heil Roosevelt, An American Student in Nazi Germany

About the Book

Heil Roosevelt, An American Student in Nazi Germany, includes a detailed description of my experiences during an exchange fellowship in 1938-1939 from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania to the University of Frankfurt. As an introduction to a 1600 mile bicycle trip during the year, included is a detailed description of a trip to Vienna during the Sudetan crisis which ended in the Munich Agreement in 1938. Perhaps the most disturbing experience I had was viewing the deportation of the Jewish peole to concentration camps. Other experiences included Kristallnacht in Frankfurt, Christmas spent in Hamburg with relatives I had never met, a visit to Berlin, an invitation to teach English to German teachers in camps run by the Ministry of Education, a Strength through Joy trip to Italy with 2,200 German workers and 2 Americans, a bicycle trip to Prague during the invasion of Czechoslavia by German troops, life on a German farm run by Nazis and a confrontation with the Germans during a farewell party in Frankfurt.

About the Author

Walter W. Williamson is a retired professor from Towson State University in Maryland. He spent 1938-1939 in Germany on an exchange fellowship from Lafayette College. While in Germany, he saw Hitler in Berlin and witnessed the opening of Reich Chancellery where Hitler later died. While in Germany, he bicycled approximately 1600 miles through Germany, Austria, Czechoslavia and Holland. After his experiences in Europe, he returned to the United States to spend the next 28 years as a teacher at Temple University, Kutztown University, a visiting professor at the University of Hawaii and a professor at Towson State. He did additional work for Education Testing Service in Princeton, N.J. Dr. Williamson has been retired since 1974 and resides in Longboat Key, Florida and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.