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Franzl II Book

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Product Code: BOOK-FRANZL

Description

This book tells the story of Franzl's life from his birth in 1921 to the year 2000. It tells of the immense joys of his early years of skiing in his hometown of St. Anton in the Austrian Tyrol, his early racing with the very primitive equipment, climbing mountains and haying in the fields, berry-picking in the fall and playing soccer.

But in 1938 a cloud appeared on the Austrian horizon. Hitler's soldiers marched into Austria and annexed it amid jubilation into the Third Reich.

In 1941 a dark cloud appeared in his life. He was sent to the Russian Front as "cannon fodder" for Hitler's madness -- Hitler who wanted more Lebensraum for the German people.

One cannot adequately describe the hardships the German Landser (G.I.) endured, especially the infantryman. It was inhuman, to say the least.

With immense luck he was able to see his home again. It was as if a higher power had a hand in it.

Two and a half years after coming home from a Russian P.O.W. camp, he won the first Olympic medal in skiing for Austria.

-- Bellingham, Washington, 2000

Autobiography gives a vivid and detailed account of lifelong ski career and four years of life as a foot soldier in Hitler's Wermacht. A war classic that also gives a detailed view of ski racing from an insider�s perspective. By Franz X. Gabl. 1st edition, published 2000.

Soft cover. 309 pages, 9 x 6 inches. Photos included.