Gerhard Maroscher was born in Romania during WWII to ethnic German (Transylvanian Saxon) parents. His father was fighting the Russians while his mother tried to save her two sons. As child Gerhard lived in Romania, Hungary, Communist East Germany, and West Germany. In 1952 the reunited family emigrated from West Germany to the USA. Gerhard attended public schools and graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree from The Ohio State University.

Gerhard worked in industry for 34 years after having served in Vietnam. Following his retirement at the age of 59, he began a second career as a high school German teacher. He began to write quirky short stories for his students to encourage reluctant readers. The students and his wife loved the short stories, both encouraging him to publish all four German short story readers.

While teaching and creating his short stories, Gerhard began to consider writing a book about the history of his family: a story of danger, fear, loss, courage, near starvation, perseverance, and miraculous survival. Gerhard had been collecting information for this book for decades. He had listened to his parents talk about their experiences and kept a file of conversations and voice recordings. Combined with the recordings, the documents preserved by his parents, and further research made it possible for him to write this amazing story.

Now that his family’s story is published he stays busy marketing the book, practicing yoga, teaching German to adults, and agreeing with everything his wife says.