Alexander Granach (1890–1945), who died while he was acting on Broadway in 1945, brilliantly relates the remarkable story of his unlikely path from a
poverty-stricken, rough-and-tumble childhood to success on the German stage. This is the account of a daring, curiosity-filled, and perceptive
Jewish child from poor towns in Galicia who was seized with a passion for the theater when he saw his first show at the age of 14. His career was
abruptly interrupted by World War I and his time as a prisoner of war in Italy, but after a daring escape and the end of the war he resumed his
rise to prominence in German artistic life. A natural storyteller, Granach's autobiography captures equally the charms, adventures, and
trials of his shtetl days, the horrors of trench warfare, and the glamour and excitement of the German theater before Hitler came to power.