Lost in Nomansland

Hans Kassner, trained as a watchmaker in the capital of East Prussia, is wounded in WW1. He meets and marries Mili Schneider, a Jewish night-club singer, but their only son Julius later joins the SS. Hans' best friend Carl Hallersen has a brief affair with Mili, whom Hans then marries, to his parents' disapproval. WW2 comes. Carl and Julius are both sent east, Mili is taken to a camp which Hans penetrates, in search of her. As the Russians advance, he desperately flees westwards. On the way he chances on a Belgian count who has been left for dead, saves this man's life and is given a residence on the border with Germany. One day, Gadmen,a young philosophy student, arrives and provides Hans with some companionship. Hans now has a Belgian identity, not wishing the world to know he is a German - for he once committed an atrocity which could put him behind bars. The tension mounts and there is a sad but fitting ending.