The Man in the Black Fur Coat: A Soldier's Adventures on the Eastern Front Tapa blanda - 2014

Oskar Scheja was born in 1908 in Lower Silesia. He was married and had one son. Oskar joined the German army in World War Two and led a platoon through many battles until his capture near Dnipropetrovs'k in what is now Ukraine. After the war Oskar left his family and immigrated to the United States in the mid 1950's. There he met another German immigrant, Hedwig Rittinghaus. The unmarried couple lived together in Newark, New Jersey, and later in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Oskar worked for many years in a machine shop in Bridgeport before returning to Germany with Hedwig in the early 1970's. He died in Vechta, Germany in 1980. He left behind a journal of his experiences during and after the war that would become this story. Dan Chiariello was born in 1964 in Hopatcong, New Jersey. He has lived nearly all his life in Northwestern New Jersey and resides today in Sparta with his wife and two sons. The exception was a two-year period from 1977 to 1979 when his family moved to Vechta, Germany, next door to Oskar and great aunt Hedwig. Dan is a graduate of Drew University and works today as an independent technology consultant.