Christoph T. M. Krause lives in Cologne.After a long illness, Kurt confesses the greatest secret of his life to his son on his deathbed.During the winter campaign on the way to Russia, as an 18-year-old Wehrmacht radio operator, Kurt was involved in the murder of Ukrainian jews. In a remote Ukrainian village he finds the surviving 18-year-old Vasili in a shack. The two fall in love and experience their first time together. Kurt then saves Vasili's life by enabling him to flee to Sweden.A chain of human helpers forms and Vasili actually manages to survive. Kurt receives the wrong message that Vasili was shot while trying to escape...A coming-of-age and coming-out novel about love and death during World War II.