I was born on July 19, 1937 as Juergen Hans Moldenhauer in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia. This was two years before the famous Gleiwitz incident sparking Hitler's invasion of Poland and igniting World War II.
 
I spent my early childhood in the state of Thuringia, known as the 'green heart' of Germany. I saw the war's impact on both the young and the old, but my life was ultimately uprooted at the age of eight when my mother was arrested by the Russian secret service. I never saw or heard from her again.