Invisible Ink (Title Not in Series)
by: Guy Ste (Author)
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Publication Date: 2020/8/18
Language: English
Print Length: 274 pages
ISBN-10: 0814347592
ISBN-13: 9780814347591
Book Description
Invisible Ink is the story of Guy Ste’s remarkable life. This is not a Holocaust memoir; however, Ste makes it clear that the horrors of the Holocaust and his remarkable escape from Nazi Germany created the central driving force for the rest of his life. Ste gives much credit to his father’s profound cautionary words, “You have to be like invisible ink. You will leave traces of your existence when, in better times, we can emerge again and show ourselves as the individuals we are.” Ste carried these words and their psychological impact for much of his life, shaping himself around them, until his emergence as someone who would be visible to thousands over the years.This book is divided into thirteen chapters, each marking a pivotal moment in Ste’s life. His story begins with Ste’s parents – “the two met, or else this chronicle would not have seen the light of day (nor me, for that matter).” Then, in 1933, the Nazis come to power, ushering in a fiery and destructive timeline that Ste recollects by exact dates and calls “the end of [his] childhood and adolescence.” Through a series of fortunate occurrences, Ste immigrated to the United States at the tender age of fifteen. While attending St. Louis University, Ste was drafted into the U.S. Army and soon found himself selected, along with other German-speaking immigrants, for a special military intelligence unit that would come to be known as the Ritchie Boys (named so because their training took place at Ft. Ritchie, MD). Their primary job was to interrogate Nazi prisoners, often on the front lines. Although his family did not survive the war (the details of which the reader is spared), Ste did. He went on to have a long and illustrious career as a scholar, author, husband and father, mentor, decorated veteran, and friend.Invisible Ink is a story that will have a lasting impact. If one can name a singular characteristic that gave Ste strength time after time, it was his resolute determination to persevere. To that end Ste’s memoir provides hope, strength, and graciousness in times of uncertainty.
About the Author
Invisible Ink is the story of Guy Ste’s remarkable life. This is not a Holocaust memoir; however, Ste makes it clear that the horrors of the Holocaust and his remarkable escape from Nazi Germany created the central driving force for the rest of his life. Ste gives much credit to his father’s profound cautionary words, “You have to be like invisible ink. You will leave traces of your existence when, in better times, we can emerge again and show ourselves as the individuals we are.” Ste carried these words and their psychological impact for much of his life, shaping himself around them, until his emergence as someone who would be visible to thousands over the years.This book is divided into thirteen chapters, each marking a pivotal moment in Ste’s life. His story begins with Ste’s parents – “the two met, or else this chronicle would not have seen the light of day (nor me, for that matter).” Then, in 1933, the Nazis come to power, ushering in a fiery and destructive timeline that Ste recollects by exact dates and calls “the end of [his] childhood and adolescence.” Through a series of fortunate occurrences, Ste immigrated to the United States at the tender age of fifteen. While attending St. Louis University, Ste was drafted into the U.S. Army and soon found himself selected, along with other German-speaking immigrants, for a special military intelligence unit that would come to be known as the Ritchie Boys (named so because their training took place at Ft. Ritchie, MD). Their primary job was to interrogate Nazi prisoners, often on the front lines. Although his family did not survive the war (the details of which the reader is spared), Ste did. He went on to have a long and illustrious career as a scholar, author, husband and father, mentor, decorated veteran, and friend.Invisible Ink is a story that will have a lasting impact. If one can name a singular characteristic that gave Ste strength time after time, it was his resolute determination to persevere. To that end Ste’s memoir provides hope, strength, and graciousness in times of uncertainty.