Hidden deep in a the Bavarian mountains lies that picturesque village of Oberstdorf-a place where for hundreds of years people lived simple lives while history was made elsewhere. Yet even this remote idyll could not escape the brutal iron grip of the Nazi regime. Drawing on personal archives, letters, interviews, and memoirs, it lays bare their brutality and love; courage and weakness; action, apathy, and grief; hope, pain, joy, and despair. within its pages we encounter people from all walks of life-foresters, priests, farmers, and nuns; innkeepers, Nazi officials, veterans, and party members; village councilors, mountaineers, socialists, slave laborers, schoolchildren, tourists, and aristocrats. We meet the Jews who survived-and those who didn't-the Nazi mayor who tried to shield those persecuted by the regime, and a blind boy whose life was judged "not worth living." This is a tale of conflicting loyalties and desires, of shattered dreams-but one in which, ultimately, human resilience triumphs. These are the stories of ordinary lives at the crossroads of history.