Five Wars, Five Names

A South African, with a German Jewish father and an Afrikaans mother, rises to the rank of major general in the Wehrmacht, the Nazi war machine, during the Second World War. He was also involved in the South African War of 1899-1902 (as a boy), the First World War with the conquest of German South West Africa by South African troops (on the German side), the Spanish Civil War (as a member of the Condor Legion) and the struggle of the Irish Republican Army against the British (on the Catholic side)--and often he had to adopt a new identity to stay out of trouble. He recovered remarkably easily from severe wounds and injuries.