"Hugo Frank was born in 1871, in a village near Greiz, Thuringia, just after the end of the Franco-Prussian War. His life and that of his family was bounded by three major conflagrations of war, hyperinflation, the reign and terror of the Nazis, and the eventual demise of the three 'ism's: Monarchism, Nazism and Communism. In other words, Hugo Frank lived and died in the maelstrom of German history. How do ordinary people manage when they become subject to political and social pressures and arbitrary government actions, often without recourse and with little room to manoeuvre?"--
