This extraordinary book describes how it was possible to maintain freedom and self-respect in Germany during the war and Nazi era despite everything. For Aicher, a high school student born in 1922, it was clear that he wanted nothing to do with Hitler; he refused to join the Hitler Youth, which meant he was not allowed to take his Abitur. Although he could not escape military service, he managed to emerge morally unscathed from those terrifying years, untouched by the lust for power and immune to the allure of war, partly because he made himself somewhat small and refused to become an officer. Otl Aicher published these notes forty years after the end of the war, possibly also because he recognized certain misdevelopments in this republic. In any case, he wanted, as stated in the book, "to belong to those whose convictions can be relied upon, who have learned to endure and withstand history, and who can have self-respect." In a time when soldiers are recently being granted special honor and the Bundeswehr is used as a tool of politics for foreign missions, this book is relevant and important. The younger generation can find many thought-provoking reflections within it. For example: "Those who are satisfied with opposition in their minds retreat into civic non-commitment and dry up in it." A book against drying up.