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Im Zweiten Weltkrieg baut die US-Armee in Camp Ritchie, Maryland, eine schlagkräftige Truppe zur Feindaufklärung auf. Dazu zieht sie auch deutsch-jüdische Flüchtlinge aus Europa heran, die man später Ritchie Boys nannte. Für den jungen Emigranten Guy Stern, der durch seine Flucht vor den Nazis als Einziger aus seiner Familie den Holocaust überlebte, beginnt in Camp Ritchie die aufregendste und prägendste Zeit seines Lebens. Er durchläuft eine spezielle Ausbildung, bevor er an die Front geht. Bei der Invasion in der Normandie betritt Guy Stern erstmals wieder europäischen Boden, um deutsche Kriegsgefangene zu verhören. Solche Aufklärungsergebnisse tragen entscheidend zum Sieg über Deutschland bei. Nach dem Krieg macht Guy Stern eine Karriere als weltweit renommierter Germanist, der sich der Exilliteratur und dem Holocaust widmet und zu einem Brückenbauer zwischen Deutschland und den USA wird. Als einer der letzten Ritchie Boys lässt Guy Stern jene Ereignisse und ein ganzes Jahrhundert wieder lebendig werden.

An interview with Professor Guy Stern, Director of the Institute of the Righteous at the Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus in Farmington Hills, MI. Adapted from the source document.

"Invisible Ink is the story of Guy Stern's remarkable life. This is not a Holocaust memoir; however, Stern 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. Stern 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." Stern 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 Stern's life. His story begins with Stern'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 Stern recollects by exact dates and calls "the end of [his] childhood and adolescence." Through a series of fortunate occurrences, Stern immigrated to the United States at the tender age of fifteen. While attending St. Louis University, Stern 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), Stern did. He has gone 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 gives Stern strength time after time, it is his resolute determination to persevere. To that end Stern's memoir provides hope, strength, and graciousness in times of uncertainty"--