Felix Hartlaub grew up in Mannheim, the son of an art historian and museum director who was ejected from his post by the Nazis. Hartlaub studied history and was called up immediately upon graduating in 1939. Initially serving in a barrage balloon unit, he was then posted to do archival research and record the progress of the war in Occupied Paris and in various Nazi headquarters. He wrote the diaries, notes and drafts for which he is now known throughout the war up until he went missing in Berlin in May 1945.Michael Hofmann is a translator and poet who was born in Freiburg, Germany. His most recent collection of poetry, One Lark, One Horse, was published by Faber in 2019. He has translated some of the most acclaimed modern and contemporary German-language writers, including Franz Kafka, Joseph Roth and Jenny Erpenbeck.