Topsy's GI Journey

A true story and a moving tale about extraordinary times, Topsy's GI Journey follows an American GI and his dog, Topsy, who adopted him in England, through the unforgettable events of the last year of World War II. She became his good luck charm and the mascot of his outfit, a mortar battalion. Topsy had pups in England, France, and Germany and accompanied Rudolph Lea through many scrapes, narrow escapes, and exciting events. Born in Berlin, Lea came to the United States in the first group of Jewish children to be sent out of Nazi Germany. He stepped again on German soil as an American GI in the final push into Nazi Germany in 1945. He describes his contacts with German civilians and his confrontation of the horrors of Nazi rule. His buddies in the mortar battalion emerge as richly interesting men who had a powerful influence on him and who helped to shape his coming of age as an American. The author's status as a German Jewish refugee in childhood who joined the U.S. Army as a young adult gives this memoir and his reflections special poignancy and perspective.