German Boy - to Epilogue or not?

My favourite books expose unique stories that introduce new, fascinating characters from history;  allowing a glimpse into foreign and obscure lives. Bookshelves around our home reveal that I have a special affinity for WWII era stories - to which there is no shortage. However the really special ones are few and far between. The German Boy documents a side of the WWII rarely told - written about the lives of those on the losing side - the German civilians. 

This is a really special book. 

German Boy is an autobiographical story of Wolfgang W.E. Samuel growing up in Nazi Germany. A little boy surviving the hardships of the German civilians; hunger, betrayal, death, bombings and degradation. It is an amazing story that is impeccably written, down to the last detail. 

The book was fantastic. It was so fantastic that I decided to break my rule and read the Epilogue. I never read Forewords, Prefaces or Epilogues. I feel that a book begins with the first sentence and ends with the last - that is the story. Nothing else. I broke that rule when I read German Boy. I was just so captivated by the story, by the way the story was written that I really did not want the book to end - so I read the Epilogue.

It changed the whole book...

The Epilogue tells you that Samuel went on to serve in the United States Air Force for 30 years! He flew against the Soviet Union during the Cold War and dropped bombs on Laos and Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

I was shocked and disappointed. There is a strong sentiment throughout the book towards the futility of war; the waste of human life it causes, the destruction of cities and land, the mental and physical scars inflicted on generations of people. 

Samuel survived the horrors war and observed all the useless destruction and death that the war machine causes. How could someone whose childhood, family, and country was completely destroyed by war then go on to perpetuate the cycle of destruction? How could he drop bombs on civilians just as bombs were dropped on him?  Why did he feel the need to inflict the same horrors on others as he had experienced? Did he not learn anything from his own story? 

German Boy is a remarkable book. Beautifully written, captivating and truly noteworthy. But, personally the Epilogue managed to taint the entire book retroactively for me - this has never happened to me before - then again I have never read an Epilogue before either. 

I should have followed my rule. No Forewords. No Prefaces. No Epilogues.