The author and his brother were born in Nazi Germany at the beginning of World War II. Heroes from the Attic recounts their childhood of danger, starvation, homelessness and ill-matched parents.
Eventually, their mother sent them to relatives in America who immediately enslaved them on separate farms. At the age of twenty, Herman still lived in deep, isolated poverty.
The boys eventually escaped and with courage, tenacity, self-discipline and backbreaking work, they put themselves through college and became Americans. Herman and his wife have traveled the world and some of their adventures are included.