Publisher's Synopsis
God Meant it for Good is the remarkable true story of an American-born boy who grew up in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. After a family tragedy, Elmer Reu was sent from Chicago to rural Kürnbach in southwestern Germany, at the very time Hitler seized power. Elmer's childhood was marked by farming and poverty, until he heard the Nazi's promise of a brighter future. It wasn't long before Elmer and his friends joined the Hitler Youth, a propaganda-fueled group for young boys. With activities like hiking, camping, and sports, along with improvements to the country like the Autobahn and the Volkswagen, the Nazis seemingly had lifted Germany from economic despair. When World War II broke out, Elmer and his entire village struggled to reconcile Hitler's devotion to Germans with the dictator's violent megalomania and hatred of others. What reason could God possibly have had to send Elmer from America into such a dangerous tempest? As the war intensified, so did Elmer's disillusionment with America. Soon, he was on a dangerous path headed directly for his German-born brother-now a soldier in the American Army marching toward the Black Forest. Elmer's story of deliverance and redemption is interwoven with the Biblical story of Joseph and the author's own quest to make sense of his family heritage. Journey through time and space-from Chicago in 2009 to rural 1940s Germany, from Egypt in 1883 B.C. to Israel in 2018-to see how God intends every trial for the good of those who follow Him.
