From her earliest memories Diane Dean-Epps and her father, Frank Dean, had Father-Daughter talks—really more like listens—when he would share stories about his time as a Nazi Germany Stalag 17-B POW.

Diane knew always knew her father’s story needed to be told; a story that happened so long ago yet remains entirely relevant today. The historical lessons alone with their timeless takeaways spurred her on to tell the story after she answered this one all-important question:

How in the flock was she going to tell a 78-year-old story about her father being held as a prisoner of war in a Nazi Germany concentration camp, and give it a positive spin?

The answer came to her when she was driving. She realized her dad’s story is about never, ever giving up on himself, or anyone else. In no small measure, he survived the camp due to those other incredibly heroic men who were right there with him, never giving up either. They shared their Red Cross parcels with each other, they shared the concentration camp prisoner of war experience with each other, and they shared an unbreakable bond with other. They were his brothers who he loved beyond measure.

His story is anything but sad. It’s a celebration of not only survival, but of moving forward from the experience, and coming out on the other side with dignity, with respect, and with pride. Unbroken.

This book is an amalgam representing a lifetime collection of accounts told to Diane by her father over the course of four decades. She had one tape from a 1987 talk her father gave to the Caterpillar Club, when he told his story chronologically. It tied together all of the World War II Stalag 17-B prisoner of war stories he’d told her over the course of four decades into a word bow called Remember.