Private Good Luck

A teenage Jewish immigrant. A U.S. Army uniform. A war that brought him back to Europe.

Private Good Luck is the remarkable true story of Irving Gluck, a young Jewish man who fled Czechoslovakia after World War II had begun-and later returned as an American infantryman to fight Nazi Germany.

After finding refuge in the United States, Irving enlisted in the U.S. Army as a non-citizen and crossed back into Europe through North Africa, Italy, France, and Germany. As he fought on the front lines, he lived with the unanswered fear of what might have happened to the family he had been forced to leave behind.

Written by his son, Sherwin Gluck, this deeply personal wartime memoir traces one soldier's journey from rural Eastern Europe to the battlefields of the Second World War. It explores Jewish identity, immigration, loyalty, moral courage, and the anguish of fighting for freedom while living with silence, uncertainty, and hope.

Based on firsthand accounts and original family correspondence, Private Good Luck offers a rare perspective on the war through the eyes of a Jewish refugee turned American soldier-one whose survival depended not only on bravery, but on chance, timing, and good luck. A private in the Army and a private man, Irving did not tell his full story for nearly sixty years-hence the title, Private Good Luck.

Hardcover and paperback editions include exclusive material not available in the Kindle edition.