It is Paul's biggest wish to go in for a career in the Hungarian military. In 1944 he finally manages to get into a cadet school. The school is evacuated a few weeks later and Paul goes on his first journey abroad. In 1945, at the age of sixteen, he is taken prisoner and spends some months in an American POW camp in Bavaria. There he starts learning English, works in the camp kitchen and begins his career as a surgeon. After discharge Paul and his friend, Theo, explore postwar Germany by rail. Back in Regensburg they work at the US Army hospital until Paul receives a letter from the Red Cross.