The story of Alex Kurzem, a young Jewish boy who survived the massacre of his Belarusian shtetl during WWII, only to be taken in by the Nazi SS. He witnessed the massacre of his family and entire community by an execution squad. Escaping into the Belarusian woods, he braved a brutal winter alone until his capture by a Latvian battalion that had been absorbed into the SS. Instead of killing him, the soldiers took pity on Alex and gave him a uniform, rifle, and a new name-transforming him into their child mascot