Friedrich Schmidt

Friedrich is a young man who lives in Germany in the late 1930s as Hitler is coming to power. He is a gifted musician but has a birthmark on the side of his face so that other children and even adults made fun of him. In addition, there is a medical report that he had a seizure as a child. Those two things make him one of those who was to be forcibly sterilized so that he could not have children. Friedrich feels so self conscious that he often loses himself in music and pretends to be a conductor. His music is so important to him that this is how he copes with the problems in life.

Friedrich's father takes him out of school and takes over his education as a means of getting Friedrich out of school. Friedrich works in the mornings at the harmonica factory...