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Shortly before his 15th birthday, Wladyslaw "Walter" Wojnas took a bike ride into the Polish countryside. When he returned, he found Nazi troops burning down his village and murdering his entire family. Walter was kidnapped, thrown into a military truck, and sent to a labor camp. From 1940 to 1945, Walter endured the Stutthof Concentration Camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. He worked under the extreme authoritative hand of a Nazi Master Watchmaker who taught him how to turn the stolen watches from the Jews into gifts for the Nazi officers. Upon liberation, Walter was determined to learn everything he could about the internal workings of clocks and watches. He felt he could get some kind of revenge by obtaining as much knowledge as he could and become the very best master watchmaker. Through his undying ambition, Walter achieved his goal of becoming a First-Class Standard of Proficiency in Watchmaking by attending a prestigious university in Hannover, Germany. In 1950, he started a new life in America. In 1952, Walter married his beloved wife Wieslawa (Vivian) and in 1956, became an American citizen. He owned a successful watch shop in Philadelphia at Jewelers' Row, the oldest jewelry district in the U.S. Walter's triumph over tragedy is truly an American success story.