From the Inside Flap:
Miki has a wooden scooter with rubber wheels. Though the wheels are red and rather attractive, he is dreaming of a real bicycle. He is only eight years old and likes to play with his cut out paper soldiers, which his father generously supplies him from his bookstore. The soldiers are mainly Hungarian and German soldiers. There are complete military orchestras as well to be cut out. It is a lot of work for an eight-year-old. Then, finally the soldiers are starting to march on the carpet in the living room. Miki does not know yet that the real soldiers will very soon play an important role in his life. This innocence of not knowing how things really are is forgivable for a small child. But what happens if our Miki never really catches up with the brutal reality of his changing surroundings? Is this a desirable personality trait, or just plain stupidity? Whatever it is, this is the key to his survival of the years of Holocaust and Communist terror. He is not only a survivor, but he is a contented person always finding the interesting, the exciting parts of a given situation...
...The rest is in the book.