Samuel Cox is a retired US Army Reserve officer, an educator for four decades, and a lifelong student of the Holocaust. He taught various history courses for many years, including courses on the Holocaust, and served as a K–12 private school headmaster in Virginia and North Carolina for more than 20 years.

He holds a B.S. from Wake Forest University, a B.A. from Oregon State University, an M.S. from the University of South Carolina, and an M.A. from The College of William & Mary, along with additional graduate coursework at several other universities.

From 1994 to 1999, he taught a Holocaust class at St. Johns Country Day School in Orange Park, Florida, where he came to know the ten friends he writes about in this book. Sam resides in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Erin, and has three grown children.