Nightmares of an East Prussian Childhood: A Memoir of the Russian Occupation

The mom of 11 yr outdated Ilse Glaus turned down the final aircraft out of East Prussia forward of the advancing Russians with a view to keep again together with her aged mother and father. That call price her household dearly in wartorn Europe, 1945. Ilse grew up on a small farm, with a beautiful household, the woods as a playground and the seashores of the Baltic. Then turmoil adopted the German defeat by the Russians and the following occupation. In 31 months beneath the Russians, Ilse’s household is pushed from their residence, she mourns her lacking father, witnesses her mom’s rape, sees her grandparents and child brother succumb to the brutal circumstances, and hears of her oldest sister’s seize and demise in a piece jail. Preventing hunger, Ilse crafts methods to coexist with the Russians, scavenging, begging and stealing to assist the household survive.