Memories of World War II
Inge Stanneck Gross
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2005 Island In The Sky Publishing
ISBN: 0976032864

And Its Aftermath By a Little Girl Growing up in Berlin.

Inge Stanneck was only five years old in 1940 when English bombers started their night time raids on Berlin. Her father fought in the German army & was one of the few POWs who survived Russia's brutal incarceration camps in Siberia.

Her mother disregarded government regulations & fled with her daughter & son to Straupitz, a country village in the Spreewald, where she went to work for the railroads.

Memories of World War II is not about battles & strategies, it is a child's eye view complete with the terrors of bombings from the skies & nights spent cowering in cellars doubling as air raid shelters -- I remember those, on the other side of the Channel.

We follow Inge's adventures & fears, meeting strangers & the ever-present hunger that dogged her early years as Germany went to war, & children went to school.

As a child survivor of War, I was interested to read Inge Stanneck's memories, especially as, long ago, I met Astrid. We were at a women's drum circle, of the same age, with “strong” accents. We told each other our stories: she in Germany & I in England. So Inge Stanneck Gross' memories rang in my bones like a familiar tune.

Memories of World War II is a fine example of a family memoir even though it needs an editor's eye to reshuffle out-of-place continuity & catch the repetitions.

There 58 million Americans of German ancestry & Memories of World War II will resonate with those who were children at that time. Look for Volume Two, her years becoming an American.
(06/19/05)

Rebecca