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Behind the Scenes

  • Abandoned and Forgotten would make a great movie. Action; History; Compassion!
  • Arizona author shows the grit and determination of a nine year old girl to survive in a harsh world.
  • We take our lawful and rational world for granted but Evelyne Tannehill’s book speaks volumes as to the importance of our system of laws and morals.
  • The suffering of the holocaust is paralleled if not matched by the suffering of innocent Germans at the end of World War II.
  • Chicago girl finds a new life after surviving the final days of World War II in East Prussia.
  • Nevada writer chronicles the suffering of millions of Germans at the end of World War II.
  • German/American citizens were singled out and persecuted by Hitler’s regime as
    described by Evelyne Tannehill in her superb memoir, Abandoned and Forgotten. 

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    Questions for discussion:

     

    1. What do you remember from the WW II years? If you were not yet alive or were too young to remember those years, what do you recall that you were told about that time?
    2. How did fairy tales affect your life? 
    3. As you think back on your own childhood, what is your first real memory? Are you able to separate what you remember from what your parents or others told you about your childhood? Why do you suppose that the author’s memories so vivid in their details? 
    4. What adjectives would you use to describe the author? 
    5. What parts of the story do you find most difficult to imagine and why? 
    6. Why and how do you think it was possible for Hitler control the German people so completely? 
    7. What insights about the German people did you gain from reading this book? 
    8. How do you suppose that this story might have been different if the author’s brother Henry had written it?
    9. Why do you feel this family drifted apart? 
    10. How is it possible for one human being to treat another so cruelly, as evidenced in the book? Is hate learned? 
    11. How did the author’s view of her family change over the course of the story and why? 
    12. What insights for your own life did you take away from reading this book?