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Excerpt 1 (page 4)
My family called me Eva. Not until much later did I learn my name was actually Evelyne, but then there was so much I did not know. The history of my family, and who I was, unfolded itself slowly in bits and pieces. I entered the world in 1936, the youngest of five children, on a small farm by the Baltic Sea in the province of East Prussia, Germany. I spent my childhood years in carefree oblivion in the outdoors, roaming through the countryside among the farm animals, unencumbered by boundaries and the limited freedom city children experience. By the time I reached the age of human awareness, Germany was already deeply embroiled in World War II.
In the beginning, we remained relatively untouched by the battles being fought in the East at the Russian front. But when the war finally did reach us, it came suddenly and with full force, sweeping over us like a giant tidal wave with ever-increasing momentum, pushing before it a panic-stricken mass of fleeing humanity. A massive exodus of people stampeded west for the frozen waters of the Baltic Sea, across which they hoped to reach safety. When the panic ended, a hush settled over the obliterated landscape. Death and devastation lay in its path, and an eerie stillness hung over the blood-soaked land. Only here and there a surviving crazed dog, cat, or farm animal remained, witness to these cataclysmic events, but hunger and starvation soon silenced them, too.
By January 1945, it was evident that Germany was losing the war. The Russian army had advanced into Germany. Battles now fought on German soil took on catastrophic dimensions. Yet the radio still blasted out encouraging news, telling the unsuspecting populace that the setbacks were only temporary, and that the German armed forces were doing a valiant job holding the enemy at bay. These newscasts were supposed to calm the population and avoid panic. However, the events surrounding us spoke more clearly of what was happening in those tragic final days. By the time my parents realized the end was closing in on us, civilians were no longer allowed to flee without written evacuation orders from their local party leaders. The penalty for disobedience was death.