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Woman Writes Book About WWII Childhood
Woman Writes Book About WWII Childhood - by Laura Longero
Reno Gazette-Journal
Monday, November 6, 2006
The suffering of the Germans living in East Prussia during World War II is not a story many Americans know. Not many people can tell it, but there is one person who can.
Evelyne Tannehill, 70, who is a southwest Reno resident, was 9 years old in 1945. She has written a book about her survival as a child in a war-torn country, titled "Abandoned and Forgotten: An orphaned girl's tale of survival during World War II."
She decided to write the book after a trip to Germany. She was on a bus with German tourists and expatriates, and they were exchanging their stories about the war. The Germans who heard her story were amazed that she survived.
"I realized my story was unique. I had more to tell than the average war story," Tannehill said. "That's what inspired me to write it down."
She wrote the story thinking about her family, but it blossomed into a more ambitious project. She said that when she was finished writing, she gave the story to her daughter, Gwen, to read. Gwen told her she couldn't believe it was about her mother.
"I realized if I don't tell the story, it's lost," Tannehill said. "I don't feel I as a person am so important as the tale that it tells.
"These are things you don't talk about in your younger years. ... It's a legacy you leave for your children and grandchildren."
Tannehill's significant other, Jack Schlaefli, 72, said that Tannehill's story is about survival.
"What amazed me is what happened in East Prussia," Schlaefli said. "I learned a lot."
The book starts with Tannehill's childhood. She started the book there because she wanted to describe her childhood and its violent turn. Most of the book centers around three years, 1945-48. "I needed to tell the reader of my early, beautiful childhood," Tannehill said.
Tannehill was living on a farm near the town of Elbing, East Prussia. She lived with her mother, sister, three brothers and father. Her sister left on a refugee train and her father and oldest brothers were seized by the Russians. Tannehill was left with her mother and youngest brother, who was older than her by two years.
Tannehill said in a synopsis of the book, "We witness suicides of desperation, cold-blooded murder, starvation and brutality with an occasional act of kindness."
Tannehill said that the Russian soldiers were on German soil for two days when they came upon her and her family. They were the first Germans the Russians "got hold of," she said. They were frenzied and angry. The atrocities that were committed weren't recorded, it was not done in those days.
After three years, the remaining Germans in East Prussia, which became a part of Poland during reconstruction, were moved out of the area in cattle cars.
"Germans were sitting on the street with no place to go," Tannehill said. She moved to the United States when she was 16, in 1952. At the age of 22, she was reunited with her brothers and sisters in the U.S. Both of her parents died -- her mother of typhoid fever and her father died in Siberia.
Schlaefli said that one interesting thing about Tannehill's experience is that she was a U.S. citizen. Her father became a U.S. citizen before he was married, and therefore all his children were dual citizens. Schlaefli believes that her citizenship had something to do with her survival. Tannehill lived in Chicago for 20 years after arriving in the U.S. She lived in the Los Angeles area for 12 years before moving to Reno in 1990.
She has two children, Gwen, who lives in California, and Wayne, who lives in Wisconsin, as well as four grandchildren. She married, divorced, remarried, and was widowed. She calls Schlaefli her "wonderful significant other."
Tannehill said Schlaefli is the driving force for publishing her book. He said he learned about what happened in East Prussia from the book.
"It was hard for me because I know this little girl," Schlaefli said.
The book took Tannehill five to six years, off-and-on, to write.
As far as the process goes, Tannehill and Schlaefli said that the cover is done and the next step is to review the final edited prints of the book. It is slated for publishing in December, and should be on bookshelves in time for Christmas. It will be available on amazon.com and wheatmark.com.
Tannehill said people often ask her how she can remember so much about that time when she was so young. She said that very abnormal times leave an imprint on a person's memory.
"It is the story of a little girl that I knew very well and I could get into her head," Tannehill said. "It is not a story of war as much as a story of survival during adverse times and situations. ... It shows the resilience of the human spirit."