Blessings and Hardships
A German girl’s experiences during and after the Nazi era
by
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The war was raging all over Europe in January 1945 while the Allied forces were closing in on Germany from all sides like an anaconda squeezing out the last breath of its people. The formerly mighty and terrifying regime of Adolf Hitler was crumbling fast, and left the nation in despair, chaos and panic. Most German cities were burning or in ashes. In the east of Germany, the Russian tanks were moving frighteningly closer and closer toward my city, Breslau.
The owner of a small shoemaker's shop in our apartment building in Breslau always sympathized with my father and discussed topics about the political situation. He was somehow connected with an 'underground movement' and he shared information. He had warned my father that he knew for a fact that our family was in danger from the 'Gestapo', Germany's secret police, and they would sooner or later come to take us away to an unknown fate. The shoemaker's advice was to get ready for a sudden departure. Recognizing the reality of our situation, my parents prepared for this eventuality by deciding what to take along and what to leave behind.
And then the moment came! The concerned man came to our apartment and said:" Herr Herbe, get your family and yourself out as quickly as you can, the Gestapo is coming to pick you up any minute."
My parents announced, with deep emotions, their voices choking while getting ready to leave, that I was allowed to take only one doll along and I had to leave the other dolls behind; and so, for the last time I entered my playroom and tearfully kissed my dolls good-bye. Even though I was only ten years old, I felt like a mother leaving her children behind.
Our suitcases were already packed and we quickly got dressed. My mother and I cried when Papa locked for the last time our entrance door. We hurried down the stairs to the shoemaker's shop, and we left through an opening to the adjacent apartment building. On his last glimpse back before leaving the shoe shop, my father saw two Gestapo officers entering our building and rushing upstairs towards our apartment.
We had escaped.....barely and now began an odyssey that was too gruesome to even contemplate for me.
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About the Book
This book accurately reflects the times of turmoil in central Europe during and after World War II. The author describes in her own words her memories of those times and reconstructs the voice of her childhood from those terrible war years and the struggles afterwards until she emigrates to the United States of America in the mid fifties.
Because Brigitte Kirchhoff's parents were staunch opponents of the Nazi regime, it made them targets of harassment and put their lives many times in jeopardy. Nonetheless, they were able to provide their two daughters relatively carefree childhood years in a middle-class setting.
In January 1945, this all ended abruptly one day when the author and her parents had to not just leave their home while being pursued by the Gestapo but also their homeland of Silesia because of the approaching Russian Army. They began an odyssey of fear, homelessness, starvation and total uncertainty amid terror from Russian soldiers for more than a year. Many times, the author found herself being totally alone with nothing left but prayers and her undaunted faith in God during those long months.
After the family settled in a village outside of Munich in Bavaria in March 1946, they struggled for several more years until they achieved a normal life again in the City of Munich.
Readers will be fascinated as the author portrays her experiences in vivid terms and with incredible detail from her earliest remembrances until she arrives in New York Harbor in late February 1957. Her style is captivating and holds the reader's attention through the entire book. It gives a remarkable insight into the lives of people, devastated by the terrors of the times and how they coped in their individual and collective fights for survival and a desire for normalcy and peace.
About the Author
Brigitte Kirchhoff lived most of her life in the Los Angeles area before she moved with her husband of about forty years to Carlsbad, California, to retire there by the sea. She never lost her passion for travel and plans to keep on traveling for as long as it is possible. Her hobbies besides gardening include home decorating and painting.