On Wednesday, September 14th, we met for our monthly book club discussion at Jonetta's home. Home...a simple word, yet with the recent tragic events in our community it certainly evokes various strong emotions among us FAB girls. Three out of the six of us were evacuated from our homes when the Bastrop County Complex fires began on Sunday the 4th. Sadly, only two of us were able to return to our home after 4 days' time. Our hearts hurt for our FAB friend, Brenda, with the loss of her beautiful home and precious heirlooms and keepsakes. If the amount of love and compassion we feel for you, Brenda, equated to dollars, you would have a ransom to build a mansion!! May God's peace and protection be yours to claim as you move forward in your life. We love you!
Synopsis:
Evelyne Tannehill (Eva) has recorded the events of her life during World War II, particularly during the takeover of her homeland East Prussia by the Russians. Eva is only a child of nine years old when she is forced to flee from her beloved farm with her family. As she hides out, forages for food, watches her family members disappear one by one, and does her best to fend for herself, Eva continually seeks to be reunited with those whom she loves. It is a long journey filled with pain, hunger, servitude, illness, and more horror than a young child should ever have to witness, much less live through. Ms. Tannehill's fascinating story has given us another view of World War II events which for the most part has been largely overshadowed by the Holocaust atrocities.
Comments:
We thought it quite odd that this book was not available in our local libraries, much less any bookstores. If you do want to read this book, then Amazon.com (Kindle) is your best bet. It is a story which grips you from the start with Eva's child view of her family, farm, and stories of her mischievious acts. This story is written in a manner which makes the reader feel as if the author is sitting right there and just simply sharing her walk down memory lane with you. It is amazing to us how much Ms. Tannehill can remember of her childhood. We speculated on whether her amazing memory could be attributed to interviewing her older siblings and other relatives and acquaintances who also lived through this tragedy, or if the horrific events of that time made such an indelible impression on her young mind that even the minute day to day occurrences around her were preserved with them.
Fairy Tales played a significant role in Eva's life. Her Oma would delight her with such scary tales, but when Eva would find herself alone, her vivid imagination would take over and fill her with dreadful fear. Later on, without the security of parents and home, those stories fed her imagination and stole her courage when she most needed it. "Her [Oma] stories dealt with good and evil characters, and with the severe punishment of disobedient children." (p. 14) Our own FAB girl, JoAnn, shared how in the Hispanic culture they had similar stories also intended to keep children safe and from disobeying...and it worked!
We found it curiously interesting how the English prisoners who worked on her family farm were allowed so much freedom. Especially notable to us were the CARE packages sent to the prisoners from the Swiss Red Cross and their families back in America. Filled with "cans of corned beef, fancy crackers, special teas, real coffee, and most amazing of all, a variety of chocolate bars," we were surprised that the items actually made it to the prisoners and were not confiscated and enjoyed by the German Army instead!
Eva had a strong desire for expressed affection and love. She states that as the youngest child she was the most spoiled but also the most neglected. Throughout her childhood she seeks approval and affection from her mother, a woman who lives up to the stereotypical description of a stoic German. Her father provided that physical touch Eva craved, but when he was gone she was miserable. "I missed Father’s affection, the tender nightly sessions in his lap, and our raids on the pantry. Mother was stingy with her hugs, and she rarely showed her feelings." (p. 61). We discussed the different love languages and how each of us has a need for love, but our methods of giving and preferred choice of receiving it are varied. It is obvious that Eva needed the physical touch and words of affirmation for her to feel loved and secure. However, her security was forever scarred as she endured abandonment multiple times in her childhood.
In keeping with her need for the familial bonds of love, Eva dreams of being together with her siblings. "I still hoped that once we were reunited, we would have a chance of becoming a family again and making up those lost years." (p. 397). Of course, her siblings were grown and had moved on with their lives in America by the time Eva is reunited with her aunts. That estrangement which Eva's own mother's siblings maintained, continued in the relationships between Eva's siblings. Were these relationship patterns learned by observance, a product of the German race's natural stoicism, or a result of the war's disruption and disintegration of their family unit? Eva seems to believe the latter: "We had missed growing up together and lived vastly different lives for too long, lacking the shared experiences that bind a family together. We were a family of broken lives." (p. 386)
Even though Eva's parents considered themselves Protestants, Eva did not set foot inside a church building until she was twelve years old! Her experiences with religion were limited to what she witnessed with the Catholic Polish family and the hidden Children's Bible Stories book which she snuck out to the barn to read whenever possible. It wasn't until she was living at the orphanage that she began religion lessons. These lessons only brought more questions and no convincing answers. "We began to see God as someone capricious, who just toyed with our lives." (p. 332). Even Aunt Gertrude is angry and questioning God when confronted with the atrocities her countrymen committed: “How could God have allowed it to happen? Did he abandon us just to see how low we would sink without his divine intervention? Until someone can give me the answer, I cannot believe in anything. I’ll never understand God.” (p. 398). We understand this confusion and frustration! It is in our human nature to question and to seek truth, even when the answer may not be within our understanding. Ultimately, faith must step in and bridge the gap. "God seemed far away during those dark times, and we all had to find our own way back, while vacillating between believing and not believing. Aunt Elsbeth, whose faith remained unshaken through it all, was one of the fortunate ones." (p. 400).
Most Memorable Quotes:
"That's how life is," I said, turning to Georg. "We don't realize how far reaching our casual acts and mindless words, good or bad, can sometimes be." (p. 426)
This quote was made when Evelyne has returned to revisit her homeland as an adult and finds Irena who as a young girl had given the young starving Eva a slice of bread with a big red tomato. Irena does not remember Eva or their encounter, but Eva has remembered it and cherished it as a rare moment when she was shown kindness.
"I realized that acceptance, not time, is the healer of all emotional wounds." (p. 430)
What powerful words from a woman who endured numerous emotional wounds.
FAB Rating:
**** (4 out of 5 stars)
It is undeniably a testament to the indomitable human spirit that Eva not only survived during those three years of deprivation, but that she went on to emigrate to the United States, create a successful career, and enjoy love with the family she built. We agreed that had Eva not been precocious and strong-willed as a child, that perhaps she would not have survived her ordeal. It is those traits that fed her resilience and gave Eva the strength to keep going even when no one would give her any hope of a better future.
We now have a more well-rounded picture of this well-known war; a side of it which we had not been told. "Maybe it was too terrible to believe when you merely read about the horrors of war rather than lived them. It is difficult for those whose lives remained untouched and who have lost nothing to empathize with those who not only lost everything but also suffered a lot. That was the hardest to accept—the doubting stares when I as much as hinted at my troubled past." (p. 421). We hope that by putting her story down on paper, Ms. Tannehill has found validation and peace. Her story will not be forgotten.
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