My Father's Roses

From their heroic feats on the battlefields of World War I to the rise of Hitler and a tragic culmination at Treblinka, this is one family’s extraordinary history.Nancy’s father was not like other fathers in their northern English town. Elegantly dressed after the Eastern European fashion, an impeccable violin player, and never without a rose in his lapel, her father’s entire essence alluded to a hidden and haunting past. Upon his death, Nancy, on a quest to rediscover her family’s past, delves into the endless boxes of letters and diaries her father carried when he fled Czechoslovakia in 1939. There were times of joy: a son’s return from the trenches of Verdune; the birth of grandchildren; a growing family business. But there was also fear. As the first stormtroopers march into Podersam, Nancy witnesses the disintegration of the family through their increasingly desperate letters. My Father’s Roses is a compelling and intimate testament to the persistence of family, memory, and the bonds of kinship in the face of humanity’s darkest hour. 16 b&w illustrations