His Story Is My Story: Authentic Stories about Survival and Success of a German Father and Daughter after World War II

Product Description Stories of Elke McKee's WWII German soldier father who was captured and spent ten years as a Russian prisoner, his impression of the kind Russian peasants, the cruel guards, and surviving unbelievably hard conditions. She first meets her dad at age eleven reuniting with his wife in 1955. He recovers from prison despite resulting physical impairments, adapts to home life, and is rehired with seniority at the German government job he held sixteen years ago. Their lives improve. Elke ultimately moves to the US where this biography concludes. Review This is the story of the author's father's memories of ten years as a German prisoner of war in Russia, his impression of the kind Russian peasants, the cruel guards, and surviving unbelievably hard conditions. When he returned home to Germany, he never wanted to talk about his experiences because they were too painful. It is also about the author's story of growing up in the east part of Germany occupied by the Russians after the end of the second world war in 1945, the way she perceived the educational system under Communism, the reason for their escape when she was eleven, her life in West Germany, and first adventure in England. And finally: Coming to America! About the Author Elke McKee was born in 1944 during the Second World War in a small German village near Dresden. After the end of the war this area became part of Soviet occupied East Germany. At age eleven she and her mother escaped to West Germany where Elke met her father for the first time. He was one of the few prisoners of war who survived ten years of brutal Soviet labor camps and was finally released in 1955. This experience shaped her entire future as a free spirit with the strong desire for freedom. At nineteen she moved to England and later to the US where she travelled as a flight attendant all over the world. In 1994 Elke founded a Montessori preschool in California and worked there for twenty years. Elke is retired and lives with her husband of thirty years in Rocklin, California, dedicating much of her time to her lifelong painting hobby and socializing with people from various interesting backgrounds. As a retiree she also finally found the time to write down the stories her father had dictated on tape about his life in the Russian prison camps. Authentic and interwoven with episodes from her own life, her book is a testimonial of the horrific outcome of war and how the post-war generation had to deal with it.