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Abandoned and Forgotten
An Orphan Girl's Tale of Survival during World War II.
By Evelyne Tannehill.
Pub' by Wheatmark.
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Abandoned and Forgotten Book Cover |
A Book Review by Douglas Brough Bsc (Hons), Dip R/S, Cert Hum, Cert Soc Sci.
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Picton Press Website
Address: www.pictonpress.com
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Picton Press Logo & Link to their website |
A Website Review by Douglas Brough Bsc (Hons), Dip R/S, Cert Soc Sci, Cert Hum
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Civilian Internment on Friends of Germany Coalition
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Expulsion (Vertreibung)
on Friends of Germany Coalition
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German-born Pope Ignores his roots during Papal visit to Czech Republic
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Pope Benedict XVI
Papacy began 19th April 2005 Source Here |
By Douglas Brough Bsc (Hons), Dip R/S, Cert Hum, Cert Soc Sci.
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A Book Review By Douglas Brough Bsc (Hons), Dip R/S, Cert Hum, Cert soc Sci
Reviewed August 2009: Contact Reviewer Here |
"Gasoline was poured over them and they were set on fire while still alive"
Testimony of Helga Leubner, Troppau, Sudetenland (p.152)
 Voices of Loss and Courage by Brigitte Neary and Holle Schneider-Ricks is indeed a book true to its words; it is the voice of the lost and the voice of the courageous; it is the voice of opposition; it is the voice of survival against a foe of forced expulsion, bitter retaliation and the indiscriminate loss of life.
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Voices of Loss and Courage
German women recount Their Expulsion From East-Central Europe 1944-1950
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Drawn into the book by a foreword by renowned historian, author, Professor of Law at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and former Senior Lawyer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Dr Alfred de Zayas, Neary and Schneider-Ricks take the reader on a journey through time to their ancestral lands and the time of their own forced expulsion.
But it is not hi-s-tory that they focus upon but her-story as they promote the story of thirty women, thirty vulnerable victims and their families "robbed of all dignity and self-respect, robbed of their very souls" (p. 23).
Brigitte Neary and Holle Schneider-Ricks travelled extensively throughout East-Central Europe to document the recollections of many women who form part of this little known, less talked about and even less taught element of World War II and its repercussions.
The talent within the pages of this book, and it is a talent, is knowing when to break with grammatical tradition in favour of the more ruggedly termed accounts of the interviewees: To some extent they have been allowed to speak for themselves in the only way they know how: Not only does this offer some credibility to the accounts given but it offers some realism to the stories told.
This is a well-planned strategy and one that is needed upon hearing of the experiences of these women; "their breasts were cut off (p. 5) states one survivor, another, "my daughter grew so weak that she could no longer walk" (p. 153) and another still, "when I close my eyes I see an image of someone being beaten to death from behind"
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Author Brigitte U. Neary |
Voices does however, challenge existing stereotypes and contemporary allegations relating to World War II and its bitter loathing, if not vengeful aftermath known as victory to many in the West.
One particular challenge portrayed in the pages of voices is the perception that the German people did little if anything to help those incarcerated by the Nazi Regime: In this instance Irmgard Gackowski tells of her horror seeing inmates of Auschwitz Concentration Camp march by and aunt's efforts to help as they all became prisoners in the same conflict as "the coffee was poured in the ditch" but the grain, hidden for the inmates by the expellees, "the grain had been eaten" (p. 9).
Another example is the case of the 'civilian target of Dresden' which was so vicariously bombed by the Allied Air Force: This atrocity is briefly though effectively drawn through the pages of 'Voices....' by the words of one woman who stated that "in Dresden she stood on a bridge and asked herself if she should jump in: It was all very cruel" she continued (p. 148).
Nonetheless, these accounts, so superbly researched and presented, highlight the attitude of hatred faced by the expellees, even from their own people. It encourages further research into the circumstances surrounding the concept of loathing ones own people. There was no mercy from the victors and these vulnerable survivors suggest that the prejudice against the refugees (expellees, survivors etc) made them feel like an outsider
(p. 54) and second-class citizens even within their own culture.
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The Artwork of Susanna Tschurtz compliments the text in Voices of Loss and Courage;
German women recount Their Expulsion From East-Central Europe 1944-1950
Buy it Here | However the story doesn't stop there: 'Voices...' travels through to the present day by considering the legacy of the forced expulsions and its effect on its survivors, even to this present day. Some interviewees still couldn't give their full name because they were still afraid, even after 65 years or so, others took years for their injuries to heal, if at all, some never regained their family unit and others "still wake screaming from nightmares, unable to touch a gun or watch a war movie etc (pp. 23-61).
It is to their credit that they were able to travel the course of memory lane and recall deeply moving yet personal stories that unite their individuality into a little known story of where peace was hell and hell was war.
'Voices of Loss and Courage' is a much needed addition to the little that has learnt about the Expulsion of the East-Central European Germans. Much more needs to be learnt about this shielded era of her-story; much more needs to be learnt from history, the lessons need to and must be learnt. Brigitte Neary and Holle Schneider-Ricks have taken a positive step in this direction - their work must be continued!
The refugees existed in "a place where hell couldn't be worse" (p. 38).
"Nun Ade, du mein lieb Heimatland" (goodbye beloved homeland)
The words of Irmgard hertzigkeit (p. 137)
Voices of Loss and Courage: German Women Recount their Expulsion from East-Central Europe, 1944-1950: By Brigitte U. Neary and Holle Schneider-Ricks. Pub' by Picton Books; 2002:
A Book review by Douglas Brough © 2009 Douglas Brough: All Rights Rights Reserved
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Author Profile Here
Publisher Profile Here
Don't Forget that you may Purchase Voices of Loss and Courage: German Women Recount their Expulsion From East-Central Europe 1944-1950 from the Friends of Germany Coalition Book Store located Here
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Flight and expulsion of the East-Central European Germans |
As early as summer 1941, the Polish and Czechoslovak government in exile in London, called for border changes after the victory over Germany. This should include specifically the removal of the German population in these areas as well as from the rest of the country. The motives for this demand were varied: In particular, the Soviet Union aimed at a reduction of its western border. In addition to this argument, the military-Soviet Union could hope that, with the expulsion and dispossession of millions of Germans from Poland and Czechoslovakia permanently may act as a guarantor of a new status quo. In this calculus, the Tsarist Russia and later the Soviet Union already had applied displacement in the North Caucasus as a political tool.
The demanded the expulsion of the Germans were justified by the principle of the ethnically pure nation-state. Were added, especially in Poland, socio-economic objectives. Large areas of East Central Europe at that time were considered to be overpopulated.
At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Soviet Union continued through the separation of Poland in 1939 Soviet-occupied eastern territories, and 1941 to the Soviet Union, which had also been annexed as a result of the Polish-Soviet War of 1920-1921 Poland. A common assumption is that the transfer of the eastern territories of the German Reich to Poland was intended from the outset as a compensation for the loss in the East. But this statement was later part of the Soviet justification.
Indeed, not only the Polish Communists demanded considerable German territories without their native population, but also the bourgeois camp, albeit to a much lesser extent (it was a part of East Prussia and Silesia). The requirement of the Oder-Neisse line, it does not exist. In retrospect, was trying to justify the annexation in order to ensure that those areas temporarily non-Polish Slavs were settled, so they called in the Polish propaganda as "regained territories".
Around 14 million German between 1944/45 and 1950 were affected by flight and expulsion of up to 3 million died from the direct and indirect consequences. After several hundred thousand German were detained in camps or had to do forced labor for years. A large number of women of all ages were raped, there were approximately 240,000 deaths as a result of rape. The entire east and private property of the Sudeten Germans was confiscated without compensation, the German public and even expropriated church property in these areas was. Among the 14 million refugees and displaced persons came mainly from the late 1950s, about four million German emigrants, so that a total of 18 million lost their German homeland.
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Other Publications By Brigitte U. Neary |
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Frauen und Vertreibung
Buy it Here |
Read the English language Review Here
February 2009
Read the German language Review Here
February 2009
Women Coping with Relocation under HOPE VI:
Spotlight Spartanburg, South Carolina Brigitte U. Neary Associate Professor of Sociology University of South Carolina Upstate, USA.
For More Click Here
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More About The Authors and the Book |
Voices of Loss and Courage: German Women Recount their Expulsion from East-Central Europe, 1944-1950
By Brigitte U. Neary and Holle Schneider-Ricks.
Picton Press Here
USCS Faculty Members Co-Author Book and Include Art of Susanna Tschurtz:
Read in Full Here
USCS Upstate Faculty Member Publishes Two Books in Two Languages on Two Continents:
October 29th 2008
From University of South Carolina Upstate;
Read in Full Here
Dr. A.E. Jabs Offers Some Perspective to Brigitte Neary's Books
Read in Full Here
Voices of Loss and Courage: German Women Recount their Expulsion from East-Central Europe, 1944-1950
By Brigitte U. Neary and Holle Schneider-Ricks.
A review From Barnes Review Here
Review of Frauen und Vertreibung on the Institute for German-American Website
Read in Full Here
Germans Abroad on Friends of Germany Coalition
Read in Full Here
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Copyright © 2009 Friends of Germany Coalition, Douglas Brough and/or respective authors: All Rights reserved