Traces of Heimweh: Family Memoirs (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781438926988)

In 1939 the pastoral calm of the German hamlet of Schladow in Poland is shattered by murderous ethnic warfare and the full eruption of WWII. His civilian father, uncle, and many of the village's young men being brutally slaughtered by Polish soldiers for the offense of being German almost destroys the souls of young Edgar Bueschke, his siblings, their mother and grandparents, but they adjust and regain a semblance of tranquility. Yet by 1944, troubles have escalated again and the Bueschke family decides to leave Poland for their ancestral Germany, even as that nation plunges deeper into its own hell of Nazi atrocities. By 1948, the dream of a cohesive life in Germany has proven elusive and a fiercely loving, protective mother resolves to emigrate with her children to Canada, where other relatives have already gone, instigating new, and re-establishing old, familial relationships. For young Edgar, his brother, Ted and their sister, Nelly, the culture clash of the New World with the Old is explosive. In many situations, such as at school, they are made to feel more like interloping strangers than friendly newcomers, even by peers who are only a few years past being immigrants themselves. Their mother, gratefully accepting menial work to support her family, enters into a marriage with an unloving, deceitful manipulator who almost succeeds in stifling forever her hard-won independence. But with their move to the United States, the Bueschke family's inner resources are reaffirmed and through their fierce, unflagging work ethic and pure joy of being alive and together, they prevail and achieve success and t

Author: Edgar Bueschke
ISBN-10: 1438926987
ISBN-13: 9781438926988
Publisher: Authorhouse
Language: English
Published: 02/11/2009
Pages: 552
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.76lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.23d