Rostock, City by the Sea: The Story of a Young German - Softcover

Haase, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1598006622 ISBN 13: 9781598006629

Publisher: Outskirts Pr, 2006

Synopsis

This is the account of a young man who grew up in Germany during the period of the Third Reich. Under the doctrine of the Nazi regime and the influence it had especially for the young, the author nevertheless kept his sense of right and wrong. In vivid detail Peter Haase describes the war years and how they affected him and his family. He records Nazi propaganda, shortages, air raids and the descent toward final defeat, as seen by an adolescent between the ages of eleven and seventeen. Ten years of post war restlessness and struggle follow in the wake of the destruction of the German economy. The rebirth of his homeland does not give Peter the opportunity to build a prosperous future for himself. He decides to seek his fortune in a far-away land.

About this title

About the Author

Peter Haase left his homeland at the age of twenty-seven and started a new life in Ecuador. After several Years, married and with a daughter, the family took up residence in New York, where Peter worked for twenty-four years with a large trading company.

Aged fifty-seven, he accepted an early retirement to fulfill his life-long desire to sail around the world. That, however, did not happen, but he spent the following years on the water, sailing on the Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Bahamas and the Florida Keys.

At last he settled in Florida to write his seafaring tales CALL OF THE SEA and ELEVEN YEARS AFLOAT. One of his short stories received an award at the Mount Dora (Florida) Writers Contest. His novel WHEN LOVE IS NOT ENOUGH came out in 2006.

Peter is a member of the Treasure Coast Writers Guild and the Morningside Writers Group in Port St. Lucie, Florida. He lives in Stuart on Florida's east coast.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

I came home late in the afternoon. Already from a distance I saw the truck. Colonel Kurth and his wife, my mother, the driver and another soldier stood in the middle of the street. I came up to them and I knew that for me life, as I knew it, was over.

I did not know how long they had been waiting for me, but I was aware of the distress I had caused my mother, how irresponsibly I had acted and how difficult I had made it for Colonel Kurth to keep the promise he gave my father. How much longer could he have been able to retain that transport?

I had refused to leave Rostock as long as I could, but now it was over. I hated running away, like a coward, leaving my friends behind.

Without letting me go upstairs one last time, I was ordered into the back of the truck. Our bags and bundles and cartons, bedding and clothing, piled on top of crates with army markings, left little room for my mother and me under the awning. My pants were still wet from the water of the Warnow.

We drove off. It was dark before we reached Warnemünde to pick up Tatta. My mother would not leave her behind. The truck was refueled at the airfield north of the Heinkel hangars and then we were on our way west. I had not said a word since they had forced me into the truck.

Edition details

• Publisher: Outskirts Pr
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1598006622
• ISBN 13: 9781598006629
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 104