My Life on Two Continents

Raised in Germany during the Hitler years this girl had two wishes: to go to a university and to leave Germany for America. Both of these wishes were granted; but it was not easy. She was often confronted with obstacles and even had to endure life-threatening situations. Only her positive attitude, her persistence, and her belief in her own personal "Guardian Angel" pulled her through. Her parents, well respected citizens of her hometown, Bremen, had taken her out of high school to pursue a course in seed breeding to be able to work and be independent. But she ran into difficulties to even achieve that goal. Finally she managed to further her education, but was stopped by the last months of the war and became a prisoner of war. How she was released, sent back to her home country, almost got killed by bombs, but finally got both of her wishes granted, getting a good husband in the process and leading a fulfilling life in California, should warrant interesting reading.

I was born during the inflation years after WWI in Bremen, Germany. In 1933, when Hitler gained power over my homeland I was twelve years old. My father was working as senator for the city-state of Bremen in North West Germany before and after the Nazi years. I went through deprivation and suppression during those years, especially during WWII and even became a prisoner of war in 1944/45. My fervent wish to go to America came true after six years of studying at Hamburg University, after my oldest sister had married a German American and was living in Dayton, Ohio, raising a happy family. I followed her and did the same.