About War

I've recently read two memoirs about young people in Germany during and immediately after the Second World War. German Boy, A Child in War by Wolfgang W. E. Samuel came out back in 2000, while Waltraud, A True Story of Growing up in Nazi Germany, came out in 2023 and is written by the protagonist's daughter, Tammy Borden.

There’s an eight-year age gap between the protagonists. Waltraud is born in 1927 and Wolfgang in 1935. Both stories have a ‘happy ending’ when they find their way to the USA. Wolfgang leaves Bremerhaven in January, 1951 crossing  the Atlantic on the USNS George W. Goethals. Waltraud leaves in September of the same year on the USS General R. M. Blatchford. Both arrive in New York. 

My parents also exited Europe via Bremerhaven. They traveled on the Beaverbrae in July, 1953 bound for Quebec. They’d been born in 1918 and 1919 and thus experienced the war, not as children, but as adults who ended up as Soviet POWs.  With Canada’s Remembrance Day on the horizon, once again I feel the familiar mixed emotions. Remembrance Day does not address the horrors of war. It’s about remembering the courage of soldiers, allied soldiers.

It doesn't remember the others who wore no uniform. Those affected by hunger, disease, and loss … loss of home, of family, of careers, of education and of hope.  These two memoirs remind us that it’s not just soldiers in uniforms who have courage. It's not just soldiers who suffer and die. War fails everyone.

Waltraut or Waltraud?

Finished reading Waltraud by Tammy Borden from my summer reading list, just before fall is set to officially begin. What an amazing book and I’m so grateful to have read it. The author tells the life story of her mother, born in 1927 in the Braunschweig area of Germany. 

Told in first person, it follows Waltraud from BDM days through the war, the confusing time after the war, until her immigration to Wisconsin in the USA.  I picked up the book because of the similar-sounding titles … my Waltraut vs. Tammy Borden’s Waltraud. My book is a novel for middle-graders and stays solely in the voice of an eleven-year-old Canadian girl while Waltraud’s voice moves from young child, to young woman.

It’s very well written and carries an emotional wallop, revealing complicated family relationships that were exasperated by war.  The author does an amazing job of stepping into her mother's world, in a succinct, yet compelling voice.  

I needed five middle grade and YA novels to depict my mother’s journey from 11-year-old Ukrainian kulak to being the mother of an 11 year-old North American girl.  Borden's one book covers decades of her mother's early life. Our protagonists share some similarities (one born in Soviet Ukraine 1919 and the other in Germany in 1927) with both stories being told in first person and written by their daughters. An interesting study in itself. 

I'm delighted to put Waltraud next to Waltraut. Whether it's Waltraut with a t or Waltraud with a d, both spellings mean 'strong' and each girl has a compelling story to share. Read them both!