Erika Schroll, a small girl, growing up in the picturesque town of Saaz, discovers the way of the world and her own nature amidst the turmoil of a World War and its devastating consequences. Always accompanied by her mother, Josefine, she feels safe in spite of the family’s sudden deportation with millions of compatriots to the recently destroyed Germany. But East Germany, by now was part of the Russian Sector, the country having been divided up by the allies, Erika and her mother spent 9 months in an overcrowded refugee camp, whilst her fatally sick sister, Liesl, was being nursed in the hospital in the town of Freiberg/Saxony. The long, enforced march across the Ore mountain range, dividing Czechoslovakia from Germany, had done irreparable damage to her already dysfunctional heart valves. After two years of starvation and ill health and the worst winter for centuries, their physical condition became critical. With the help of the Red Cross, Erika’s father, Ferdinand, found his family and helped them escape to the American West Sector. Josefine and the two girls had to cross the border from East Germany to Bavaria in the Western Zone illegally, while Ferdinand took their few belongings as hand baggage on the train. In No-mans-land, Josefine and the children were shot at by East German border guards. Nonetheless, Josefine felt that the risk of walking on was worth taking as the family would anyway have starved to death in East Germany.

Erika Storey, nee Schroll, a Sudeten German, was born in the German medieval town of Saaz in Bohemia. She now lives in the South East of England, having gone through eventful times for much of her life. World famous for its hops, Saaz was a prosperous, beautifully situated town amongst its sister towns in Bohemia and Moravia. The author spent a blissful childhood there, unaware that, through the political upheaval of the Second World War, her family’s existence was soon to undergo a dramatic change, with nowhere to go and struggling to survive.

Author: Erika Storey
Release date: 2009
Format: Paperback, 320 pages
Availability: Available from all good bookshops. For wholesalers via BookVault, Gardners or direct from the publisher.
Paperback ISBN: 978-1906791346
ASIN: ‎B00654847G
Paperback Price: £22.99
BIC: BGH, BTP, BTM