Karin Bartsch's Journals

As many of you already know, I wrote a book in August 2007 about my childhood years.

"Childhood Memories....surviving WWII"  by Karin Bartsch

ISBN   978-1-4303-2866-7          With this number you can order it in any bookstore.

Also available.....

at the publisher Lulu.com      http://www.lulu.com/content/995507

at Amazon.com                    http://www.amazon.com/  and type the ISBN into their        

search engine to pull it up.

at Barnes & Noble                http://www.bn.com/ also via ISBN

This book tells a personal story of a child driven away from his homeland under life-threatening circumstances. Having to endure unbearable cold, thirst and hunger, pains, sore feet from endless walking. Being tired, sooo tired..... 

For anybody who doesn't know where East Prussia is located ( which is today a Russian Exclave, called Kaliningrad Oblast  - Kaliningrad is the Russian name for our former Koenigsberg ) I post a map from the Internet. What you see as Poland, was partially  German when I was a child, and we fled west through the northern part of now Poland.

"We reached an area, where heavy fighting took place. We were quickly approached by German soldiers which were unsure which direction should be recommended to us, so we would avoid being caught in a crossfire. That evening we were sheltered by soldiers, hidden away in river bushes under tarps. The soldiers made it clear to us that the toddlers should be quiet, no crying, no singing. We were not in the mood to sing anyway. I was scared to my bones.

I must not have slept at all, I was sooooo tired in the morning. Heavy fog was hanging over the river.

Suddenly all hell broke loose. Commands were given back and forth, we heard tanks gunning, soldiers shooting, and I thought I could hear my teeth clicking on each other, I was shaken by fear. So must have been the rest of our gang. The adults looked helpless. The soldiers got busy helping us entering a pontoon boat, lifting our stuff into it and dipping the oars deep into the water to paddle us to the other side of the river Elbe. We heard bullets flying and were ordered to get down. We were laying down. No heads over the rim, we were ordered.

We were running, better: walking as fast as we could, after we were almost thrown out of the boat by the soldiers. The meadows were still gleaming with morning dew and we were shivering. Our boat adventure got us wet. Wet shoes, wet socks. But we made it. We could leave that area.

So many days of our wandering are just a blur now, we were hungry, thirsty and disillusioned. Where should we go? We were still going west, somewhat south."

 [ No Rating ] 11 Apr 2008 by Tanja Wood It was my pleasure to meet the author of this book and her husband, fellow full-time RVers, while traveling in southwestern Arizona this Spring. I was particularly interested in reading Karin's book because my parents also underwent hardships during WWII in the Netherlands, but they were on the "other side". Childhood Memories transcends "sides". It is a heartfelt and often heartrending account of a family struggling to survive as WWII drew to a close, and during the post-war years. Karin's happy early childhood in Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad) sets the stage. That all changed when Karin (then age 9), her mother, and her little sister Doris were caught up in the mass evacuation of East Prussia 1944-45. Reading Karin's book is just like sitting down with her and her husband in the always welcoming area beside their RV, where neighbors and passersby are often invited to sit down for a chat and a glass of red wine. No one can tell this story better than the people who lived it. Reading Childhood Memories, you will be caught up in a world that, depending on your background and your own history, may shock and horrify you, bring tears to your eyes, or both. No matter what "side" you, your parents, or grandparents were on, seeing WWII through the eyes of a 9-13 year old child who had to grow up very fast, will bring home once again to you the senselessness of wars. Thank you, Karin, for sharing that difficult time in your life with your readers. [ 1 response ]

Please, go to http://www.lulu.com/content/995507 and post a review if you liked my book. I am looking forward to see another one. You can also post a review at Barnes and Noble and at amazon.com  without any login.     Thanks in advance!                              

If you have any question to this topic, or if you would like to order a signed copy from my at-home stock of books, please, contact me via Email, so we can arrange that. My e-mail is:  bartsch_karin@yahoo.com  Please, make your intent clear to me in the subject line. I have a PayPal account,      which you could use for easy payment, if you have one too.

Back to Top