Voices of Loss and Courage: German Women Recount Their Expulsion From East Central Europe 1944-1950
- Author: Brigitte U. Neary and Holle Schneider-Ricks
- SKU: 1997
- ISBN: 089725435X
- Our Price:
$26.50
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Description:
Compiled and edited by Brigitte U. Neary and Holle Schneider-Ricks. Foreword by Alfred de Zayas; illustrations by Susanna Tschurtz. 256pp, illustrations, soft cover. 2002.
"...Brigitte U. Neary and Holle Schneider-Ricks should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in Literature. They are the modern day Sojourners of Truth.... who have given voice to 30 wounded women caught up in the cauldron of expulsion, rape, and unbearable experiences... Read the book. It is unforgettable." -- Dr. Albert E. Jabs, World Council-Columbia, SC
“emotionally gripping oral narratives and provocative sociological analysis.... Readers will be astonished that such a heart-rending event has gone almost unnoticed for over 50 years.” - Alice Henderson, Distinguished Professor Emerita, University of South Carolina-Spartanburg
“The accounts often make grim reading, telling of great suffering, fear, terror, but also of marked heroism. Their accounts... deserve to become part of the important literature on World War II and its consequences.” - John Zeender, Professor Emeritus of History, The Catholic University of America
“This volume of testimonies from 60 and 70-year old German women forced to leave their homes by the advancing Russians presents for the first time the tragedy of mass internal displacement in the heart of Europe. We know the saga of the Armenians in Turkey, of the Rwandans in Central Africa, of the Bosnians in the former Yugoslavia; this volume adds the Western European dimension. This is not a faceless account of mass migration but a highly personalized look at the lives of a few women traumatized until today, some still afraid to be identified.” - Miriam Cooke, Professor of Arabic, Duke University
“A celebration of a community of German women whose voices and acts of courage have gone unheard and whose experiences have long been overlooked. Informative and written in an approachable style, this book is of interest to the wide-ranging popular audience and of relevance to readers concerned with the study of gender, history, communications, and language.” - Tamara M. Valentine, Professor of Linguistics and of English, University of South Carolina
In a shameful episode of ethnic cleansing at the end of World War II, the Allies expelled some 14.5 million German civilians from their homelands — both German citizens (Reichsdeutsche) living within Germany in the areas of East Prussia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Silesia and ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) whose ancestors had lived for many centuries in areas outside the German borders — in Czechoslovakia, the Baltic States and Memeland, Danzig, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Romania. Over 2.1 million civilians died as a result, an horrific total which should stain the conscience of us all.
This forced Vertreibung or expulsion represents the largest mass migration of modern times. Astoundingly, it has received minimal attention in history books, particularly in America. Often it has been swept under the rug — relegated to a footnote and never mentioned to students.
This book is a memorial to those millions of civilians, and especially to the women, who were punished cruelly and stigmatized because they were German. The authors interviewed many women who were in the Vertreibung, and have included here some thirty of their riveting interviews. For the first time, their voices are heard, their torment shared, their stories told.
