In September, I announced that I was in the early stages of writing a book based on my grandmother’s WWII story. She was an ethnic German who grew up in Ukraine under ruthless Communist dictator Joseph Stalin. (Click here to read more details in my September 8th post.)
My grandmother passed away when I was in middle school, but she left behind a memoir. I admit that I’ve been brought to tears while reading how deeply her family suffered, especially her account of the day she was forced to say goodbye to her father. When she was just eight years old, he was banished to a death camp in Siberia and never heard from again.
Throughout this process, I have been able to reconnect with my great uncle (my grandmother’s brother) who lives in Germany. He doesn’t speak a word of English, but with help from my mom, I have been able to email with him and his wife. His side of the story is also very sobering, as he and his mother (my great grandmother) were also deported to Siberia and were separated from my grandmother for thirty years.
Despite the hardships that my relatives lived through, they were somehow able to push forward and maintain a strong faith. Their ability to overcome their trials will be the theme of my book.
This project has required a lot of research, and the actual writing part has proven to be more challenging that I imagined, but I look forward to sharing the finished product with you all!
The photo above is of my grandmother and my 16-month-old self. π
Anonymous
What a sweet photo, and a beautiful testimony to your grandmother's resiliency! I can't wait to read your book when you're finished.
nashvillewife@gmail.com
Thank you! I'm looking forward to sharing it with you. π
Ellie
Anonymous
Oh yes please! I'd LOVE to read your book. Do you know what your going to title it?
nashvillewife@gmail.com
I'm so glad to hear that! I haven't come up with a title yet. That will probably be the last thing I do. But if you have any suggestions I would love to hear them.
Ellie
Anonymous
Wow, that's fascinating. I'm looking forward to reading your book. I've been reading fictional books with my six year old daughter, so she can learn about World War II. We just moved to the island of Oahu, so I thought now is a good time to teach her about WW II. Thank you for sharing.
Anonymous
I think it is wonderful for you to teach your daughter about WW2, but why the fictional books? What about historical books, diaries like the Diary of Anne Frank? Is it hard to find books on WW2 written for her age group? It's kind of confusing to me on how fiction can teach truth.
nashvillewife@gmail.com
Glad to hear you're interested in reading it. π That's neat that you live in Oahu. Did you move from another Hawaiian island or the mainland?
Ellie
Anonymous
We moved here from the mainland. My husband is military, so we will be here for three years.
Anonymous
I'm using fictional books that are based on true events in history. We've been reading the Dear America books. My daughter just turned six last week, so based on her age I don't think a lot of history books would interest her just yet. Right now, I'm just trying to keep her interested in reading books and learning.
Shela G
Will be looking forward to reading the whole story!! The picture is very cute. Grandma's are the best.
nashvillewife@gmail.com
Thank you, Shela! They sure are. My grandma had a thick accent (I can still hear her voice in my head) and was a very sweet lady. She didn't learn English until she was an adult, but she was a very good writer. π what were your grandmothers like?
Ellie
Shela G
The two words that come to mind when I think about the Grandma I got to spend more time with are strong and compassionate. She had a rough childhood but managed to overcome whatever trials came her way. She has the biggest heart for people and animals. When I think about her I can see her standing in front of the stove cooking up something wonderful to feed her family and anyone who might need a meal.
Anonymous
https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.qualitativesociologyreview.org/ENG/Volume26/QSR_9_3_Krahn.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwiH69P7ybPQAhUB7oMKHVvvB8sQFgg2MAI&usg=AFQjCNEzwIPupuG2dyBr5u0VyFg23OzO_g
Anonymous
Ellie thanks for sharing this with us.
I love the picture of you and your grandmom. You were a cutie.
nashvillewife@gmail.com
Thank you! It's my pleasure.
Ellie
Ann
I would love to read your book too! Besonders da meine Liebe Oma mir ebenfalls viele schreckliche Erlebnisse von der Zeit erzΓ€hlt hat! Sorry, I couldn't write that in english! Love greetings from germany
nashvillewife@gmail.com
Hello, Ann! Your English is very good. Danke fΓΌr die Nachricht. Ist Ihre GroΓmutter in Deutschland aufgewachsen?
Ellie
Ann
Thank you! Meine Oma ist in Russland geboren! Ebenso meine Eltern, meine Γ€lteren Geschwister und ich! Aber weis nichts davon, wir wohnen jetzt schon fast 30Jahre hier. Meine liebe Oma hat uns aber viel schreckliches vom WW2 erzahlt! I'm looking forward to read your book! Even though it is in english! Your german is very good too!
Ann
Thank you! Meine Oma ist in Russland geboren! Ebenso meine Eltern, meine Γ€lteren Geschwister und ich! Aber weis nichts davon, wir wohnen jetzt schon fast 30Jahre hier. Meine liebe Oma hat uns aber viel schreckliches vom WW2 erzahlt! I'm looking forward to read your book! Even though it is in english! Your german is very good too!
nashvillewife@gmail.com
Danke fΓΌr das Teilen, Ann! Ich freue mich darauf, mein Buch mit Ihnen zu teilen, wenn es fertig ist. Ich gebe zu, dass ich mit Google zu ΓΌbersetzen helfen. Ich studierte Deutsch ein wenig in der Schule, aber ich bin nicht sehr gut.
Ellie
Ann
Hay! Your german is really good!
Anonymous
What's a typical Christmas like for you?
nashvillewife@gmail.com
Hi there. Christmas has changed now that I'm married. For thanksgiving, our families get together, but for Christmas, we try to spend s couple days with each of our families. This year is going to be hectic (and a little different) because of my brother in law's wedding though. We still have yet to finalize our schedule. Lol
What's a typical Christmas like for you?
Ellie
Anonymous
We eat Cheesecake for breakfast,watch Hallmark movies, and go to church for Christmas Eve and Chistmas Day service.
nashvillewife@gmail.com
That sounds like a nice relaxing day! I sure do love cheesecake. Do you have a favorite type?
Ellie
Luba
I'm also from Ukraine, migrated here when I was 7, with my parents (20 now!)
I remember my grandma's stories about the famine and the war…out of 7 kids in her family, she was the only one who survived, her siblings died from starvation..
My grandma, she passed away 3 years ago, would've been 94 this year..
Anonymous
Wow.
nashvillewife@gmail.com
Oh my. That's very sad. I have been doing some research on the famine. It was a very terrible time that a lot of people don't know about. It's especially sad to hear that the famine was created by Stalin.
Ellie
anna banana
wow a powerful story when you sell it Imp buying a copy. title for that book could me "I'm here because of her"
nashvillewife@gmail.com
Hi Anna,
Thanks for the great idea. I'll be sure to write that one down. π
Ellie
Moon Sparkle
Good luck with the book! π
nashvillewife@gmail.com
Why thank you, Moon!
Ellie
Susan, Texas
Dear Ellie,
I really don’t find it objective that you are writing a book portraying communism as something awful. Your Grandmother has nothing bad to say about Hitler? Germany and Russia where two countries on a war but Stalin was not the dictator you are portraying. My great aunt and her family lived in Soviet Russia and they were really happy with their lives there. Everything was provided to them, everyone had food, a home, the right to study in any university they wanted and they didn’t have to pay for any forms of leisure- sports, concerts, theatrical plays- everything was free!
Ellie
Hi Susan,
It sounds like your great aunt lived in a different area under different circumstances. I would be interested to hear her story. Here’s a brief synopsis of my grandmother’s story:
She was ethnically German. (Her ancestors moved from Germany generations ago to teach the Russians how to farm, at the invitation of the Russians.) She lived in a community in Ukraine with other ethnic Germans. In the 1900s, the Russian government began to feel threatened by the Germans because they had established successful farms, so under the rule of Stalin, the Germans were treated very poorly. There was a shortage of food (including a famine created by Stalin to wipe out the German-Ukrainian farmers). When my grandmother was 8 years old, her father and many other German men were taken away to a death camp in Siberia, never to be heard from again. The rest of her childhood was spent in turmoil. To avoid being sent to Siberia, she and her mother and brother were forced to flee to Germany on foot. In her memoir, my grandmother writes about having to jump into a body of water as a bomb went off behind her.
Sadly, my grandmother’s mother and brother ended up being deported to Siberia. (It took her many years to find out where they had been taken, and she didn’t see them until 30 years later.) My teenage grandmother ended up at a boarding school in Germany, where she taken into custody by United Nations soldiers who were attempting to deport her back to Russia. Thankfully, she was able to escape. With no connections in Germany (aside from a few extended family members), she ended up attending nursing school and then made the bold decision to move to Canada, where she met my grandfather.
I have done most of the preliminary research for my book and have started writing, although it is going to be a slow process because I am expecting my first baby in a few weeks. But my grandmother’s story is a story that needs to be told, as it is the story of many others and is a part of history that is often overlooked. While working on this projects, I have shed many tears as I have learned about the terrible things that my family (and many others in their situation) went through. To answer your question about Hitler, my grandparents were very familiar with the evil things that he did, and they would have considered him to be just as ruthless of a leader as Stalin. However, I think it’s in poor taste to debate which man was “more evil.” Both killed millions of innocent people.
Ellie
Margaret
I agree, Ellie. Evil cannot be measured. My own parents grew up in German occupied Netherlands, and the stories they tell would curl your hair. My father, at 19 years old, smuggled Jewish people under the hay in a wagon, to go across checkpoints. He often talked of how he was stoic because of that–he learned to develop a poker face in the face of adversity. His own sister, at 12 years old, was raped by 3 soldiers (presumably German), and never married. At the time, she had no words for what they had done to her (she had no idea what sex was and so on). The atrocities were many. My mother often spoke of hearing bombs and planes….she would have been a young woman then (she was born in 22 as was my father). People have to give more consideration to personal stories, and not minimize the history. I, for one, would LOVE to read your book. You would be interested in my mother’s personal account of their immigration years (1951 they sailed to Canada, on an immigrant ship, and she was 4 months pregnant, with an 8 mo old, 2 and 3 year old children….
More sensitivity to individual stories is necessary. Write your grandmother’s story as accurately as you can. She deserves to have it told. I’m sure it will be wonderful and heart-breaking at the same time! I always believed we cannot avoid repeating history if we don’t learn from it.
Margaret
‘freedom’ is individual too; your concept of freedom within a communist society, I personally think is abhorrent. It’s not possible. I was raised in Canada, by immigrant Dutch parents, who lived the war years under German occupation…they had nothing good to say about their lack of freedom, and they abhorred communist ideals, much as I do. I don’t think it’s wise to point out the positive parts of communism, when history has proved that the negatives of it outweigh the positives. I prefer to live my life free to pursue whatever I want…..
Susan, Texas
In soviet Russia when Stalin took power, Soviet agriculture was still dominated by small landowners and blighted by famines and inefficiency. Stalin modernised agriculture by instigating collectivisation β the grouping together of farms to be owned by the state. It was opposed by millions of ordinary farmers who resorted to killing livestock and secretly hoarding grain. Around five million died in a series of famines. Nevertheless, Stalin believed the end justifies the means and many small holders were imprisoned. By the late 1930s farming was fully collectivised and productivity increased, covering the needs of millions of poor people and NOT aiming on making profit (as opposed to capitalism).
My view is, that a personal story should not be the criterion when someone writes a book with historical elements.
I have been born and raised until I was 13 in the USA and since then I lived in Europe and I have become very aware of the negative propaganda against socialism and communism in American schools and universities. That is not the thing in Europe I ensure you, and this is why almost every country here has a socialist or communist party. The misinformation in the US is huge and scandalous in my opinion. Below there is a link of a research about what most people that lived in communist states believe. Check it if you want. Good luck with your book and I wish you a healthy delivery and a healthy baby.
https://www.google.com/amp/www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/29/in-russia-nostalgia-for-soviet-union-and-positive-feelings-about-stalin/%3famp=1
Ellie
Thank you for your well wishes, Susan. I do appreciate them.
I don’t wish to start an argument, but I’ll leave you with a couple final thoughts. And to clear things up, let me just say that we are discussing Communism, not Socialism. Communism in its pure form may sound to be a good idea in theory, but we have seen over and over in history that when put to practice, it is far from good. Very few countries in the world today are truly Communist. In fact, my research tells me that there are currently only about five, one of which is North Korea, which I think we can all agree would be a very terrible place to live. There may be small Communist parties in some European countries, but the fact that they haven’t held power in recent years tells you that there aren’t too many folks eager to bring Communism back to Europe. Anyways, that’s all I’ve got. π I don’t enjoy political arguments, but there are so many people (not just my family, but millions of others) whose lives have been torn apart by Communism.
Ellie