Coffee Hour in Flensburg

A memoir, a love story and a tale of adventure, written by the only child of a German-American couple, describes experiences of wars, migration, and loss played out over three continents. Ultimately, the family survives through strength and love. Few of us remain who remember early experiences during World War II and can tell about a child sitting on the lap of Nazi officers who played the violin so beautifully before being sent to their death on the eastern front; of taking innocent walks past the gates of STALAG-VIIIB, singing "Lilli Marleen" and only recently discovering the horrendous facts behind those walls. Few can speak of nights in bomb shelters, of Russian occupation and flight. At war's end, father and daughter, American citizens, were forced to leave behind the mother, a German, in their search of a home in the United States and Africa, finally to be reunited in Germany with a father, now a paraplegic. This memoir and travelogue grew into a history lesson. Foremost, however, it is a story of love that gave two people-both immigrants to the United States in the 1920s-the strength to face tragedy: the father, an engineer of major structures in New York and Florida; a mother, a member of The Art Singers of New York during the early, progressive, years of the Juilliard School of Music, both insisting on a life determined by their talents and desire for freedom of expression. The story explores the questions and reasons surrounding a return to Germany in the early 1930s. This decision exacted a toll and now demands reflection, including the painful question of what it means to be German. The tale is a warning from the past.