Persevere

Tony Selius was born in Lithuania in 1933. His parents were German citizens, which was fortunate when the Russians took over that territory in the early 1940s. Tony tells of the atrocities committed against Lithuanian citizens by the Russians and local communist sympathizers. As German citizens, the Selius family avoided those atrocities but still had to flee their home. That scenario recurred several times, with the Selius family bouncing from one displaced persons camp to another. In one of those camps, the family's sleep got interrupted every night by Allied bombers on their way to nearby Dresden. Due to the war, there were long periods where Tony and his siblings couldn't attend school. When they were in school, the teacher pressured Tony to join the Hitler Youth (Brown Shirts) but Tony refused. Meanwhile, his father had been forced to work in a factory manufacturing war materials for the Nazis. He was coerced to become a Nazi himself, but refused. Fortunately, his machinist and welding talents were so great that the Nazis didn't force him to join. Toward the end of the war Tony's older brother got conscripted into the German Army as soon as he was old enough and sent to France. Albert communicated regularly with his family for a while, but then his family lost track of him for many months and feared the worst. Here's a preview of some of the things you'll be reading about in Persevere: First, you'll find a paucity of pictures in this book. There are a few of Tony and other family members, but most of them are comparatively recent. The authors would have loved to include period photos from the '30s and '40s, but could find very few. As you'll read, the Selius family had to make sudden moves to escape the advancing Russians, leaving all but their bare essentials behind. Pictures were considered essential but, unfortunately, most of them were in a box that fell from a speeding truck in which they were hidden during a frantic rush to Bavaria. Thus, most of the Selius' pictures are lost forever. Second, you'll be reading about a family in the best of times and the worst of times. Throughout, the family always managed to survive, thrive in fact. Thanks to hard work and ingenuity, they made the very best of some impossible situations. Their can-do attitude and strong Christian faith never wavered. And third, you'll probably come away with new perspectives on Nazis (despite their war effort, they still found time and resources to take care of displaced German citizens), Jews (they actually helped Adolf Hitler come to power in the 1930s, later regretting it of course), Gypsies (Tony had a romantic relationship with a young gypsy girl, during which he learned much about their culture), and WWII in general. You'll learn that at different times both Hitler and Eisenhower were heroes to German citizens. You'll also read some interesting history on such things as the Berlin Airlift and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Tony and his family worked hard, tried to stay out of harm's way, and never lost their faith in God and each other. This book records their tenuous survival and the fascinating relationships they built with Nazis, American occupiers, and even a few Russians. Persevere chronicles the family's triumph over extreme adversity.