To Cope and to Prevail

Why do American students still think Nazi when they are asked, what comes to their mind about Germany? Why do the 12 years of the Hitler regime stick and why not the German culture, with music, literature, architecture, that influenced other nations over centuries? To answer these questions Dr. Warg wrote 'To Cope and to Prevail'. Using a tradition in German culture called the Stammtischa group of fictional characters resembling the lower and higher middle classesDr Warg writes an enjoyable and not-so-conventional memoir filled with well-known and lesser-known facts about Germanys history and culture during the turbulent years of the 1930s to the 1950s. As the Stammtisch and the actual relatives and friends of a young eyewitness discuss politics and economics, the reader learns first-hand how people coped with those chaotic times by holding on to their customs. Through their eyes, we see how Germanys culture survived despite the 12 years of Nazi regime, the war with its bombardments, evacuation, separation of families, occupation by armed forces, the Cold War, and dodging bullets when attempting to cross the Russian border that split Germany into East and West.