Rare glimpse into the life of a Donauschwaben refugee

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	• Barefoot in the Rubble Elizabeth B. Walter Pannonia Press, 2000 average customer review:based on 12 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Rare glimpse into the life of a Donauschwaben refugee

Elizabeth Walter has done a great service to all Germans imprisoned...and often murdered...in Tito-era Yugoslavian concentration camps by writing this memoir. Too many Donauschwaben Germans still living today who experienced being evicted from their homes, their liberties taken from them during post-World War II Yugoslavia just because of their ethnic heritage, will come to tears when asked about what life was like at that time. Most of them understandably just do not have the willingness to recount in detail and at length what had happened to them during that part of their lifetime. For all those who doubt the accounts of their German relatives who lived in Yugoslavia (as well as Hungary) at that time, Elizabeth Walter is among the few who has finally offered a detailed, written memoir so that this part of history will not be completely forgotten. The content provided on the back cover of the hard cover version of this work grabbed me and did not let me go until I finished reading it: "This is not true!" reads the back cover. "The red words written across my essay burned into my heart. I had followed the assignment, I had written about a true life experience, but my high school English teacher, Miss Shay, didn't believe me. I put my essay in my notebook and wrote not another word until years later. As I grew older and watched my children grow up to young adulthood, I felt a need deep within me to let the world know how we were torn out of Yugoslavia as a people." Although the writing of this memoir is a bit amateurish, and not the page-turner that other similar-genred books are such as German Boy, this account of a young girl - whose ancestors, along with thousands of other Germans, were given free land in Yugoslavia along the Danube river during the seventeenth century to develop the area, only to be persecuted solely for their German blood during the mid-twentieth century (although against and not in any way affliated with the political structure of Germany at that time) - is a rare find.

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compelling reading

Ms Walter has written an uplifting and compelling book about ethnic Germans in WWII Yugoslavia. I bought the book because my father was a refugee to America from post WWII Germany. I wanted to support anyone who helped to tell the true story of the average German during the war. I did not expect to be so engrossed by a story written with such expert craftmanship that is also moving and compassionate of the human condition on several war fronts. Walter is a gifted story teller with just the right rhythm and emotional nuance.

The book is an inspirational account of the triumph of the human spirit during the final year of WWII and afterwards in the refugee/slave labor camps. Walter tells the story through the eyes of a child, but we are able to enter the lives of those close to her. The description of her mother collapsing as they reach Austria is very powerful. The book is compelling because it forces us to consider both sides of human nature, the good and evil in everyone. I recommend this book highly; I found it hard to put down and will lend it to many of my friends. I think a condensed version should be made available to all school children. My only criticism is that the forward by C. Barber should be removed. It is inappropriate and out of context.

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A child's heart-wrenching experience in Tito's camps

Elizabeth Walter has recalled her ordeals in Tito's concentration camps with a child's eye, but a woman's heart. She has been able to inform and yet tug at your heartstrings while she and her mother and brother hungered, fear for their life, endured illness and finally escaped into a safer place in Germany. The journey there was dangerous and hard, yet they made it and thankfully found her father who returned from a Russian labor camp. It's a must read, if you are interested in how the ethnic Germans lived and died during the 1940's.
It's history and it's a memoir of a special girl.

Katherine Flotz, Author
A Pebble in my Shoe

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Living history

Reading this book was a learning experience, a part of WW11 that I was not aware of. I am glad that I had the opportunity to both learn and enjoy.

an interesting read

The book was really a story in survival and how the family made it through all the hardships. Very inspiring.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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