I Can't Forget: A Journey Through Nazi Germany and WWII

By Gudrun (Koppe) Everett

Book Overview

WWII was the bloodiest and most documented war in all history. Yet, with the closing of the 20th century few remaining archives are still opened by witnesses whose voices have not yet been heard. This... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 141965070X
• ISBN13: 9781419650703
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Booksurge Publishing
• Length: 214 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

An Engrossing Read

This is a book about a young girl growing up during the Nazi period and WWII in Germany and Poland. It ends with a perilous flight from Poland in advance of Russian troops and the effort of starting a new life in the chaos of the immediate postwar years. It is so well written that I couldn't put it down, rare for me. The personal story is by turns, humorously touching and heart rending. The historical detail is eye opening and quite different from what we have been taught in school or seen in the popular media. I highly recommend it.

Astonishing! I couldn't put it down... thank you for this book!

I just read this book and it blew me away. This account is so personal and so compelling, I couldn't put it down. On one level, it is a coming-of-age story that begins with earliest memories of a little girl and follows her as - against all odds - she blossoms into an accomplished young woman. But there are many more levels to this book because it unfolds against the overwhelming background of World War II and its aftermath. In the beginning, the war is a minor character in the distance. A tranquil childhood with youthful adventures and discovery is in the foreground. Before long, however, the war emerges as a major character in the story. Innocence is ripped away as the writer and her family suddenly lose everything and become refugees fleeing the horrors brought by the advancing Soviet army. Based on her own uncolored recollections, the author describes this trek through a seldom-described hell. Society and all its infrastructure are in ruins. Any sense of order is gone as Germany crumbles in the final throes of defeat. As the war ends and the Allies consummate their victory, those larger events create new terrors and more carnage as millions of displaced casualties flee to the west. Most readers know the many events surrounding the Allies and their hard-fought victories. Similarly, everyone already knows the heinous stories about the Nazi crimes that led to war and continued throughout that tragic era. Less known are the atrocities that accompanied the Soviet advance through the smoking ruins of Germany and the other countries that would soon fall behind the Iron Curtain. As I looked at some of the other reviews posted here, I was surprised to see a few people who just didn't get it. Those few only want to read the same history they've already read before. Too bad for them. A closed mind is a terrible thing. For everyone else, I highly recommend "I Can't Forget: A Journey Through Nazi Germany and WWII." It's tightly written and loaded with amazing photos and details. The book is a great read for anyone who wants to discover a different perspective on a history we all think we already know. I would like to thank the author, Gudrun Everett, for sharing this unique and firsthand viewpoint we rarely have the opportunity to experience. This book would make an awesome movie.

Describes a Neglected Chapter of European History

World War II ended in 1945, but interest in that conflict remains high. I CAN'T FORGET by Gudrun (Koppe) Everett is a memoir of her "journey through Nazi Germany and WW II." Published in 2006, this book is a BookSurge product. My copy is securely bound, well-illustrated with black and white photographs, most of which aren't credited. Furthermore, I haven't seen most of these before and suspect that they might be from the author's collection. There are also some helpful maps and line drawings. I carried this book around for a couple of weeks while I was reading it and am impressed to see that the binding is still tight and the pages still secure. The quality of this book is comparable, or better, than the quality of most paperbacks in my opinion. The author provides some unique insights into the catastrophe she survived. Her father, for example, was assigned to be the mayor of Dolsk, Poland, and she arrived there with her family a short time after the "Bromberg Bloody Sunday" slaughter of September 3, 1939. Polish mobs reportedly hunted down German speaking residents of the area and murdered many of them. The author's book includes what appear to be snapshots of the aftermath of that little-known atrocity. I'd heard of the treks trough the blizzards in January, 1945, when the Red Army initiated its massive offensive. The author gives a dramatic, evocative account of her own trek with her family and the narrow escapes including one in which Red Army units overran the town in which she and her family were sheltering. If you're interested in European History, World War II, the Eastern Front, or epic tales of survival against long odds, you'll want to read I CAN'T FORGET. I like the book and gave it five stars.

German women - the unsung heroes.

My comment about the book "I can't forget" by Gudrun Koppe-Everett. ( ISBN 1-4196-5070-X ) History books have deleted much of the trauma which German civilians underwent during and after WWII. Mrs. Koppe-Everett's writing style makes this book an fluid and interesting read in a language other than her native German. I found the images and maps especially informative because they are so rare and hard to find. - As a 12 year as boy, I also experienced the collapse of Germany in 1945. My family also joined the endless caravans of refugees who fled before the advancing Red Army in their treck wagons. When we arrived in the British occupation zone, we encountered catastrophic living conditions. Due to massive bombings of all major German cities and the inflow of millions of refugees, housing, food, and the basic necessities for life were so scarce, that my elder brother and I were sent back to a farm in the Soviet occupation zone. - At least, we did not starve there. Millions of refugees shared similar fates as the author of this book. - Since many German men had died in battle or had become POWs, most trecks were headed by women. - Even today, they remain the unsung heroes - unrecognized and forgotten. The author guides us from her tranquil, orderly life as a child into a sudden uprooting - full of hardship and danger. Her treck was strafed by allied fighter planes. She saw Dresden burn. In the end, her treck wagon was stolen by Russian soldiers. Her family continued for hundreds of miles on foot to a little town in Bavaria to start a new life. Some 20 thousand civilians drowned in the Baltic sea when four rescue ships were torpedoed during the winter of 1945. Hundreds of thousands burned alive during allied bombing raids. In total, some 14 Million Germans were ethnically cleansed from their ancestral homes within 2 years after WWII. - Lacking a viable currency and forbidden to engage in manufacturing or trade by the Allies, Germany's economy had been pounded back into the stone age. - In 1948, the western Allies needed German support for the emerging cold war effort. Only then, repressive measures were relaxed, and the `German Economic Miracle' began. - Again, German women accomplished near-impossible tasks. [...]