Reviews for Eleanor's Story: An American Girl in Hitler's Germany

The average rating for Eleanor's Story: An American Girl in Hitler's Germany based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-02-22 00:00:00 James Levey I became aware of this book after attending a play during this years "Adelaide Fringe" based on the book and performed by the authors Granddaughter Ingrid. The play itself was an emotional roller coaster and when i discovered that it was based on a book i just had to get my grubby hands on it. The story goes of a young American born girl to German immigrant parents who after struggling financially during the Great Depression, make the fateful decision in 1939 to leave there family home in Stratford, New Jersey and move to Germany were Eleanor's father is offered a lucrative job. With a highly generous exchange rate the parents will ignore the impending situation with Hitler and Germany in Europe. On the ship travelling to a new life the families mood will change as first it is announced that Germany has invaded Poland and then even more horribly Britain and France have declared war against Germany. On there arrival after being denied a return to America, living in Berlin, life seems for a while at least to be normal. Eleanor and her older brother Frank will go to school and make friends and spend time with family and with there father working life is good. That will soon change as the war progresses with less and food, the horror of constant bombing raids that would kill numerous people and destroy many buildings, Elanor's mother giving birth to two children, Tommy and Elizabeth that would push the family to breaking point and constant separations in a bid to survive. When the war ends and with the country in ruins a new terror will show itself in the Russians who made it to Berlin first and want Germany to suffer for there leading role in the war. Many young girls and women would be raped, while anyone thought to be a member of the German war effort would face severe punishment. In the end Eleanor and her family would be lucky as they are located in the American sector of the Berlin and there American passports would save them from execution and Eleanor and her mother from being raped at the hands of the Russians. In 1946, Elanor, Frank and her father would finally return to America with her mother, Tommy and Elizabeth joining them less than a year later. This book for me was a true eye opener. Plenty of books have been wrote about the second world war, but being read through the eyes of civilians it offers a different perspective and is compelling and harrowing. The hell of being in a country being blown into oblivion is very sobering. What these generations of people went through during the two world wars was mind blowing and how they survived and was able to move on with there lives is just amazing. For Eleanor and her family the horror of knowing that you are stuck in a foreign country while the land you loves wants to kill you would of been terrifying. The writing itself is a little uneven with a slow and pedantic first third that is soon forgotten as the war hits with a vengeance. Showcasing the power of the human spirit, Eleanor's Story is a fascinating read.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-05-03 00:00:00 James Wray This book brought back the horrors of the war to me. I too was an American child born in Germany with a slightly different twist. my father was an American seaman who married a German girl, and my birth at the end og August 1939' changed their plans forever. My mother and I had to remain in Germany thru the war years. We lived in Hamburg which was also horribly bombed in 1943. Eleanors details of the bombing brought back memories of waking up nightly and running for the bunkers or the cellar, not seeing daylight for days. Even though I saw death I was too young to understand it. We were also evacuated out of the city, where we were overtaken by the Russian Army. it was exactly as she described, plundering and rapes, and we hid in a storage closet in the attic. In 1947 my father was finally able to get us passage out of Germany, and we also went the same way as Eleanor! Berlin to Bremerhaven and waiting in a barracks for our turn on the ship. Except for our age difference we had similar experiences. I gave it 5stars.