Tainted Blood?

This is no ordinary memoir. With amazing clarity, wit, and charm,

retired Professor Baacke skillfully illustrates what life was like in

Nazi Germany. From her own first hand experience, she shows the

problems and hardships all German citizens experienced.

The author and her twin brother entered the Hitler Youth at age

12, unaware that they were part Jewish--and were kicked out in 1938.

After beng drafted to the Reich Labor Service for Women followed by

the War Auxiliary Service for a total of twelve months she served as

a 'staff helper' in a Luftwaffen Lazarett in East Prussia. In January

1945, she escaped the approaching Red Army with most of the

patients. It was the Steuben's second and last rescue mission before

she was torpedoed by a Russian submarine and sunk. Of the 5.200

people on board, mostly women and children, wounded soldiers and refugees,

4.500 drowned.

After moving with the injured soldiers to different cities in

search of a permanent place, they settled in Wittingen, a small town

between Celle and Hanover. Here they experienced the peaceful

take-over by the American Army on Friday, April l3th, 1945, almost a

month before the end of the war.

She shares not only her own personal and often horrific

experiences but also those of family and friends. We see what a

German soldier's life was like, through the letters and stories of

her twin brother fighting at the Russian front. We learn about her

father, a lawyer, who cleverly managed to get out of the Nazi party.

Professor Baacke candidly depicts the terrorizing air raids with fire,

phosphorus and explosive bombs. She also describes vividly the

brain-injured and mutilated soldiers in her hospital.

Yet this book is not depressing. She has interwoven stories of

amazing strength, courage, and even joy. Lastly, she has inserted

facts of recent history to paint for us an accurarate picture of the

critical decades between 1923 and 1945.

The reader walks away from this book with a deeper

understanding of what life was like in Germany during the Nazi

Regime. Reading this book empowers the readers to feel that they,

too, can endure life's challenges and emerge unscathed in spirit.