Rika's Stories from the Other Side

Rika'S Stories From The Other Side Are My Memories From A Time That Befell The World Like A Terrible Epidemic And Struck Hardest At Those Ordinary People Who Won Nothing And Who Suffered Losses Of Health Life Home And Loved Ones. All We Could Do Was Survive On September 1 1939 World War Ii Struck Germany And My Hometown Of Saarbruecken A Small Town Near The French Border Was Forcibly Evacuated-Obey Or Be Shot Like Spies Without Trial. I Was Young And Eager For Life But Instead I Watched My Beloved World Replaced By All The Numbing Horrors Of War. Fate Drove Me Around Europe: Germany France And Poland. Eventually The Advancing Russian Army Drove Me Back To The Ruins Of Saarbrueken-And Into The Arms Of An American Soldier.I Remember Starvation Evacuations Bomb Attacks A Broken Marriage Love Affairs-An Abortion Without Anesthesia By A Doctor Later Convicted Of Murder; Hospital Work Amid Pain And Wounds And The Constant Threats Of Sickness Cold And Hunger.Through It All I Learned To Keep The Promise I Made To Myself That I Would Never Cry Again Over Trivialities As Long As I Could Breathe Freely.