East Prussia, 1945: Thirteen-year-old Edith is torn from her home and thrust into a world where fear, hunger, and violence define daily life. Fleeing the Red Army, she loses everythingher family, her security, and her childhood. What follows is an odyssey across a devastated Europe: Edith is separated from her family, abandoned, and forcibly displaced, repeatedly confronting situations that no human beinglet alone a childshould ever have to endure. She suffers abuse, humiliation, and the terror of imminent death. More than once, she stands on the brink of the abyss. Yet, she survives. Driven by an unshakeable will, she battles through hunger, unfamiliar lands, and hopelessnesstraveling from East Prussia through Poland to Israel, and finally back to Germany. This book is not a novel; it is a testament, a biography. The true life story of Edith Zylbersztejn reveals, with unflinching honesty, the impact of war, flight, and expulsion on a human beingand the strength required to go on living despite it all. Author Dirk Chervatin tells Ediths storyan account that is authentic, moving, and deeply harrowingin a way that gets under the skin and lingers long after the final page. Through numerous conversations, she recounted the stages of her eventful life to the author. The resulting book conveys a powerful portrait of a generation of displaced people who lost everythingyet carried on.
Group
Books (first-hand)
Author
Chervatin, Dirk
Title
Was bleibt wenn alles verloren ist
Details
With bw-illustrations. 218 pages.
State
new
Subtitle
Flucht aus Ostpreußen. Die Odyssee der Edith Zylbersztejn
Helios Verlags- und Brückstr. 48 52080 Aachen Deutschland