On a Green Twig is the memoir of Anna Klein Spencer who grew up in Germany during the Depression and World War II. Her lively, richly detailed recollections of rustic life in a Rheinland village provide invaluable perspective about German life before and after Hitler, Nazism and World War II. This personal account tells how a young girl’s family life and her community were turned upside down by world events. It offers a lesson in how perseverance and courage can transform tragedy and misfortune into a new lease on life – on a green twig.Buy this book on Lulu.com:
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A charming note from Ruth Woodside, now living in New Zealand:
ReplyDelete“I enjoyed ON A GREEN TWIG very much particularly because Anna Klein and are I of the same age and as I followed the events of her life I would think of what I was doing at the same time. Anna Klein's story covers the lives of two families in small German towns in a beautiful area called Rhineland/Pfalz. I was also brought up in a German household in a small community and had a large extended family but that is where any similarly with Anna Klein ends. Our lives could not have been more different. Anna Klein's story covers the years leading up to and after Hitler's war, and the occupation years when so much sacrifice was made by the German population. While my friends and I were enjoying being young and carefree in New Jersey. We were so unaware of what our counterparts across the ocean were going through. Anna Klein could only watch as her adored father and brother were called to war, leaving her to care for a new baby brother and a dying mother. Her story is one of learning how to survive.
“Thank you Anna Klein Spencer for your enlightening book, for sharing the wonderful memories of your Rhineland home and family. It made a reader like me open my eyes again to the utter futility of war as told through the honest eyes of a young girl who lived it. I got a sense that Tim, a retired journalist/writer, made sure you included all the humor and laughter to counter balance all the tragedy of war times. That's what a journalist is supposed to do.”
A Memoir worth reading, 17. December 2008
ReplyDeleteby Herbert Reiter -
"On a green twig" is a book which I very much enjoyed reading. The more I read the more I felt captured by the book and couldn't put it aside anymore. Anna Klein, today nearly 80 years old and living in the US, is looking back on her life. It's a story about a girl who lived in the Pfalz at the Donnersberg. What makes the book so special is the fact that the girl's life and surroundings, embedded in the economical and political situation of that time, are depicted in a very subjective way, namely through the eyes of an eight or twelve year old girl, later through the eyes of a young woman.
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There is at first the intricate circle of relatives, having been deeply rooted in the area for decades with everyone knowing everyone else. The economic situation is not rosy and everybody is struggling to get by. Politics is only of marginal interest. There is a new government with a chancellor called Hitler. Many people appreciate him because they hope the situation will be slowly improving. Nobody would suspect that Hitler will be going down in history as one of the greatest mass murderers.
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Anna's mother is ill and Anna has to bear the responsibility for the family very early because her father is in the war. At the same time she wants to be a good pupil. It is quite touching how she is dealing with that difficult task. She is also full of the joys of life, goes to village dances at the weekends but has no interest in committing herself to a serious relationship. It's quite amusing how Anna is dealing with persistent admirers.