This is the story of Erika Landsiedel and her family. As the Second World War was coming to an end, Germany was being overrun from the east by the Russian army and from the west by American and British forces. Many German soldiers who were stationed in the east migrated to the west with their families. Erika's family was one of these.

Everyone who meets Erika likes her and knows she is someone special. But few know why she is special. I think this story explains it to a large degree. She doesn't think of herself as an exceptional person but she knows she has survived an exceptional life doing what was necessary to keep herself and her children alive. She has not been a lucky person but a person who created her own luck through perseverance endurance and just plain hard work.

Today she is a person who is nice to be around. She is independent, generous, uncomplaining and understanding. She has a great sense of humor. She retains some of the instincts developed as a refugee and these seem out of place today. This causes her children to always be trying to tell her what to do as though she doesn't know how to live her own life. However, believe me she does, as you will see.

This story has been told to me in bits and pieces by Erika and her daughter Marianne. I felt honored to be allowed to write down these bits and pieces and arrange them in time and place. I was tempted to substitute other words for Buchenwald, V2, Dresden and Gestapo. Because they carry such strong images with them, I was afraid they would appear as a form of name-dropping and there by make the story less credible. But it was not my place to do this. They are just part of this story that occurred in an incredible time and place.

Copyright 8 1997 by Dennis Ridgway
Printed in the United States
All Rights Reserved