A moving account of an inauspicious start to life.
[The Author]...delivers a powerful portrait of a turbulent time in history and a poignant account of a child's awkward attempts to make sense of the chaos. Readers will be touched by her relentless search for the "independence I so fervently craved." ~ Kirkus Reviews
Most adults in the US know about World War II. But how many know about the after-effects of World War II on the children of Germany?... Ingrid's writing is so picturesque that you can feel what it felt like walking down the bomb-scarred streets with her. History, memories, adventure, culture, and compassion all come together in this book. Readers' Favorite (5 stars)
Author's Note:
I was not raised in a family of men and women who once were Nazi collaborators or members of the underground resistance who later wrote sensational books, or left their mark in the field of science that might have earned them a Nobel Prize. My family was ordinary and bourgeois, shaped by alcohol, adultery, and lies, its members, male and female, further twisted and damaged through the horrors of both World Wars. I Stood Among The Ruins and Cried are bittersweet, occasionally amusing childhood recollections, a kaleidoscope of events as seen and experienced through my innocent eyes in post-WWII Germany in a US military occupied zone: life in cramped quarters with a violent father; early years at school; about my brothers, childhood friends and neighbors; my first love and other observations and experiences and much hurt and pain and a strong desire to grow up fast and escape the unhappy environment in which I lived.
