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We Dont Talk About That: An Amazing Story of Survival Paperback – April 24, 2014
Growing up in a rural village in Pomerania, Gila's tranquil life turned tragic when the fighting approached her neighborhood. Her father was captured and taken to Siberia while she and her family became displaced persons and joined the trek of thousands "on the road to nowhere." She was witness to gruesome acts of violence that quickly aged her before her years. She barely survived diphtheria and later, recovering from typhoid fever, she took responsibility for her three siblings while her mother worked. Despite her interrupted schooling through circumstances beyond her control, Gila's determination empowered her to become a Physical Education teacher and successful competitive kayaker. The division of Germany into East and West with its political ramifications caused her to escape to West Germany. Here she was able to fulfill an old dream despite having to face new challenges, including an unwanted affair. Gila's story is one of heartache, courage, pain, love, liberation and reclaiming life....
- Print length256 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFriesenPress
- Publication dateApril 24, 2014
- Dimensions5.98 x 0.58 x 9.02 inches
- ISBN-101460232089
- ISBN-13978-1460232088
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : FriesenPress; First Edition (April 24, 2014)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 256 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1460232089
- ISBN-13 : 978-1460232088
- Item Weight : 13.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.98 x 0.58 x 9.02 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #5,477,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,348 in Historical Germany Biographies
- #14,454 in German History (Books)
- #15,924 in Women in History
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Born prior to WWII Giselle Roeder spent her early life in the relatively tranquil setting of a rural village in Pomerania, the most eastern part of Germany ceded to Poland in 1945. The bloody trauma of the fighting between the advancing Russians and the retreating German army in her neighborhood meant that thousands of people, including her family became displaced persons. Despite the interruptions in her education Giselle qualified as a Physical Education teacher in what was known as East Germany before she escaped to the West via Berlin. In West Germany, she was obliged to start her life all over again, recommence her training and eventually became a health educator.
Following her emigration to Canada in 1963, Giselle succeeded in business and became well known as an international public speaker in the developing alternative health field.
She jokes about her first full English sentence, spoken to a salesman at her door two days after her arrival in Canada: "My - man - is - not home."
Giselle has written several books: two about healthy living; her memoir "We Don't Talk About That" covering the amazing story of survival during her first thirty years. This book made its way through ninety countries. It was followed by the delightful "Forget Me Not - A Bouquet of Stories, Thoughts, and Memories." While working on the sequel to the memoir she took a breather and published a poetry book in the German language, a book full of humor with the title "Ein Mensch von Gestern - Heute." The sequel to her memoir is expected to be published during the first three months of 2019. The title is not confirmed, but it will be something like "Stepping into the Unknown" and deals with her immigration to Canada.
The sequel to "We Don't Talk About That" is now (October 2019) nearly finished. Giselle hopes to be able to use this, her new book, as Christmas presents.
The title: "Dreaming of Life and Love (?) in Canada", subtitle: My Flight Into The Unknown.
First readings in Book Clubs caused a lot of interest. People are fascinated by her resilience, the ups and downs of a new immigrant, and are astounded by her indomitable spirit after many 'one step forward, two steps back,' and never giving up. Just like the 'unsinkable Molly Brown of the Titanic story.'
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- Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2014This is an important and fascinating book in several ways. On a personal level it tells the story of the first part of a remarkable life. It describes the experience of a young girl who lived on the front lines in the closing days of WW 2. It gives a first hand account of the brutality to which men are reduced by warfare and the corresponding horrors of the treatment of German men, women and children by Russian troops. It is this horror that "we don't talk about". Yet it is told without rancor and even in the midst of this, it is revealed that there were sparks of humanity, like small flowers growing through the snow.
Since the Germans were both the losers and the guilty perpetrators, this part of history is not something that seems to be told. Because of what they did, it is as if it did not matter what happened to them. When I think of WW2, I think of the bombing raids, the Normandy invasion, and of the march across Europe. I did not know about the millions of German civilians who were expelled from Pomerania in eastern Germany by the Russians, and put on the road as refugees as their homes were given to the Poles. We learn about an ordinary German family, far removed from Hitler and Berlin, being trapped in the Nazi state machine.
There is also political philosophy. The post-war Communist state set up in Eastern Germany, with its rigid ideology and self-appointed divine conviction, seemed to me to be eerily similar to the Nazi state. Ominously, it reminds me of trends we see in the US today.
The tone of the book is balanced and realistic, told with the wisdom of the author's "old eyes".
- Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2015The book is powerfully written and I was very moved as I read it. I knew the author came out okay, but I was holding my breath from page to page and chapter to chapter for the other members of her family.
The transition from a very normal life with the usual domestic problems and family crises faced by most families to one where the world falls apart, would make any reader thankful not to have been there, but made for breathless reading.
Yet, the family somehow survives and is reunited against all odds. We learn in the book that the sister Ingrid dies of cancer, but the book leaves us hanging at the end with the author deciding whether to join the father and daughter in B.C. or choose Hannes in Germany.
We know from the author's Facebook page and website that she finally chose Canada and is with a Trevor now, rather than Ludwig and his daughter Isabelle who chose the author from 300 letters as the one she wanted for her “new mother”.
I wondered as I reached the end of the book if my copy of the book was missing some pages, but I've now learned that the author is planning a sequel, which I can hardly wait for.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2018Great writing if you can stand the terrible things that are described. Another case of horrible atrocities committed by the Russians. I think that collective guilt is wrong. Thinking someone is guilty when they have done nothing wrong is an un-American view. It wasn't just German women and children who were abused and raped. They raped their way across eastern Europe. When they got to Germany they raped Jewish women even when they were told they were Jewish. they said a woman is a woman and raped them anyway. They raped thousands of Russian women prisoners who had been sent to Germany as forced labor. They would liberate them from their prison compounds and then rape them. The poor women frantically tried to hide because they came back again and again to rape them. When the women were finally allowed to go home they were warned not to say a word about what had been done to them. These Russian animals are burning in hell where they belong.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2019The author has a fantastic detailed memory and a very, very professional writing style that paints very vivid pictures in the readers mind. Difficult to again see what human beings can do to other human beings. As with a lot of these accounts, no photos, which is not surprising as these wretched abused were lucky enough to escape with their lives. Surviving those days and not losing one's sanity permanently is an accomplishment by itself. The book ends at her decision on moving to Canada......and I will start look for the sequel after writing this. If she hasn't written it yet --- Please, the reader has to know the rest of her story.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2014It's been said in reviews already: This is an amazing chronicle. Roeder opens her story in the breathless voice of a child, recounting the wonder days of German farm life before Hitler's war. The harsh world of Nazism only gradually brushed country life, but closed down more tightly when the war began. Still, the war seemed far away, until the tide turned and the Russian army swept through Pomerania on their way to Berlin.
This is a strong story of endurance, of survival, of incredible horrors that no child should ever witness, and of going forward through tough determination out of the ashes of defeat to personal triumph. The writer's voice matures with the story. The entire memoir is charged with energy, and with a unique perspective.
I read this book with admiration for the writer's courage. My admiration rises, knowing that she wrote this memoir in English. I was sorry that it ended rather too abruptly, but perhaps this leaves a promise for a sequel.
We need to remember the consequences of war. He who forgets the past is destined to repeat it. We see this everywhere today. We have not learned this lesson of history. We must.
Read this wonderful book, and remember.
The English General (The Schellendorf Series) (Volume 3)
The Ghosts of War (The Schellendorf Series) (Volume 4)
Top reviews from other countries
- Lyn AlexanderReviewed in Canada on December 22, 2014
5.0 out of 5 stars Survival to Triumph
It’s been said in reviews already: This is an amazing chronicle. Roeder opens her story in the breathless voice of a child, recounting the wonder days of German farm life before Hitler’s war. The harsh world of Nazism only gradually brushed country life, but closed down more tightly when the war began. Still, the war seemed far away, until the tide turned and the Russian army swept through Pomerania on their way to Berlin.
This is a strong story of endurance, of survival, of incredible horrors that no child should ever witness, and of going forward through tough determination out of the ashes of defeat to personal triumph. The writer’s voice matures with the story. The entire memoir is charged with energy, and with a unique perspective.
I read this book with admiration for the writer’s courage. My admiration rises, knowing that she wrote this memoir in English, her SECOND language. I was sorry that it ended rather too abruptly, but perhaps this leaves a promise for a sequel.
We need to remember the consequences of war. He who forgets the past is destined to repeat it. We see this everywhere today. We have not learned this lesson of history. We must.
Read this wonderful book, and remember.
[[ASIN:B00OPDDEJ2 The English General (The Schellendorf Series Book 3)]
The Ghosts of War (The Schellendorf Series Book 4)
- Tarzana KidReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 21, 2014
5.0 out of 5 stars We do need to talk about it!
Giselle Roeder's book is a vital piece of the jigsaw of suffering in World War II (& representative of civilian suffering in all conflicts). It could well have been a story of the tragedy endured by Jews, Gypsies or Polish intelligentsia perpetrated by the Nazis. It is not : it is from the other viewpoint - that of a German family (Pomeranian) caught up in a relentless & ruthless revenge policy endorsed by Stalin himself by rampaging & victorious Russian troops determined to wreak havoc on a nation who so equally ravished their own country & population. Revenge is indeed violently exacted upon the females of all ages by the terrifying & simple phrase "Frau, Komm" . Anyone who knows their history will understand the terror behind these powerful two short words. Not since the Japanese visited their venom on the innocents of Nanking or Manilla has rapine acts of such propensity been perpetrated in so condensed a period or area.
Nonetheless, 'Gila' & her family endure, comfort & protect each other through all adversities of starvation & illness, separation & violence in its many forms to seek salvation & safety of a kind in the West Germany of post-war Europe. Gila's subsequent determination to educate herself & find a satisfying & humanly rewarding career is inspirational to today's doubting youngsters. If it were not so harrowing, it should be desired reading in schools & given the same historical literary importance as "The Diary of Anne Frank". To be read alone with a strong drink perhaps - a fine testament to the unquenchable spirit of survival & hope with the help of a few 'angels' along the way. My only criticism is the abrupt ending which cries out for the developing story of Gila's emigration to Canada & adventures & subsequent career & personal life there - we all like a happy ending!
Buy, read and learn the balance of history & why the current campaign supported by Angelina Jolie & others against rape in conflict is such an important but seemingly futile message of hope. "Without hope, we are but grains of sand washed into an ocean of despair".
Bob Pickles