Wendelgard von Staden

A memoir of the dark days of WWII in Nazi Germany. Wendelgard von Staden was a teenager living with her parents in a 400 year old family manor house and farm near Stuttgart, Germany. We are given some background of the family, then the early days of the war when everyone, except her mother, was caught up in National Socialism and working for the Fuhrer, and finally the coming of the secret camp to their valley where prisoners were daily brought by train in striped pajamas. We see how every person and locale was organized and controlled for the fatherland and how the Nazis were able to hide many of their camp activities even from the towns nearby. Von Staden's family did its best under difficult conditions to bring aid to the Jews in the nearby camp and to treat humanely the forced laborers that worked on the farm. Orignally written only for her family, von Staden was convinced in later years to publish her story. Another unique addition to the evergrowing body of WWII memoirs.… (meer)