Sonya Winterberg

The Wolf Children of the Eastern Front – alone and forgotten.

This book, translated from the German original is an important addition to the ever-growing market about what actually happened after the war ceased. The stories retold in this book are well-known to many families who had or have families who lived in Central and Eastern Europe. For those of us in the West the stories may come as shock. They should not.

We often talk about the devastation of war on the lives of those who took part. We have seen the pictures of what Europe looked like as the Allies tried to reach Berlin to end the war finally. War devastated the East of Europe, with many towns and cities left as piles of rubble. Many soldiers and civilians were killed in the process of all the advances. Many were killed in the advance on Berlin from the east. This is about those innocent victims, the children left in its wake.

Yes, there were many children across Europe whose parents had been killed some went relatives to be brought up or children’s homes. The difference in the East is that both the Nazis and Soviets had killed many adults or deported them to camps. These children were left to their own devices had no-one and not even the new states were able to do anything to support them.

This is about those children who were escaping the advancing Red Army in East Prussia. East Prussia being a land that had originally be carved out of an occupied Poland and Lithuania in the 18th century. The families were escaping that advance often with a few minutes notice, by cart and tried to head towards Germany. Many tried to escape on foot, and mothers carrying children would often throw their child on to a cart if they thought that family had a better chance of getting to safety.

In the chaos around 20,000 children lost their families not just to bullets and bombs but starvation and the harsh winter. They suddenly needed to fend for themselves, they had to beg and search for food. They needed to find shelter often is what remained of buildings. Many died. Some survived the harsh winter losing toes to the frost, but not as harsh as the hunger, rape and other abuses they faced.

Some were taken in by Lithuanian farmers, some were even lovingly cared for. The remaining grew up into illiterate adults and poverty stricken in post war Soviet Lithuania. What is surprising in this story is the overwhelming sense of hope and forgiveness these victims have towards their abusers. This is a story of hope which will touch many. This is one of the many stories about what happened in the wild East that are being translated into English for a wider audience, and about time.… (mehr)