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My Soul More Bent: Memoir of a Soviet German
Book review by Carol Just
Kreiser, Maria. Though my Soul More Bent: Memoir of a Soviet German. Edited and Translated from German by James T. Gessele. Bismarck, North Dakota: Germans from Russia Heritage Society, 2003
Maria Kreiser's memoir of her mother, Magdalena Hecker, is the story
of the children of the Germans in Russia who opted to stay on the
Steppes when their wandering peers immigrated to America. This fifty-year
odyssey is not a journey for the faint of heart. Magdalena leads the
reader through famine and collectivization, German occupation and
the Great Trek to Poland. As a teen, Magdalena lets her instinct lead
the way from Poland to Germany only to be caught in the crossfire
of war during the final weeks of bombing in Brandenburg. During the
months of flight, her account is counterbalanced with amazing twists
of fate and occasional acts of kindness from strangers. Magdalena
emerges as an incredibly resilient young woman. Ever practical and
gifted with an amazing will and determination, Magdalena battles her
own demons and describes the next decades of life for "repatriated"
Germans trying to survive in the Urals. Magdalena's story doesn't
suffer in translation because James Gessele's work is flawless. This
sobering account of a family's journey connects the reader with the
voice of one who witnessed and survived the unthinkable. Her soul
was bent, but did not break. Magdalena's inner strength and determination
to give her children the opportunity to realize their purpose as human
beings on this earth sustained her on the journey and as she said,
"Who could estimate the value of that?" |
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