"Growing up in Paris as the daughter of a German mother and an Irish father, Svenja O'Donnell knew little of her family's German past. All she knew was that her great-grandparents, grandmother, and mother had fled their home city of Königsberg near the end of World War II, never to return. But everything changed when O'Donnell traveled to the city--now known as Kaliningrad, and a part of Russia--and called her grandmother. Normally stoic and inscrutable, she uncharacteristically burst into tears. "I have so much to tell you," she said. In this transporting book, award-winning journalist Svenja O'Donnell weaves research, reporting, and more than a decade of conversations into a dramatic narrative that uniquely captures the lives of ordinary Germans--particularly women--from the rise of Hitler through the war's brutal aftermath. As O'Donnell gradually pulls back the curtain on her grandmother's past, she discovers a life of love, loss, and impossible choices. She learns how Inge fell in love with a fellow rebellious teenager in Berlin's underground jazz clubs, and bore his child out of wedlock after he was sent, against his will, to the Eastern Front. She learns how Inge spearheaded the family's flight across the sea as the Red Army closed in, her not yet two-year-old daughter--O'Donnell's mother--in tow. Finally, she uncovers the act of violence that ultimately parted her from the man she loved: a terrible secret she had kept hidden for more than six decades, which shakes the family to its core. A captivating World War II saga, Inge's War is also a powerful reckoning with the meaning of German identity and inherited trauma. In retracing her grandmother's footsteps, O'Donnell not only discovers the remarkable story of a woman caught in the gears of history, but also comes face to face with her family's legacy of neutrality and inaction. A story of passion, hardship, displacement, and survival, Inge's War offers a rare glimpse into a reality too long buried by silence and shame"--
adult
Svenja O'Donnell.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-293) and index.
