Barbed Wire And Daisies

As the Russian army advances on war-torn Prussia at the end of World War II, Marike Wiens gathers her four young children and flees for Denmark, the only place willing to accept German refugees. Marike arrives in Danzig just as the Allied bombs begin to fall. She and her children pick their way through the rubble to reunite with Marike's gravely ill father and the rest of her family. Together, they board an overcrowded, disease-infested ship bound for Denmark. Arriving at the refugee camp, Marike's hopes for a safe haven are dashed when she discovers the Danes have been forced to create the camps under orders from the occupying German army. Danish hostility toward the mostly women and children who cross their borders is palpable. Behind the barbed wire, Marike and her family face near starvation, illness, mistreatment, and heart-rending conditions. Moved from camp to camp, Marike struggles to keep her family alive and to hold onto their Mennonite faith. Her only hope for survival lies with her husband, Horst, who is missing in action on the Eastern Front. But as the months go by and thousands of refugees perish around her, Marike must find a new solution to save her family.

A chronicle of events that affected the lives of a couple and how those events would change their lives forever.

The Soldier with the Golden Buttons - Adapt For Youth “The Soldier with the Golden Buttons - Adapt For Youth” presents a child’s view of the Holocaust. It is the story of Jewish children wrenched from a carefree childhood to be overwhelmed by the brutal savagery of war. A few days are enough to turn them into adults forced to content with hunger and thirst, fear of death, and with the horror of being taken away from their mothers. Closed in a wagon, children are helping each other. The relation between six-year-old Biba and three-year-old Nicole written in warmth simplicity is most touching, and the tragic end of Nicole burns itself into the reader’s mind and heart. Only their inner world of childlike imagination of dreams and fairy tales, can help them confront reality while maintaining their innocence.

From Stalag 17 to The Manchurian Candidate, the American media have long been fascinated with stories of American prisoners of war. But few Americans are aware that enemy prisoners of war were incarcerated on our own soil during World War II. In The Barbed-Wire College Ron Robin tells the extraordinary story of the 380,000 German prisoners who filled camps from Rhode Island to Wisconsin, Missouri to New Jersey. Using personal narratives, camp newspapers, and military records, Robin re-creates in arresting detail the attempts of prison officials to mold the daily lives and minds of their prisoners. From 1943 onward, and in spite of the Geneva Convention, prisoners were subjected to an ambitious reeducation program designed to turn them into American-style democrats. Under the direction of the Pentagon, liberal arts professors entered over 500 camps nationwide. Deaf to the advice of their professional rivals, the behavioral scientists, these instructors pushed through a program of arts and humanities that stressed only the positive aspects of American society. Aided by German POW collaborators, American educators censored popular books and films in order to promote democratic humanism and downplay class and race issues, materialism, and wartime heroics. Red-baiting Pentagon officials added their contribution to the program, as well; by the war's end, the curriculum was more concerned with combating the appeals of communism than with eradicating the evils of National Socialism. The reeducation officials neglected to account for one factor: an entrenched German military subculture in the camps, complete with a rigid chain of command and a propensity for murdering "traitors." The result of their neglect was utter failure for the reeducation program. By telling the story of the program's rocky existence, however, Ron Robin shows how this intriguing chapter of military history was tied to two crucial episodes of twentieth- century American history: the battle over the future of American education and the McCarthy-era hysterics that awaited postwar America.

April, a season for weddings. Today is Sunday, April 6, 1941. Spring is in the air this morning, the city still asleep. A few people are attending mass or walking to the market. On a streetcar, a schoolteacher is analyzing a new book of philosophy for a review he will write. He is on a short ride up the hill to report for reserve duty at the King's Guard. Times are uncertain, and the aftereffects of the recent military coup are strangely absent. The coup was sparked by the city's outcry against the signing of a pact with three global empires. War has been averted. It is peacetime. In a few minutes, for millions of people, this Sunday will change life forever. The ensuing epic is what the schoolteacher had gambled against, by taking the oath of allegiance to his King. Soon, he will never see his family, friends, countryeven his paintings and beloved catever again. And he was one of the lucky ones. April 1941 is this soldiers story.

""A seasonal collection of recipes for whole-grain breakfasts including cereals, granolas, baked eggs, savory morning tarts, and muffins"--Provided by publisher"--