| Independent
Review
I Heard My People Cry: One Family's Escape from Russia
2nd edition 2003
247 pages, softcover, perfect bound. ISBN: 1-55395-828-4
Book
review by Edna Boardman,
Bismarck, North Dakota (eboard@bis.midco.net
Drawing
from intensive interviews and diaries, Lenci-Downs tells the story
of Lise Huebert Toews Gerig (1930-). Lise, with her family, lived
through the time of collectivization, purges, and World War II deportations
in the Ukraine. They escaped to live in the west.
The
book contains some especially powerful images:
- There
is a virtual pioneering guidebook in the description of how Lise's
family prepared for a pioneering venture when they moved to form
a daughter colony in the Crimea.
- The
reader senses the terror people felt when they saw cars, the black
mariahs, coming into their village.
- As
a young child, Lise and her siblings accompanied their mother
in visits to her father, who clearly had been tortured, in a Russian
jail.
- In
what may be a one-of-a-kind, first hand description, Lise remembers
encountering village after abandoned village, with but a few Russian
families camping in the homes, as her family walked across the
steppe after their escape from the deportation train. The inhabitants
of the villages had left hurriedly, forced aboard northbound trains..
- The
atrocities of which the Germans were capable become evident when
the Hueberts identify a mass grave.
- Lise's
mother did what she had to do to care for her children and survive,
but she needs to be recognized for heroism beyond the imagination
of most persons today.
- Lise
and Walter laugh as they watch off-duty American and British soldiers
play ball, marveling at the sight of adults playing.
Though
Lenci-Downs worked conscientiously to keep the characters
delineated, their large number and similar names are sometimes
confusing, but this is not a serious flaw. Even if
readers have read the stories of others who have had similar experiences,
they will be well rewarded for the hours they spend walking in Lise's
shoes.
THIS
REVIEW CAN ALSO BE FOUND ON THE:
North
Dakota State University
The Libraries Germans from Russia Heritage Collection
www.lib.ndu.nodak.edu/ghc
EMAIL for Complete Review
Permission
to use any images from the GRHC website may be requested by contacting
Michael M. Miller
The Libraries
North Dakota State University
[P.O. Box 5599]
1201 Albrecht Blvd.
Fargo, ND 58105-5599
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