Hey Kids, Want Some Chocolates? - Melitta Strandberg & George E. Pfautsch

Publisher:  AuthorHouse

Pages: 84

Source:  Review copy from Bostick Communications

Genre:  Historical Memoir

 

 Every now and again we hear in the news of a baby disappearing from a hospital.  I have always felt for those parents who are traumatized in this manner.  So it was with this book.  This is Melitta’s story.  It is a story of her abduction and return.  It is not an easy story to read.  Imagine you have given birth to a child and then when they bring the child in, you know they have made a mistake.  You pitch a fit and so they remove the baby but don’t return your child.  Melitta was actually taken from her mother by the Nazi’s.  This was a time when babies were experimented upon at Hitler’s command.  He chose women who were from Poland, Romania, Hungary, etc.  He didn’t consider them purebred so he figured he could do with the children as he wanted.  What is unusual about this story is that six months after disappearing Melitta is reunited with her family.   This was not the usual case.  This is the telling of that time, and the events that took place shortly thereafter.    Melitta’s parents managed to make it onto the last train leaving East Germany and ended up in Augsberg, Germany.  This was freedom to them.  Children leaving the train were met by soldiers who offered them chocolate.  This is where the title comes from.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves this time period.  I have a former student who did an entire history project on survivors of the holocaust and I know that this is a book she will definitely want to read.  I enjoyed learning another part of this time period I was not familiar with.

About the authors:

Melitta Strandberg was born on September 3, 1944. Her parents' story began in Romania and is filled with the many risks and the many narrow escapes that could have ended prematurely their quest for freedom. Melitta's own quest ended before she was one year old, but those first few months of her life are intriguing and much about them remains a mystery. Thereafter she has led a successful and typical life. Her first eighteen years were spent in Germany and the remainder of her life has been in the United States. Today she lives with her husband, Herb, in Northern California.

 

George E. Pfautsch spent most of his working life as a financial executive with Potlatch Corporation, a major forest products and paper company. His final years with them were spent as the Senior Vice President of Finance and the Chief Financial Officer. Following his retirement, he began writing and speaking on the subjects of morality, justice and faith. He has published several books on those topics and he views this book as encompassing each of those subjects.