One reason I chose to resume writing with Forty Autumns is that today is Veteran's Day and the 100th anniversary of the World War I armistice. This book is not about World War I, but about the aftermath of World War II. It reminds us, though, of why it is important to remember our history, and why wars are fought, and what happens in a country where there is no freedom, and where the goals of the government are more important than the lives of the people who live there.
Nina Willner's mother, Hanna, escaped from East Germany in 1948, two weeks before her 21st birthday. Almost 40 years later, a few years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Willner moved to East Germany as an intelligence agent for the United States. In Forty Autumns, Willner weaves together the story of her mother's escape and future life, the life of the family she left behind, and the political history of East Germany.
Willner chronicles all the difficulties her family suffered under the East German regime. They were hungry. The people had to harvest their crops and then turn them over to the government to be distributed, but not much came back to the family. The children were more or less compelled to undergo Communist Party indoctrination in Youth Groups and schools. The Statsi (East German equivalent of the KGB) were everywhere, and everyone was encouraged to spy on their neighbors. No one could trust their neighbors or even their children. Products were scarce, and shoddy and quickly wore out. And, of course, they were held prisoners within the borders of the country.
Despite all this, Oma (Hanna's mother) was determined to keep her family intact and loyal to one another. She raised what she called the Family Wall. She taught her children that the family came first, and to not let anyone divide them, and in this, she was successful. She seems to have always persevered no matter how difficult things were, and to believe that one day things would be different.
Opa (Hanna's father), on the other hand, was not so sanguine. He was a teacher, and was disgusted by the things he was required to teach. He was appalled at the falsified version of history presented by the government, but he went along with what was expected, because to complain was to ask for serious trouble. Eventually, though, he did begin to rebel with the result that he was kicked out of the Communist party, fired, sent away to a small home in an area where there were only a few other people, and eventually put in an insane asylum for 6 months.
There was some occasional communication between Hanna and her family, although all their mail was read by the Stasi, so they had to be very careful about what they said. Twice while Hanna was still living in West Germany, family members were allowed to visit her in there, partly because the Stasi hoped that her mother would convince her to come back. In 1954, Oma and her youngest daughter, 5 year-old Heidi, were the first visitors. Heidi was born after Hanna had escaped, so this was the first time that they had met, and Heidi decided then and there that she was going to pattern her life after Hanna's.
In 1958, Opa and Oma were allowed a to come. Since Oma's last visit, Hanna had married Eddie Willner, a Jewish holocaust survivor, now a U.S. intelligence agent. The Stasi knew who he was, and they encourage Opa to somehow find out information from Eddie. The topic never came up during the visit, and they had a wonderful time. However, since Oma and Opa had failed to cooperate, they were never allowed to visit again.
One of the most encouraging stories in the book is that of Heidi, and her husband Reinhardt. Because neither of them had ever joined the Communist Party, they could not get very good jobs, but they and their children managed to get by on, and be happy with what they had. After a time, Heidi was rewarded a small plot of land on which to raise food. Reinhardt built a small shed on the land from a prefab kit, and they worked hard to make it into a nice little place to stay. They called it Paradise Bungalow and spent their weekends there.
In a way, Forty Autumns reminds me of Eleni. Although Hanna's family did not suffer the torture and martyrdom of Eleni Gotzoyiannis, there were those who did. Willner writes about a terrible women's prison, and, of course, many people were killed trying to escape. Like Eleni, Forty Autumns is a reminder of the corruptions of the Communist government that seems to be sorely needed today, when there are those that seem to see Communism as a positive good.
I would highly recommend this book for anyone. It is a very good read. It has all the elements of a good novel, and is also very informative, but the chapters that talk about the political climate are never tedious because they are related to what is going on in the lives of these people that we care about.
AMDG
