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“Weeds Like Us is a memoir from the author’s childhood between 1944 and 1950. Beginning in East Prussia near Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia), author Gunter Nitsch describes his life from the last days of the Third Reich through his escape from Soviet occupied eastern Germany to the West. Nitsch vividly describes his daily struggle on many levels while conveying the unspoken hope that his family can be reunited with his father. He relates how he and his family of refugees were moved about and were forced to use whatever food and resources were leftover. Their lives engaged them in constant struggle against hunger, cold and human cruelty. Nevertheless, they display endless resourcefulness and faith and along their journey encounter the occasional human kindness. After Nitsch, his mother and brother find their way to West Germany, their ordeal was still not over. The story’s ending is somewhat surprising. With all its tears and trials, the narrative offers the resilience of youth as something of a comic relief. Whatever the predicament, little boys are still boys, and Nitsch delights with tales of their adventures. (There is no irony in the fact that Huckleberry Finn became one of his treasured books.) Nitsch’s account stands out as a memoir from a time and place in history that has been little discussed or understood in the West. He has given us an excellent landscape from that period.”
Juvakka wrote this review Saturday, June 26, 2010.
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