East of the Oder ─ A German Childhood Under the Nazis and Soviets

An autobiography charting the fortunes of a German family east of the Oder, living under Nazi and communist rule

I had a little boy with me about six years old, he was the son of refugees. We were bombarding a tree with snowballs. It was fun. A Russian soldier appeared in the driveway and took pot shots at us. Little Richard fell down in the snow, dead. I walked back into the house and said, "They have shot little Richard."

Luise Urban was born into a world about to be turned upside down. Her family lived east of the river Oder, and as the Third Reich crumbled and the Soviet Red Army advanced, she was one of 15 million Germans trapped in a war zone during the terrible winter of 1945. Weakened by starvation and forced to flee their home, it was only the bravery and ingenuity of Luise's mother that saved the family from total destruction. Luise relives that harrowing time in this account written in memory of her mother, to whom she owes her life. It is the story of a child, but it is not a story for children.

Luise Urban was born in Germany in October 1933. She and her family were trapped as the Soviet Army advanced in 1945, suffering starvation and other hardships. They were then trapped in East Germany under communist rule. She and her surviving family escaped over the border into the West. She moved to England in 1956 and became a nurse.