Inna: Between Two Worlds

Inna had the unenviable experience of growing up and coming of age under the rule, not of one, but of two ruthless dictators; Stalin and Hitler. The first murdered her father in the Gulag, and the second launched an invasion that took the life of her first love and tore her away from her family and her country, leaving her to survive and build a new life in an alien world. Her book is an account of her often traumatic experiences and the hard choices she had to make in both worlds. More than just a personal memoir, it is also an important contribution to the history of the times she lived in. Some of her more traumatic experiences, such as the arrest and death of her father, have been fictionalized to some extent, but all of them are based on fact. I know, because I married her oldest daughter, Sylvia, and often heard the events recorded here recounted, not only by her, but by her husband, Wolfram, and several other family members. Inna was certainly a survivor, and a strong, capable woman to boot. She had another quality that I personally value very highly; loyalty. Wolfram was a charming opera star, with a weakness for pretty chorus girls. There were some rocky patches in their marriage as a result. In the end, though, he learned to value the treasure he had brought home with him from Russia. On his deathbed, his last words to her were, "Thank you for always being true to me, in spite of everything." Douglas Drake, Boyds, MD