Mischka's War

A Story of Survival from War-Torn Europe to New York

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Social Science, Biography & Memoir
Cover of the book Mischka's War by Sheila Fitzpatrick, Bloomsbury Publishing
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Sheila Fitzpatrick ISBN: 9781786722546
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Publication: June 30, 2017
Imprint: I.B. Tauris Language: English
Author: Sheila Fitzpatrick
ISBN: 9781786722546
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication: June 30, 2017
Imprint: I.B. Tauris
Language: English

In 1943, 22-year-old Latvian Mischka Danos chanced on a terrible sight - a pit filled with the bodies of Jews killed by the occupying Germans. A few months later, escaping conscription into the Waffen-SS in Riga, Mischka entered Hitler's Reich itself on a student exchange to Germany. There, as the war drew to an end, he narrowly escaped death in the Allied fire-bombing of Dresden. As he made his escape from Hitler's Reich he fell ill and was incarcerated in hospital before finally reuniting with his resourceful mother Olga, who had made her own way out of Riga, saving some Jews along the way. The diaries, correspondence and later recollections of mother and son provide a vivid recreation of life in occupied Germany, where anxiety, fear and loss were tempered by friendship, and where the ineptitude of international and occupation bureaucracies added its own touch of black humour. Sponsored as immigrants by one of the Jews Olga had saved, they eventually reached New York in the early 1950s. As refugee experiences go, they were among the lucky ones-but even luck leaves scars. The author, who met and married Mischka forty years after these events, turns her skills as a historian and wry eye as a memoirist to telling this remarkable story.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In 1943, 22-year-old Latvian Mischka Danos chanced on a terrible sight - a pit filled with the bodies of Jews killed by the occupying Germans. A few months later, escaping conscription into the Waffen-SS in Riga, Mischka entered Hitler's Reich itself on a student exchange to Germany. There, as the war drew to an end, he narrowly escaped death in the Allied fire-bombing of Dresden. As he made his escape from Hitler's Reich he fell ill and was incarcerated in hospital before finally reuniting with his resourceful mother Olga, who had made her own way out of Riga, saving some Jews along the way. The diaries, correspondence and later recollections of mother and son provide a vivid recreation of life in occupied Germany, where anxiety, fear and loss were tempered by friendship, and where the ineptitude of international and occupation bureaucracies added its own touch of black humour. Sponsored as immigrants by one of the Jews Olga had saved, they eventually reached New York in the early 1950s. As refugee experiences go, they were among the lucky ones-but even luck leaves scars. The author, who met and married Mischka forty years after these events, turns her skills as a historian and wry eye as a memoirist to telling this remarkable story.

More books from Bloomsbury Publishing

Cover of the book Fearless by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book Ulysses S. Grant by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book Napoleon’s Scouts of the Imperial Guard by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book Apocalyptic Political Theology by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book A Politics of Grace by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book The Politics of Tragedy and Democratic Citizenship by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book Modelling the T-55 Main Battle Tank by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book The Clutter-Busting Handbook by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book Death of a Writer by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book U-Turn by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book Creative Partnerships in Practice by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book Britain, Germany and the Road to the Holocaust by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book Personal Stereo by Sheila Fitzpatrick
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy