Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.Sample Book Insights:#1 I was born in East Germany in 1953, just after the end of World War II. The devastation from the war was made worse by the Soviets’ removal of valuable assets that had survived the Allies’ aerial bombardment.#2 My mother, Judith, was a new teacher in the village of Rietschen in 1948. She had six more years of life experience and six more years of hardship under her belt. She was born in 1922 in Kaltwasser, where her parents worked as head forest ranger and cook at the estate of a German count.#3 My mother was granted a one-month pregnancy leave in anticipation of my birth. My father accompanied her to his parents’ home in Reichenbach. The plan was that she would give birth there. But the weather was typical for springtime in Germany - gray skies, temperatures hovering around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and a steady drizzle.#4 I was born in the GDR, on the Soviet-controlled side of the Berlin Wall. The entire trajectory of my life is rooted in the geographic location of my birth. By the time Stalin died, it had become clear that East Germany would continue to evolve into a Communist dictatorship.