On the Other Side: To My Children: From Germany, 1940-1945

Owen, 1979. First Edition. Hardcover. Like New. GIFT QUALITY 1979 FIRST EDITION hardcover with dust jacket. WELL-PRESERVED, UNREAD COPY. Bright, well-bound pages. Very light shelf-rubbing to jacket; remains a very nice, presentable copy. 172 pages. "ON THE OTHER SIDE is a human document of great historical interest: an account by a cultured, liberal, anti-Nazi woman of the day-to-day destruction of a city and its people. Firmly rooted in Hamburg -- her father had been its Lord Mayor, her husband, Emil Wolff, was a distinguished professor at the University -- and yet cosmopolitan in outlook, with strong cultural and family ties with 'the enemy,' Mathilde Wolff-Moenckeberg offers a unique perspective. Her letters give a harrowing description of civilian life under the incessant bombardment of total war. We also experience the propagandist reporting of the war from the German press and public announcements, and the civilian reaction to the ebb and flow of the tide leading up to the final invasion of Germany's frontiers. We share her anxieties for her children, her sorrow as those close to her die, and most poignantly, her bewilderment as the city she loves is annihilated by a people -- the English -- she has always respected and admired. However, what remains in the reader's mind are the inspired human qualities of the author -- her courage as she is forced continually to re-examine her ideals and convictions, her unshakeable belief in justice and man's humanity, and her wisdom and compassion which illuminate every page of these letters to her 'beloved, far-away children' [who are in Wales, the USA and Denmark].