This book breaks the silence about the horrors faced by people from the Eastern states of Germany at the end of the Second World War. It is the true story of a Swiss family trying to live an ordinary life in Hitler's Germany.

The story is told by Helga, the daughter, who was born near the Lithuanian border. It tells how, as a young girl, she met Hitler and how she supported her mother when the SS repeatedly searched their home. As a medical student she cared for some of the thousands of wounded soldiers returning from the Russian battlefields in cattle trucks.

Alone, she joined the refugee treks in the severe winter of 1944/45, fleeing over land and frozen lakes, chased and shot at by the Russian army. With no food, no shelter or warmth, Helga's courage helped her to survive the nightmare of those terrible, cold winter months which brought death to so many.

With the war ended, having lost everything and living in total poverty, Helga travels the long dangerous road south, on a broken bicycle, in search of her family. Finally they are re-united and their dream of returning to Switzerland is fulfilled.

Imprint: Virona Publishing; ISBN-10 0-9521933-0-2; ISBN-13 978-0-9521933-0-2 EAN 9780952193302 On Sale: 01/05/02; Format: Paperback; Subformat: ; Length: ; Trimsize: 7 7/8 x 5; Pages: 448; £11.50