Surviving Brigitte's Secrets: A Holocaust Survivor. Her Daughter. Two Traumatic Journeys. - Softcover

It has always been easy for Saskia to tell her mother's remarkable story... In 1938, when Brigitte Langer is 23, the Nazis claim the Sudetenland and she is labelled a Mischling (mixed race) Jew of the 1st Degree. Courageous and resourceful, she escapes the ultimate fate that awaited so many other unfortunates, only to end up at the mercy of the revengeful Czechs at the end of WW2. By 1954, when Saskia is born, entering into a marriage of convenience seems to be the only means to leave the Valka Refugee Camp in Nurnberg. The long awaited emigration to Great Britain in 1961 finally promises security and hope for her newly formed family. Yet, as she begins the second part of her journey, Brigitte's repressed past is never far behind her. It is not so easy for Saskia to talk about her own life... A nomadic, fostered childhood leads to an unsettled, potentially angry teenager. When she is 13, Saskia learns the first of many of her mother's secrets. Any chance for teenage normality ends as she shoulders the psychological burden of ensuring her mother's happiness in an unfair world. Saskia's journey of self-discovery begins with the death of Brigitte in 1992. Unravelling their intertwined history, she is still coming to terms with her holocaust surviving mother's past, as she continues to search for her roots.