Through Difficult Times: The Life of Erich and Ursula Spickschen

This book tells the history of the Spickschen family, often using actual narratives, and it is unique because of the wealth of source material and interviews with witnesses available to the author who was then able to make the characters come alive. The parents lived through two world wars, the difficult times during and between these wars and the devastation in Germany following World War II. The Spickschens are survivors and this book allows you to live along with them as they fought to stay alive and keep their family together through the most dangerous and destructive period in modern European history.

This book will captivate you from the family’s ancestral history and its anecdotes through their trials, frustration and tribulations of the 1920s, their accomplishments and successes in the 1030s and early 1940s, the narrow escape of most of the family from the advancing Soviet army as the Third Reich collapsed and their hardships following the War. Finally, the story moves into the post-war reconstruction era and allows a glimpse at how the Spcikschen family was forever changed by their experiences.

Despite all of the adversities they endured, the parents taught, their children to always trust in God and to love and support each other and to respect and be tolerant to the people around them. The Spickschen family has now grown to over 100 members who live in two continents, Europe and North America. While their parents have passsed, the remaining four original siblings keep in close contact with each other and every three years a family reunion is held that brings most of the family together.

5 Star

Read This Book

I have studied WWII history for over 50 years and my family went through the Nazi occupation in Scandinavia. Until now, the available books recite historical facts or tell stories from the viewpoint of the citizens of the occupied countries, soldiers of the liberating armies or top level Nazi officials. Finally there is this book that tells the story of an ordinary German family's life during the 20th century and how they got caught up in Nazism. The book spans two world wars and their aftermath. The original source material and interviews speak to its authenticity. This book will captivate the reader who wants to know about family life in rural East Prussia as well as the historian who wants to understand how Nazism took over ordinary Germans. In addition to the family history and the historical facts, for me the takeaway was the incredible will to survive demonstrated by the family when the war was lost and the Soviet army was pouring into East Prussia seeking revenge. The book is not dark and gloomy. It tells funny family tales but it also recounts the day-to-day fears, frustrations and incredible dangers faced by the family as they left everything behind and fled (often on foot) to the Allied occupied portion of Germany. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I highly recommend it.

MRS

5 Star

Do Read!

They say that history is always written by the winners, but this book dictates the lives of those living on the wrong side of history. First through WWI, next through the development of Nazi Germany, and then through and past WWII. The stories told give us readers the ability to understand how the rise and appeal of fascism was capable of dominating in the early 20th century. As a [optimistic] twenty-something, supporting such regimes and doctrines seems unfathomable to me, and yet this book illustrates just how easily good, smart people can fall into the trap -- and what difficult times lay ahead when nationalism/nazism become the Zeitgeist. In addition, the specific trials and tribulations brought upon this family tell an exceptionally interesting and captivating story. I highly recommend!

Julia M