Christa Holder Ocker

Christa Holder Ocker is a NY Times #1 Best Selling contributing author. Her stories have been featured in Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul, Pre-teen Soul, Unsinkable Soul Sister's Soul, Hooked on Hckey, Devotional Stories for Tough Times, and Miraculous Messages from Heaven. She began to write short stories after years of domestic doldrums. Her story, "Merry Christmas, My friend," translated in many languages, was adapted for TV and starred Mickey Rooney. She loves writing, sailing, skiing, and frolicking with her 12 incredible grandchildren. Ocker's memoir auf Wiedersehen: WWll Through The Eyes of A German Girl is her latest work, published by Plain View Press, the Kindle edition published by Rogue Phoenix Press.

Q and A with Christa Holder Ocker

Why did you write this book?

Throughout the years I have been asked What was it like growing up in Nazi Germany? With countless others of my generation, I shared the guilt of the holocaust and evaded this question for a very long time. But when an ex-Nazi youth became our pope, I decided it was time for me to acknowledge the past.

If you were lecturing about your life and book to a Jewish audience what would you most like to say to them?

Only love can conquer all. I say this with conviction, because my oldest son married an Israeli girl, whose father is the only survivor of his family in the holocaust. And now we share in the love of our grandchildren who are raised Jewish.

How did your childhood in Germany shape your adult life?

I believe I am totally aware of the necessity to speak up, to act, when things are not right. This does not always make me popular, but it is a trait I consider essential to my happiness.

Your stories are incredibly vibrant, did you keep a journal or is your memory that keen?

Once I started writing, once the floodgates were opened, the memories were vivid and close.

You found writing late in life, how did that unfold?

My niece Karen, a troubled teenager, a run-a-way, was in our custody and living with us. She wrote all the time - mostly poetry. She shared her poetry with me and I was fascinated. I took some classes, and started writing myself - first poetry, then short stories, then picture book stories, etc.

A few years later, one of my sons passed away and left four little ones behind, I moved in with my daughter-in-law to help her. To keep my sanity, I joined a writer's group near where she lived. Writing about the past at this time, somehow, had a therapeutic effect.

Tell me about the process of applying to be a contributor to Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul?

I was in a writer's group, and Susan - a published author suggested we all submit a story to Chicken Soup. Mine was accepted for the Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul book. Later a story for the Pre-Teen Soul, for the Unsinkable Soul, and for the Sister's Soul were also published. I believe they are holding several of my writings now for possible future books.

When you describe your childhood, you seemed fearless and your sister seem consumed with fear. Do you have a sense of that?

I think, perhaps, I was just younger and ignorant.

Have you ever tried to find any of the children that you were closest to in Germany that appear in the story?

I tried to google Gunter once, unsuccessfully. The others, I don't remember their last names.

Do you plan more books? Fiction or Non-Fiction?

Actually I have a series of picture book stories I'm working on, fiction of course. And yes, there is another non-fiction in the works.