Margarete G. Mueller

Ostpreussen will always live in my memory. This land of dark forests and crystal lakes remains in my heart to this day, even though sixty years have gone by since I last saw my homeland. All the horrors of the war, the chaos and the expulsion that followed, and the almost five years that I was kept imprisoned in Russia will never destroy the beautiful images in my mind’s eye.

I wrote this book to share my memories of childhood, hardship, survival, hope and love with my children and grandchildren. Perhaps one day their curiosity will be aroused and then I hope that my book will give them a better understanding of what my life was like.

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I remember hearing as a child, that it was the capacity to have sensitivity for the pain and sorrow of others that made us human, and my experiences have taught me how very important it is to care about each other as fellow human beings.

I believe that you must have an understanding of the past to make sense of the present.

We are truly the sum of all our experiences, good and bad.

This is the true essence of my "Lost Years".