Along the road to being a writer, Rose has been a bookkeeper, piano teacher and mother of four. She makes her home in Surrey, BC with her husband and their two younger children and enjoys singing, reading and travel.
The Author’s Inspiration:
When I was about ten, my grandparents had portraits taken for their anniversary. In some pictures they were smiling and in others their faces bore a more serious expression. My Mom couldn’t decide which photo to choose, so she took them to a neighbor who looked them over and pointed to one in which they gazed off into the distance.
“That one,” said the neighbor. “I think it tells a story.”
I didn’t realize the significance of those words until much later.
My brothers and I were playing cat’s cradle with string and my Dad walked into the room. He joined the game and showed us some other patterns. “We used to play this at the concentration camp.”
Of course my Dad was telling the truth, I had no reason to doubt that. But his statement about concentration camps didn’t quite line up with the books I had read- “The Diary of Anne Frank,” and “The Hiding Place.” Later on I had to clarify this. “Why were you in a concentration camp?” I asked. “You’re German!”
After I decided to write the book, I looked up “concentration camps after the war.” There is little mention, at least not in the books I can find.
It stands to reason that in the years following the war, most people did not want to hear about how the ethnic Germans suffered and were forced from their homelands. In the face of prejudice and harsh judgment, people kept their experiences to themselves. Few wrote about it, at least not in English. This history did not fit so neatly with the Allied version of events. What happened behind the Iron Curtain stayed there for a long time.
Putting together the stories of my relatives and placing their experiences into the context of history has been a puzzling challenge, eventually made possible by the growth of the internet and the information that has slowly come to light.
And so, before the survivors of that time are all laid to rest, I reveal their story. “Threaten to Undo Us,” is the fictionalized account of one family’s struggle to endure in a world turned upside down.
Along the road to being a writer, Rose has been a bookkeeper, piano teacher and mother of four. She makes her home in Surrey, BC with her husband and their two younger children and enjoys singing, reading and travel.
The Author's Inspiration:
When I was about ten, my grandparents had portraits taken for their anniversary. In some pictures they were smiling and in others their faces bore a more serious expression. My Mom couldn’t decide which photo to choose, so she took them to a neighbor who looked them over and pointed to one in which they gazed off into the distance.
"That one,” said the neighbor. “I think it tells a story.”
I didn’t realize the significance of those words until much later.
My brothers and I were playing cat’s cradle with string and my Dad walked into the room. He joined the game and showed us some other patterns. “We used to play this at the concentration camp.”
Of course my Dad was telling the truth, I had no reason to doubt that. But his statement about concentration camps didn’t quite line up with the books I had read- “The Diary of Anne Frank,” and “The Hiding Place.” Later on I had to clarify this. “Why were you in a concentration camp?” I asked. “You’re German!”
After I decided to write the book, I looked up “concentration camps after the war.” There is little mention, at least not in the books I can find.
It stands to reason that in the years following the war, most people did not want to hear about how the ethnic Germans suffered and were forced from their homelands. In the face of prejudice and harsh judgment, people kept their experiences to themselves. Few wrote about it, at least not in English. This history did not fit so neatly with the Allied version of events. What happened behind the Iron Curtain stayed there for a long time.
Putting together the stories of my relatives and placing their experiences into the context of history has been a puzzling challenge, eventually made possible by the growth of the internet and the information that has slowly come to light.
And so, before the survivors of that time are all laid to rest, I reveal their story. “Threaten to Undo Us,” is the fictionalized account of one family’s struggle to endure in a world turned upside down.Website: http://roseseilerscott.com/
Showing the single result
