Title: From the Ruins of the Reich - Germany 1945-1949
Author: Douglas Botting
Publisher: New American Library 1985
Included in this book are the incredible battle for Berlin, the rape and pillage by invading Russian troops, starvation and the black market after the war, the breakdown of Russian & American relations leading to the cold war, and Stalin's desire to push communism all the way to the Atlantic with a World War III. An example of post-war bartering: With a half pound of butter you could get 50 cigarettes. With 40 of those you could get a bottle of wine and schnapps. You could trade the schnapps for two pounds of butter and start all over again. Astounding casualty statistics: Poland lost 1 in 6 of it's population, Russia 1 in 10, Yugoslavia 1 in 10, Germany 6%, and 6 million Jews died out of 10 million in Europe. 315 pages.
Title: Pommern in 1440 Bildern. (Pomerania in 1440 Pictures)
Author: Klaus Granzow
Publisher: Gerhard Rautenberg 1986
A fantastic collection of old photos with a little text in German at the beginning of each Kreis chapter. A lot of aerial views of major cities in Pommern are depicted. Many of the pictures taken from 1929-31. For a researcher it is a good way to see what life was like in the whole region 70 years ago. There is a chapter just on Schlochau with pictures of Schlochau, Hammerstein, Domslaff, Stegers, Landeck, Baldenburg, and Preussich Friedland. Two other variations of this book exist one about Silesia and the other about East Prussia. A heavy book (6 lbs!) 709 pages.
Title: Hour of the Women
Author: Christian von Krockow
Publisher: HarperCollins 1991
An amazing true story that you can't put down, and a bestseller in Germany. A young woman struggles to survive after the war. Life was so organized that you needed papers even to flee as a refugee. Her parents are a baron and baroness living around the area of Stolp. He was too proud to steal food. A stranger remarked, "There goes Prussia," as her mother walked by. To feed her newborn child, self, parents and refugees, she must constantly come up with new, secret, and dangerous plans. Very descriptive about the plight of Germans under Russian and Polish rule and about the hardships of fleeing by train back to Germany. Written in a nice storytelling style. 212 pages.
Title: German Boy
Author: Wolfgang W. E. Samuel
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi 2000
Another amazing true story that you can't put down. A mother, daughter, son and grandmother must flee the Red Army advancing on Silesia. Very descriptive about the end of the war, the occupation of the allied armies, and the desperate struggle to feed themselves and barter on the black market. 357 pages.
Title: Ships of our Ancestors
Author: Michael J. Anuta
Publisher: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. 1999
A thorough collection of nearly 900 ships that carried immigrants to their new homes around the world. It is a photograpic collection with no text. Some of the ships look luxurious, and you wonder how it must have been to cross the oceans on these beautiful liners. 380 pages.