In the Midst: #BookReview The Night I Danced with Rommel

In the Midst: #BookReview The Night I Danced with Rommel: About Elisabeth Marrion Elisabeth was born in August 1948 in Hildesheim, Germany. Her father was a Corporal in the RAF stationed afte...

#BookReview The Night I Danced with Rommel

Elisabeth was born in August 1948 in Hildesheim, Germany. Her father was a Corporal in the RAF stationed after WWII in the British occupied zone in Germany, where he met her mother, Hilde.

Elisabeth and her mother shared their love for Art; both were performing at their local theatre from a young age.

As a teenager she enjoyed reading novels and plays by Oscar Wilde, Thornton Wilder, Ernest Hemingway and short stories by Guy de Maupassant. More recently she felt inspired by 'Rabbit-proof fence', a true story written by Doris Pilkington.

In 1969 she moved to England and married David from Liverpool. Together they worked throughout the Far East and Sub-Continent, spending a large amount of their time in Bangladesh. There they helped their manufacturer to build a school in the rural part of the Country.

For inspiration Elisabeth puts on her running shoes for a run through the New Forest.

                                                     

 

 

K Meador Review of The Night I Danced with Rommel

Children wearing gas masks, concentration camps near towns without German resident's knowledge, hunger and poverty running rapid and the constant fear of bombs and the uncertainty of tomorrow are the underlying connotations of this story. The struggle to survive, the power to love and the despair of grief involve all the characters in this book.

With much of WWII stories that I have read focused on either the actual war events or the concentration camps, it was a fresh perspective to read this account of history from the perspective of a single young woman and then later, as a married woman with young children. Sacrifices were made and the struggle to know the real truth from the propaganda German residents were bombarded with when communication was limited to radio, limited telephone and mail that would take months to reach the recipient, if it ever did.

This is a book that is deftly woven around this woman and her family. Beginning with her parents, siblings and her dreams and then continuing with her husband, friends, and children.

It is a story worth telling and is told well.