Rika's Stories From the Other Side

About the Book

Rika's Stories From The Other Side are my memories from a time that befell the world like a terrible epidemic, and struck hardest at those ordinary people who won nothing, and who suffered losses of health, life, home and loved ones. All we could do was survive

On September 1, 1939, World War II struck Germany, and my hometown of Saarbruecken, a small town near the French border, was forcibly evacuated-"obey or be shot like spies without trial." I was young and eager for life but, instead, I watched my beloved world replaced by all the numbing horrors of war. Fate drove me around Europe: Germany, France, and Poland. Eventually, the advancing Russian army drove me back to the ruins of Saarbrueken-and into the arms of an American soldier.

I remember starvation, evacuations, bomb attacks, a broken marriage, love affairs-an abortion without anesthesia by a doctor, later convicted of murder; hospital work amid pain and wounds, and the constant threats of sickness, cold and hunger.

Through it all, I learned to keep the promise I made to myself, that I would never cry again over trivialities as long as I could "breathe freely."

About the Author

Erika Margarete Louise Koch was born 1917 in Saarbruecken, Germany. She worked in Europe as radio station administrator and after her emigration to America in 1952 as a technical and medical secretary. She has three daughters and now lives in Florida.