Desperate Decision

by Ruthmarie Goerke-Matthysse

Told through the eyes of thememory,RuthmarieGoerke-Matthysse guides you through a harrowing and difficult odyssey of a father and family's unique courage, foresight and perseverance in their endeavor to keep safe and united. DesperateDecision chronicles the triumph of collective human spirit over the venom of the Third Reich and the desperate life of the mid-century emigre. This journey begins in pre-war Berlin, Germany, at the beginning insanity of Hitler's ascent to power and details her father's anti-Hitler activities, noticed immediately by the authorities.Work for the father was forbidden after his release from a concentration camp because his writing was deemed "unworthy of German Literature." He gathered his family of six and left in the middle of the night for a future that was but an unknown and uncertain mirage. The patriarch spirited wife and children made it safely through Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The onset of WWII caused the British to dispatch the family to Africa,where they endured seven long years in an assortment of indifferent, dreadful internment camps. Venezuela, their future homeland, proved to be once again guaranteed uncertainty.

184 pages, Paperback

First published August 27, 2012