My Life on Two Continents

by Mathilde Apelt Schmidt

Raised in Germany during the Hitler years this girl had two wishes: to go to a university and to leave Germany for America. Both of these wishes were granted; but it was not easy. She was often confronted with obstacles and even had to endure life-threatening situations. Only her positive attitude, her persistence, and her belief in her own personal "Guardian Angel" pulled her through. Her parents, well respected citizens of her hometown, Bremen, had taken her out of high school to pursue a course in seed breeding to be able to work and be independent. But she ran into difficulties to even achieve that goal. Finally she managed to further her education, but was stopped by the last months of the war and became a prisoner of war. How she was released, sent back to her home country, almost got killed by bombs, but finally got both of her wishes granted, getting a good husband in the process and leading a fulfilling life in California, should warrant interesting reading.

ebook

First published July 20, 2006

About the author

Mathilde Apelt Schmidt is a naturalized American citizen from the "old country." She was born and raised in Bremen, Germany, grew up during the Hitler years, and went through all kinds of adventures during the war. She finally decided to leave her home country to visit her sister in the United States. How she survived the war, came to the States, met her husband of over fifty years in California, and started writing, is described in her first book, My Life on Two Continents .

Her memoir is followed by a collection of fictional stories set in a frame story (like the Canterbury Tales): The Lake Dwellers .

Her novel The Old Castle in Austria: Sins of the Fathers , and her book Happiness: A Matter of the Mind - Vantage Point of an Octogenarian were both published in 2008.

Mathilde Apelt Schmidt resides with her husband in Castro Valley, a small town in the huge Bay Area across the Bay from San Francisco. She enjoys getting older, writing books, tending house and garden, and just living.

Photo courtesy of the author.