Regina

“It pained Oma to watch her children enter the youth movement. Nothing good, she thought, could come from the East German regime manipulating the minds of the country’s vulnerable youth. She could see how such pledges filled with propaganda had taken the place of prayers and hymns in the way that they invited worship of an ignoble and sinister power.”
― Nina Willner, Forty Autumns: A Powerful Story of Family Separation, Courage, and Life Divided by the Berlin Wall

“The first challenge the Soviets faced was to change the mind-set of the almost 19 million German citizens who, long before World War II, had been led to believe that communism was the greatest threat to the Western world. Stalin demanded the transition be swift, and the approach uncompromising”
― Nina Willner, Forty Autumns: A Powerful Story of Family Separation, Courage, and Life Divided by the Berlin Wall

“It seems a hard standard to live up to for a lifetime. I don’t want to be the stressed companion to keep everything in pristine order. I want a more relaxed life,”
― Cara Reinard, Sweet Water

“What will become of a country...when a mother cannot trust her own children, and they, in turn, cannot trust their own families?”
― Nina Willner, Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall