In the Shadow of Prague

Olly Komenda-Soentgerath's dramatic story of her experiences as a young woman in post World War II Prague. It was awarded the prestigious Andreas-Gryphius Prize by the German Ministry of the Interior. Even though she was born there, and was a bilingual speaker with perfect Czech, she was interned by the Revolutionary Guards just because she happened to be of German origin and by chance lived in an area once inhabited mainly by the Nazis. Her perilous journey through internment camps lasted a year and a half, finally ending when she and her family arrived by cattle truck in the completely destroyed city of Cologne. There she married and tried to survive the hardships of setting up a new home with little money but plenty of ingenuity.