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Lamb Of Legacy by Edeltraud Fellendorf Edeltraud's School Photo
I am now in my eighties, surprised at the face that greets me in the mirror each morning. Part of me remains young, always reaching for the child that is still inside me; that child and I still speak every day, but never really touch...too many years have passed...too many horrors. I want to forget, but I shall not. I remember everything that happened over my lifetime – my teachers, my friends and family...I especially remember those who did not survive the war. Even now, nightmares still awaken me, ghastly faces of the dead choking me from my sleep.
This is the story of my childhood in Silesia and adolescent years in Berlin, Germany, where I was raised in the shadow of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich, the madness of World War 2, and the years that followed. I survive today through the grace of God, and I am determined to finally share my story before everything is forgotten – before the past is buried and no one remembers the ugliness of a world at war. |
about the book
Edeltraud, age 8
Lamb of Legacy: A Child's Survival in Hitler's Berlin is the unforgettable story of Edeltraud Fellendorf, a young German girl who grows up in Berlin during the height of World War 2 under the fanatical reign of Adolf Hitler. Edeltraud's serene and idyllic childhood is interrupted when she and her parents are forced to leave a prosperous bakery business, friends, and family in Silesia after her father refuses to join the Nazi Party. Moving to Berlin in 1939, with little to nothing, and without jobs, her mother supports the family cleaning the hallways of apartment houses for the wealthy. Her father’s dream of opening another bakery in Berlin is soon shattered when he is conscripted into the German Regular Army.
By law, she joins the Hitler Youth in 1940 when she turns 10-years-old, becoming a Jungmädel. When she is older, part of Edeltraud’s Jungmädel duties include assisting nurses at a hospital, helping to care for the Fatherland’s wounded. The patients she is assigned are classified as “basket cases,” German soldiers who have lost both arms and legs in battle. She personally witnesses the death of friends, neighbors, German soldiers, and
Berlin itself, discovering her first of many fatalities, a friend’s father, in a pile of rubble at the tender age of 11.
As the war progresses, her mother is forced to return to Silesia to care for her own dying mother. Alone in Berlin, she faces air raids, death, and destruction. She lives through hundreds of aircraft bombings from Allied forces. Towards the end of Hitler’s Third Reich, she also survives weeks of Russian
artillery barrages as well as the threat of rape and imprisonment by the advancing Red Army. After the war, her father becomes a Russian prisoner of war
who is eventually transported to a Siberian gulag. While many in her family never return from war, Edeltraud triumphs over the onslaught, an abusive mother, starvation, and the capitulation of Hitler’s capital.
Despite her many horrifying experiences, Edeltraud’s story is one of inspiration. It is a fascinating insider’s view of Hitler’s Germany and the covert Nazification of a young girl. Her beautifully written story introduces readers to last century's terrible history of devastation yet offers hope that
the effects of war and its brutality can be overcome. It also proves Adolf Hitler did succeed in creating a perfect German girl, an impressionable and
innocent Lamb, in which he secured his Legacy, upon which he could have built his Thousand-Year Reich.
By law, she joins the Hitler Youth in 1940 when she turns 10-years-old, becoming a Jungmädel. When she is older, part of Edeltraud’s Jungmädel duties include assisting nurses at a hospital, helping to care for the Fatherland’s wounded. The patients she is assigned are classified as “basket cases,” German soldiers who have lost both arms and legs in battle. She personally witnesses the death of friends, neighbors, German soldiers, and
Berlin itself, discovering her first of many fatalities, a friend’s father, in a pile of rubble at the tender age of 11.
As the war progresses, her mother is forced to return to Silesia to care for her own dying mother. Alone in Berlin, she faces air raids, death, and destruction. She lives through hundreds of aircraft bombings from Allied forces. Towards the end of Hitler’s Third Reich, she also survives weeks of Russian
artillery barrages as well as the threat of rape and imprisonment by the advancing Red Army. After the war, her father becomes a Russian prisoner of war
who is eventually transported to a Siberian gulag. While many in her family never return from war, Edeltraud triumphs over the onslaught, an abusive mother, starvation, and the capitulation of Hitler’s capital.
Despite her many horrifying experiences, Edeltraud’s story is one of inspiration. It is a fascinating insider’s view of Hitler’s Germany and the covert Nazification of a young girl. Her beautifully written story introduces readers to last century's terrible history of devastation yet offers hope that
the effects of war and its brutality can be overcome. It also proves Adolf Hitler did succeed in creating a perfect German girl, an impressionable and
innocent Lamb, in which he secured his Legacy, upon which he could have built his Thousand-Year Reich.
the destruction of berlin
Although the number of Berliners killed by the bombings varies, it is estimated that between 25,000 to 50,000 died and 100,000 were wounded. I lived on Gottlieb-Dunkel-Strasse, Apartment 3, in the Tempelhof district of Berlin, which was near Tempelhof Airport. Because the airport was a major target for the Allies, entire sections of our apartment complex were wiped out – almost 70 percent became collateral damage. As providence would have it, I lived in the 30 percent that wasn’t destroyed. Between the air raids and the Russians, Berlin was almost destroyed. The videos below show the extent of the destruction, and what I managed to survive so I could tell my story almost 70 years later.
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