Jacinta doesn’t know much of her past. What little she does know, is obscured by her mother’s reluctance to speak about the war. Her father, a Wehrmacht soldier was killed in action. Her mother, Emma Kowalska, having fled Poland and the advancing Red Army, was in Dresden when the city was fire bomb in February 1945.
Photograph: Emma Kowalska WWII Polish Identity Card.
A single pendant on a chain – half of an old coin worn by Emma becomes lost when she moves into a nursing home. Jacinta, while searching the old family home for it, discovers a shoe box filled with old love letters. The letters tell the story of Amelia Huber and Peter Kramer; young lovers – Amanda with child. She also finds a telegram from the Wehrmacht notifying of Peter Kramer’s death, killed in action, 18 December 1944. Why would her mother have such things?
Half silver 1936 Reichsmark Coin
Love Letter from Amanda Huber to Peter Kramer, dated August 1944.
Photograph: Peter Kramer 1944
Photograph: Amelia Huber 1945
Reading the love letters Jacinta becomes entangled in the lives of people she never met and begins to wonder, could she be the child Amanda Huber was carrying?
Believing that Amelia Huber and Peter Kramer must be connected to her mother, armed with the love letters Jacinta travelled to Dresden in search of the truth.
Photograph: In search of family secrets. Jacinta Kowalska, Dresden Germany.
Check out the beautifully story, Love Letters From Dresden – Mark A. Biggs. Available from Amazon Kindle.