By the Grace of God: A Memoir of WWII from Yugoslavia to America

I write this book to inform first-generation Americans of the lives of their parents before WWII, and why and how they got to America from countries all over the world, but could not go home again. I am not alone in having lost my homeland when the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was destroyed in 1942-1944. Hungarians, Romanians, Poles, Czechs, and Slovakians were also conquered. All of these countries have Donauschwaben, or Volksdeutsche; German-speaking people, never having been German Nationals. It is my hope and my wish that humankind will never experience a war like WWII again. All of our cherished traditions ended in 1944 when we had to flee for our lives. Along with all our possessions, we also left behind the life we knew, the friends we had, the animals we loved, and still, we feel blessed that our family was together and made it through the war years healthy. We were given a chance for a new beginning in America ten years later. My children heard many a tale of what we did at home in our beloved Indjija, Yugoslavia. The stories in these pages are meant to honor not just my life, but the thousands who no longer have a homeland, and yet, have created a home in this land of America. We are proud to be citizens here, even as we hold the home of our birth close in our hearts.