Back to Bremen

Edith Roepke, her seven siblings, and their mother have learned to be silent and live inconspicuously….

It is 1939. On the cusp of World War II, the city of Bremen holds its breath with quiet unease. For years, the Jews have been excluded from everyday life, persecuted at the hands of the Nazis. Now, all of Germany will suffer for their Fuhrer’s mad ambitions. In his quest for an Aryan utopia, Adolf Hitler invades Poland and Britain declares war on Germany.

As Bremen’s ports and factories bear the brunt of payloads from RAF Wellington and Lancaster bombers, Edith’s childhood is shaped by unrelenting Allied bombing raids, streets strewn with dead bodies, and the ever-present reminder to trust no one outside the family.

Seen through Edith’s eyes as a child and through her memories as an adult seventy years after the war’s end, Back to Bremen depicts her harrowing nine-week journey through war-torn Germany. It’s the story of the fear of a child and the sheer determination of a mother risking it all so she and her children can return home. Most of all, it’s a vivid reminder of how war creates countless victims, but hope can make heroes of the most common among us.