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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Story, Well Told, July 19, 2003
This review is from: Laughter Wasn't Rationed : A Personal Journey Through Germany's World Wars and Postwar Years (Paperback)
"Laughter Wasn't Rationed" is a must read for anyone interested in the effects of Nazism and World War II on the German people behind the front lines. Dorthea von Schwanenflugel Lawson tells her story, and that of her family, from the viewpoint of a proud non-Nazi German. Her identification with the best of all things in the German cultural tradition comes through on nearly every page. There is pride amid her struggle and sometimes desperation. Yet she never surrenders to despair and her book is punctuated by humorous little jokes circulating beneath the surface of the Nazi overlords in proof of the power and persistence of the human spirit. As one who believes that World War II in Europe was, in a sense, a civil war in the West for the soul of Western civilization, I can easily identify with her anti-Nazi German pride. Her book weaves modern German history and her own life story in a unique and compelling way. Seeing Germany through that tapestry makes one realize the importance of American-German relations so that the many strands of mutual friendship spawned by the defeat of Nazism shall ever flourish and grow. I learned of "Laughter Wasn't Rationed" through a military history discussion group in Alexandria, Virginia. I read it and subsequently heard the author discuss it with the group. She is a spry and lively lady at eighty-seven and a living testament to the gist of her story, endurance and staying power. I also discovered, in reading the book and meeting her, that we have much in common, Dorthea and I. We have both written about our lives; she in "Laughter Wasn't Rationed" and I about my tribulations as an infantry soldier fighting the Nazis during World War II. We came of age in trying times; she in between-the-wars Germany and I amid the Great Depression in America. Early on in the book I fell in love with the high-spirited young teenager who was once Dorothea Schmidt. She was much like several young women I adored in high school. As her story progressed I realized that as adults we were both involved, in our own way, in similar struggles for survival against circumstances beyond our control; she among the perils of the Nazi regime destined to lose the war and I, as a combat soldier, determined to be alive at the end. That we were to meet within the pages of this delightful book, as well as in person, was beyond prediction as is most of the fascinating story of "Laughter Wasn't Rationed."
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19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A true lesson in history., May 28, 2001
This review is from: Laughter Wasn't Rationed : A Personal Journey Through Germany's World Wars and Postwar Years (Paperback)
Anyone who is truly interested in history needs to look beyond the textbooks and lessons of world history classes to the personal accounts of wartime life. It is here that we learn what the common people really thought and felt as they lived through the conflicts that are so concisely presented in school books. I've done a lot of casual reading about WWII and Dorothea von Schwanenflugel Lawson's book has helped me more than any other to understand the complex politics and upheavals behind it. The testimony of someone who lived through it helped me to understand how, in the turbulent, economically challenged times after WWI, the Germans could be desperate enough to allow someone as strong (and evil) as Hitler, with his compelling nature and grandiose, if empty, promises for a brighter future, to come into power. We have heard the horrible stories and accounts of what it was like to be a victim of the Nazi regime, and it's only fair that we get to hear about the flip side: how the average German citizen lived and coped under the debilitating totalitarian government, losing all of their basic civil rights. In describing events in Germany just prior to WWII, she effectively illustrates how Hitler completely destroyed any semblance of individuality in order to create a bland mass of people so tightly corralled that they had no choice but to buckle under his dictatorship and violent Third Reich. During the war she led a priviledged life, escaping membership in the BDM (women's Nazi organization) and going to school, all the while having her basic needs and wants met by both her prosperous father and husband. Though times were very difficult and fearful while Hitler was in power, the real problems start after the war. With liberation came severe food shortages, rape by Soviet soldiers, and discrimination by American forces because of the belief that all Germans were Nazis, when in reality, most had been forced to become members. Her stories about working 16 hour days in the American mess hall for no pay - just extra food for her starving family, weekly 32 mile journeys through dangerous Soviet territory to get produce from local farms, and crowded, unsanitary living conditions in bombed out houses, will show you the complete terror and desperation of the Germans after WWII. The end of the book describes the Cold War struggle between eastern Soviet controlled and western Allied controlled Germany and the erection of the Berlin Wall. Though the book deals with one of the darkest periods of world history, a sense of hope is conveyed through the author's sense of humor. Her story is sprinkled with humorous anecdotes and popular jokes about Hitler and the Nazi regime that, if spoken aloud during the years of the Third Reich, would have been grounds for violent reprisals. I highly recommend this book for a deeper understanding of the events surrounding WWI, WWII, and the Cold War. It is a testimony to the strength, willpower, and courage of people who are powerless against their captors, but are still willing to fight for a better life for themselves. No American can take their freedom for granted after reading Dorothea von Schwanenflugel Lawson's memoirs.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Life in extraordinary times as experienced by a woman, October 17, 2001
This review is from: Laughter Wasn't Rationed : A Personal Journey Through Germany's World Wars and Postwar Years (Paperback)
Laughter Wasn't Rationed is Dorothea von Schwanenflugel Lawson's personal and candid biography of growing up in Germany, with vivid and intimate memories of German life during World War I, World II, and the postwar trauma of a divide nation -- half communist, half free. Dorothea covers a rather happy childhood and then what it was like to live under the rise and fall of Hitler and the Nazis, as well as the staggering trauma of Germany reduce to rubble and chaos in the aftermath of war. Here too is the story of the Soviet invasion, day-to-day struggles to simply stay alive, and the impact the Berlin Wall had upon the German citizenry on both sides of the divide. One of the things that comes through is how Dorothea and the people around her resorted to humor as a means of coping with the deprivation, the fear, the devastation, and the horrors of war, as well as the immense difficulties of reconstruction and recovery. Laughter Wasn't Rationed is highly recommended reading for student of 20th Century German history and ordinary life in extraordinary times as experienced by a woman, her family and friends who were caught up in the political machinations and personalities of the era.
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