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A Pebble in My Shoe

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References to the Gulag and The Holocaust spark instant understanding in the western world. The suffering of the Armenians during World War I are lesser known than that of the Bosnians in the mid-1990's. However, the story of the Vertreibung, until now, has been obscured by the German war-guilt following the Second World War.
For centuries, ethnic Germans had migrated eastward in search of a better life. Hitler's corruption of this aspiration sounded their death knell. Upon the collapse of the Wehrmacht in the east, the resurgent governments of Eastern Europe took their revenge upon their German-speaking citizens, using methods and tactics no more civilized than their former Nazi masters. The ethnic Germans of Southeastern Europe, many of whom were innocent farming folk who had lived there for centuries, bore the brunt of this wrath.
"A Pebble in My Shoe," recounts the experiences of two such ethnic German families: the Hoegers and the Flotzes. This odyssey begins with a chronicle of the simple life they enjoyed as children growning up in the Batschka, the fertile basin of the Danube River in what was then Northern Yugoslavia and Hungary. It ends with salvation found in the promise of America. In between is a three-year tale of hardship, anguish and the ultimate victory of faith and perserverence over cruelty and vengeance.
From the horrors of the concentration camp in Gakowa, Yugoslavia, to the impressment of ethnic Germans who were deported to forced labor camps in the Soviet Union, "A Pebble in My Shoe" is a testament to the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity. Katherine Flotz brings to life the untold story of those whose only sin was that they spoke the same language as the Nazi Regime.
At a time when it is only too easy to generalize about racial and religious groups, "A Pebble in My Shoe" is a poignant reminder that the innocent should never be made to pay for the sins of the guilty.

A great read for us who have tired of endless fiction. A Pebble in my Shoe made me cry and have a better understanding of the plight of all those who were suppressed by WWII only to be treated yet far worse by the communist Partisans after the axis fell. This is the story of the bravery and determination of a young girl who finally ends up in the USA after a long and arduous journey. I loved this book and will look for more like it.

Richard L. Snider, MD
Author of Delta Six, Soldier Surgeon

The Truth
This book is a must-read for every reading group. It is a book that every high school history teacher should suggest as independent reading for high school students. Every college professor should use it as a supplement to any course on WWII. In addition, the strength of Katherine's character would bring inspiration to any woman's study course. It could be the type of book Anne Frank could have written later in life, reflecting back on the war - had she survived. This book is so compelling that it could be the story of Anne Frank, or Maria Augusta Trapp's "The Story of the Trapp Family Singers" (which later turned into The Sound of Music,) or Fiddler on the Roof (which was based on selected stories from "Tevye's Daughters by Sholom Akeichem."
Steven Spielberg: Here's your chance for another award winner. Read the book and alert your screenwriters....


The Background
Katherine Flotz attended my nonfiction writing class seven years ago. At that time she shared with the class her desire to finish a memoir that she had been working on.
"This story is something that has been trapped in my heart for many years; it's a story not only about me and my husband, but a story about history, war and endurance," she said to the class.
Throughout the course she read excerpts from the first draft of her book. We all traveled through Gakowa with young Katherine and the Hoeger family, and were drawn into the unusual circumstances which brought Katherine and George Flotz together after separately living through the hardships of concentration camp and the misery of WWII -- armed only with their faith in God, family, and humanity. Their strength, determination, love for family and each other, as well as their vivid recollections of a dark time in history is the "heart" in this book.
"The story has been there in my mind for 60 years, bothering me - much like when I get a pebble in my shoe. That's why I chose it as the title for the book," Katherine said.
After the course she attended two writer's groups in Northwest Indiana "Write-On Hoosiers," and "Writer's Expressions" to further hone the craft of writing.

The success
Katherine Flotz has realized the American dream in so many ways since she came to this country and "A Pebble in my Shoe" is just the topping on the cake. I applaud Katherine Flotz for her perseverance, hard work and the excellence of this memoir.

This lovely couple (George & Katherine) visited our class and told us their story of what happend to them. It was a sad and touching tale and I was happy to purchase a copy of the book because I wanted to know more about what happend. When I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. I think that this is a part of history that needs to be told and hope to see more of it in bookstores and public libraries and schools around the world. Again, this is definitely one of those books that you just can't put down because you have to know what's going to happen next. Just as a warning, it will most likely make you cry... especially if you're a sensitive person. You still have to read it though, trust me.... it's worth it!

What a wonderful gift from Katherine Hoeger Flotz! A deeply moving memoir of a child's recollections of life in one of Tito's concentration camps. A story not only of survival but of triumph over deadly adversity. This is a most valuable contribution to the too little known saga of the ethnic cleansing of the Donauschwabians after WWII. As a fellow survivor from another village I was often moved to tears as I read this memoir. Enriched by deeply evocative family photos, touching but never vengeful, A Pebble in MY Shoe deserves a wide readership. A triumph from a wise and generous survivor.

This is a beautifully told (true) story that is both heartrending and inspiring. It is a journal of the author and her family's struggle to survive in the chaos of post-WWII Europe. Her story underscores the suffering caused by intolerant, despotic, insensitive government and the amazing power of hope, optimism, and the will to find a better life. Reading this book has opened my eyes to things I used to take for granted.

In the spring of 1945 World War ll ended. But in Communist Eastern Europe all hell broke loose for millions of Ethnic Germans. Revenge was taken on young and old. Families were torn apart for no other reason then to obtain vengeance. Many people died. The majority of the victims who survived those brutal years still carry these memories in silence. Very few people have dared to go back and recall that time - let alone put down their memories on paper because the pain is to great.

Childhood became none existing. Hunger, sorrow, fear and confusion was what children experienced in their daily lives. As one grows up sometimes that lost child within begs to be set free, to tell the world what it was like growing up during that time. Katherine Hoeger Flotz has listened to her inner child and set it free in A PEBBLE IN MY SHOE. She has taken the painful road back to revisit her childhood in Gagowa, Yugoslavia, and the long trail that finally led her to America. Next to Katherine's story we find her husbands story, running parallel to hers. Both stories come together in America and end when George and Katherine become a family.

I applaud Katherine for having written A PEBBLE IN MY SHOE. We need more books like hers. History through the eyes of innocent children. Maybe then the world would be a better place for all..

E. Walter author of BAREFOOT IN THE RUBBLE

This book gives a first hand look at what life was like for the German Donauschwaben who were victims of Tito's ethnic cleansing. At the age of eight, Katherine Flotz' world turns upside down. Through her eyes we learn about the brutal abuse that her family endured. This book also helps us realize that her story is not an isolated incident since she is only one of the 15 million Germans who were displaced (2 million of them murdered)during this time. My hats off to the author for having the courage to write about this difficult period in her life so that we may learn more about it.

Want your life enriched? Read this book! Want to understand the value of perseverance, the resilience of children, the un-tethered endurance to survive? Read this book! As illustrated through their memoir, Katherine and George teach us more than just an unannounced accounting of post-WWII Eastern Europe. They teach us about family, about the will to live, about the soul and how one can survive anything while suspended by a single thread of hope.

The trauma and pain suffered by the two families is unimaginable. Yet, the world knew little of what was happening to the thousands of innocent ethnic Germans left behind to fend for themselves in the wake of Hitler's crimes. Despite their families having lived in Yugoslavia for some 200 plus years, the ethnic Germans would face a death penalty for having German surnames. While they knew little of Hitler, and even less about his audacious adventures of domination, the German settlers of Yugoslavia turned baron land into the breadbasket of Europe. They were a very proud people demonstrating a strong work ethic as well as developing harmony among all living in Yugoslavia. Yet, their payment for their hard work was to be thrown into concentration camps, stolen from, starved, raped, and murdered; a complete people's way of life decimated. The world in the meantime, with a blind eye turned to Yugoslavia, convicted Nazi war criminals for similar crimes committed in WWII. I can only ask, how hypocritical was this?

Their survival alone is miraculous. But, to learn that these two continued life after losing so much, then immigrating to America to become successful in a new life, is even more amazing. Many of us would have had to seek psychological counseling for life. Not Katherine and George. They pressed on, and found a life that was meaningful and fulfilling. They created that life by centering on family enabled by love. They are by any stretch of the meaning, models for all of us! In the context of a bigger story, they are but two who refused to kneel to tyranny. They are but two who refused to let the communist regime of Yugoslavia win an insane war against good and innocence.

It is with great enthusiasm that I endorse A Pebble In My Shoe as a book that has changed my life. The lessons I have learned from this testimony are still being discovered...a full year after I first read it. You will most surely be rewarded by reading A Pebble In My Shoe!

In her inspiring and thoughtful memoir, A Pebble in My Shoe, Katherine Hoeger Flotz tells the story of her and her husband's separate escapes from persecution at the end of WWII. The story of Katherine and George were equally fascinating, moving, and disturbing. My overall sense, at the end of the book, is one of astonishment. The incredible strength, determination, sense of survival, hopefulness, and faith exhibited from this amazing couple is nothing short of unbelievable. But, what's even more mind-boggling is that their stories are just two of the thousands/millions of other "displaced" ethnic Germans--stories to which the public seems to be largely unaware. But, their story is fully representative of these brave people who left all they knew and loved to start over in a strange, frightening, and challenging USA.

The experiences of Katherine and George are described in Katherine's spare and straightforward style. She doesn't embellish...because she doesn't have to. Instead, she takes the reader on both of their journeys, the Flotz family journey and the Hoeger family journey, and their related family journeys that were occurring simultaneously. I found her words to be emotionally engaging while maintaining an authentic believability and fittingly descriptive point of view. And, Katherine skillfully handles the changes in story line, time period, chronology of events, and character development.

Katherine relates for the reader the searing pain of losing her home, her belongings, and, eventually, her parents and other family members. And, Katherine reveals an extraordinary awareness, throughout her development, of her loving and caring cadre of family members who didn't allow her to be an orphan--who refused to leave her behind. She engages her readers as she shares her story and her ongoing healing from the soul-tearing effects of losing her mother and father as well as other family members while being in constant fear of losing her sister.

I thank Katherine Hoeger Flotz for this beautiful and moving story. I know I will use her words to inspire my own thoughts. And, I know I have learned from her the value of perseverance and faith.

I found the book to be in my "couldn't put it down" category, and, actually, I read it one sitting. As a career educator, I truly believe the book should be required reading for high school students as it shines a bright light on a rarely discussed historical topic while teaching the lessons of strength, endurance, and compassion. Thank you, Katherine, for this amazing story!