If Only it Hadn't Rained: A Memoir of Forced Labour in the Second World War - Softcover

Read, Paula

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1803136650 ISBN 13: 9781803136653

Verlag: Matador, 2023

Inhaltsangabe

Imagine how it would feel to be plucked from your daily life and transported far from home and forced to work in some unknown and terrible place. Imagine being treated with violence, never having enough to eat, living in bestial conditions, and never knowing if you would see your home again. Imagine feeling so completely powerless.

This is what happened to young Frenchman Roland Chopard, who was arrested by the German SS during a brutal roundup in the Lot et Garonne region in May 1944, just before D-Day. This was the start of a period of forced labour during which he was moved to different places, including Dachau, BMW’s Eisenach factory and ultimately Buchenwald.

Roland survived. Many did not. After his return home in 1945, Roland wrote a compelling account of his experiences. It lay, unread, in the family house in Villeneuve-sur-Lot, until it was found by his son Alex some years after Roland’s death in 2006.

This book is based on Roland’s memoir, the family’s own papers, interviews with his daughter Annie, and the memories of others whose relatives were caught in the same roundup as Roland. It is a personal story set in a particular time, nothing more but nothing less.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Paula Read has been both a journalist and a languages teacher. She lives in London now, but has also lived and worked in France, Canada (where she worked as a French/English interpreter) and the USA. She spends much time in Normandy surrounded by reminders of the Second World War.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Matador
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2023
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1803136650
• ISBN 13: 9781803136653
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 216
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Authorised Rep Compliance Ltd., GPSR Europäische Union; info@arccompliance.com; ; 71 Lower Baggot Street (Ground Floor); Dublin; D02 P593; Irland