Engelhardt : A Memoir

Engelhardt follows the amazing life of a courageous woman, Gisela Engelhardt Reidinger. Her story begins in a village outside of Berlin, and continues through her childhood where she shows us the city of Berlin with the eyes of a child and through the incredible and horrible years living under Hitler during WWII. Gisela tells of the heart-wrenching decision to leave her mother, father and young brother to travel to the United States, a journey at the end of which she arrived in New York Harbor at age 25 with one dollar (true!) in her pocketbook and with only a few English words at her command. Living with an aunt and uncle, Gisela worked as a maid as a dude ranch in North Carolina and at a hotel in Dania, Florida before landing a job on the soda fountain of a Howard Johnson's where the manager took her under his wing and taught her to speak English. Gisela' life in America then unfolds with all of its beauties and tragedies. Known as Gigi in her new country, her second child was born on the day her husband was buried. The memoir tells how she coped, a single mother in an unfamiliar land. A beautiful success story about a charming and resourceful Woman. In the final section, Gisela traces the Engelhardt roots back to the 1500's. Laugh, cry and rejoice with our own Gigi! Learn how Gig learned to swim hanging from a rope in the gymnasium, how her baby brother was passed through a hole in the building into a bomb shelter, how she was forced to dig ditches (at age 16) for the soldiers, how she miraculously found her family while fleeing from the Russians and how in America she raise two children to be productive members of society - a policeman and a nurse. Gigi is retired now and lives in her own home near family and friends in Central Florida