Steffie Steinke

A Penny Always Has Two Sides: a Memoir of Growing Up in Wartime Germany Steffie Steinke

Steffie Steinke, born in Berlin in 1936, writes about the enduring love she had for her foster mother and the everlasting fear she had of her birth mother. The conflict made her shy and insecure for most of her young life. Later she was able to forgive, but the memories never left her. In her story she talks about the time when she was forced to live for five years with her mother, and what they experienced and witnessed during the time of Hitler's so-called glory, and his downfall. With her mother she lived through the bombing and destruction of Berlin. And later, when evacuated by Hitler to Poland, they survived the liberation of Poland by the Russians. The outrage they witnessed, and the suffering and sorrow this liberation caused innocent German mothers and children, will never be forgotten, nor will be the kindness of a Russian officer and a Jewish family, who saved their lives. When they returned to Berlin, Steffie was reunited with her foster mother. She realized how much love there was waiting for her, and the reunion affected her whole life and its events. She lived with her foster mother to experience the total destruction of Berlin and later the blockade where the Allied forces saved half of the city from starvation.