Beginnings

I’ve had this idea for a long time. In my family, we talked about how my grandmother, Margarette Baumann, or Gretel, came to live in the United States. The story was filled with war, loss, faith, love and most of all, an incredible amount of perseverance. It traces through the rise of Germany as a world power, World War 1 and the utter desolation that was the result, the depression in the United States, World War 2, and the giddy boom years afterwards. The story touches, or rather is touched by militarism, nationalism, fascism, nazism, racism, antisemitism, immigration, racism, patriotism, and love.

And the deeper I dig, the worse it gets.