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September 1, 1939 – Germany Invades Poland

WWII

Welcome to the WWII authors’ WWII anniversary blog tour.

For a chance to win ALL EIGHT novels featured on our blog tour, please visit each blog, collect the answers to the questions, and enter the Rafflecopter giveaway on the BLOG TOUR PAGE . The contest opens September 1, 2014 at 6 am EST and closes September 6, 2014 at 11 pm PST. The winners will be announced on Monday, September 8, 2014.
To win the prize of ALL EIGHT books, you must collect ALL EIGHT answers. The winner must be prepared to send ALL EIGHT answers within 24 hrs of notification by email, or a new winner will be selected.
You can enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway once each day! The more often you visit, the more entries you receive! However, you only need to enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway once to be entered. But don’t forget…to win, you must have collected ALL EIGHT answers.

September 1, 1939, as told by Gisela Cramer, heroine of Daisies Are Forever:
 
I was a teenager in school when Germany, my parents’ homeland and the country where we lived, invaded Poland. I’ll never forget waking up that morning for school. My mother was in the kitchen preparing breakfast. Her face was pale, her hands shaking.

“What’s wrong, Mutti?”

My mother wiped her hands on her apron and took a deep breath before turning to me. “It has happened. War has come. Last night, we invaded Poland.”

I sat down hard in my chair, not really understanding what all of this meant. “Why are you so sad?”

She bit her lip, then placed my sausage in front of me. “Eat up. Who knows how long we’ll be able to get food like this. In the last war, the Great War, there was hunger. We didn’t have enough to eat. And the boys went off and never returned. Or, if they returned, they were never they same. That is how it was with my brother Friedrich.”

Vater strode into the room, a smile across his face. “Ah, you heard the good news?”

Mutti slammed his coffee cup onto the table, the dark liquid sloshing over the side. “There is nothing good about war. Never.”

“We had to do it. England is seeking domination over Europe again, encircling Germany, meaning to cut us off. And the Polish troops crossed the border first. We had no choice but to protect the Fatherland.”

Mutti pursed her lips before answering. “You can’t trust Hitler’s propaganda.”

Vater shot her a withering glance. “Hush. Don’t say such things. These are dangerous times.”

All of this talk made my hands clammy. I pushed my breakfast away. “Will you have to go fight, Vater?”

He shook his head. “I’m much too old. Don’t worry. I’ll be with you.”

“Don’t make the child promises you can’t keep.” Mutti brought her coffee to the table and sat down. “I’m so frightened. Look at what happened last time. This time will only be worse.” She buried her head in her hands. It had been years since I’d seen Mutti cry. Not since my sister died.

Vater held her and whispered into her hair, things I couldn’t hear.

Though I was fourteen, all of this talk made me want to crawl onto his lap and have him soothe me, too. The knot of fear in my stomach tightened. “What do we do now?”

Vater touched my hand. “We go about our lives. Today is a school day, so you will go to school. And I expect you to help Mutti with chores when you get home, the same as any other day.”

But September 1, 1939, wasn’t any other day. It was a day that changed our lives forever. It brought us such sorrow and hardship as we had never known. And also a joy that I couldn’t imagine at the time.

Question: How old was Gisela Cramer when Germany invaded Poland?

You can enter to win a signed copy of Daisies Are Forever! Follow the instructions below. This is separate from the main giveaway.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  7. I can’t wait to read your books! I recently have found the Christian world war II historical genre. I have been fascinated by the time period for a while, so I can’t wait to read all of the great books in this genre.

  20. This book sounds really interesting. Thank you for the opportunity to win a copy of it. I hope it’s not too early to enter.

    World War two is such an interesting era. I think there are plenty of lessons that we can still learn from what these brave men and women went through.

  21. This book sounds really interesting. Thank you for the opportunity to win a copy of it. I hope it’s not too early to enter.

    World War two is such an interesting era. I think there are plenty of lessons that we can still learn from what these brave men and women went through.

  33. WWII books give me information about the times my parents were young and what they lived through. So different from what I have experienced!

  46. I have already read a lot of WW2 books and I would love to this one! But it’s not always easy to read a book that is written in a language that isn’t your mother tongue

  48. My mother was 1 year older that Gisela, at the time and experienced some terrible hardships while fleeing and being in a prison camp.

  49. My mother was 1 year older that Gisela, at the time and experienced some terrible hardships while fleeing and being in a prison camp.