Inge Perreault

Birth of a Tumbleweed: Memoirs of Growing Up in Post-nazi Germany Inge Perreault

I met Inge in the autumn of 1969, shortly after she arrived in New York. Introduced by a mutual friend, we fell in love and got married a year and a half later. She was the first German I got to know and she did not resemble the 'ugly German' stereotype so many Americans were raised hearing about. Born after the war ended, and out of wedlock, she was innocent of any wrongdoing but had to endure being raised among the rubble and anguish which follows all wars. Living in a shack without electricity or running water her family survived by growing what they could and struggled until slowly life began to improve, but her resolve to leave Germany was already firmly in place. Those terrible memories plus growing up in a dysfunctional environment were the motivation for her extensive travel throughout Europe during her teens. Today, over fifty years after the end of that terrible war, she is still on occasion the victim of anti-German bias, every bit as ugly as racism or anti-Semitism. Millions of people of that generation have carried a burden they shouldn't have. This story had to be told and I am proud of her determination for doing so. Hopefully, this book will make people remember that children are not responsible for the sins of their Fathers.