This photo of my brother, my mother and me, was taken shortly after the Second World War.
This photo of my brother, my mother and me, was taken shortly after the Second World War. We had no camera film during the war, and a kind American colonel and his wife allowed us to use their camera. This couple appears in my novel, at their villa where my mother went to work.
This photo is of a picture painted by my cousin, who lived in the flat above the restaurant with his family.
This restaurant, which was operated by my grandmother in Thuringia for 48 years, plays a major role in my story. After the war, the Russian military government placed a memorial plaque on the wall next to the entrance. It is dedicated to my grandmother and her resistance to the Nazis. At the top right of the picture, you can see the castle, also on the cover picture, which was blown up by Allied bombers. The large annex to the right was the toy factory described in the story, where my mother built little hobby horses.
This map shows Germany today, with locations of sites in my story.
- The Black Forest, a large region in southwest Germany. It's hilly with dense evergreen trees. Which is why the Romans gave it the name “Black Forest”.
- Baden-Baden, in the Black Forest near France, is where Marie was born and grew up.
- The area in Thuringia where Marie and her family spent two years living over their granny’s restaurant until they could return to Baden-Baden.
- Freiburg, also in the Black Forest, where Marie, her brother and parents moved in 1948, at the end of the story.
Permission to use this political map of Germany was kindly granted by freeworldmaps.net, with this map at http://www.freeworldmaps.net/europe/germany/political.html