Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall
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In this illuminating and deeply moving memoir, a former American military intelligence officer goes beyond traditional Cold War espionage tales to tell the true story of her family—of five women separated by the Iron Curtain for more than forty years, and their miraculous reunion after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Forty Autumns makes visceral the pain and longing of one family forced to live apart in a world divided by two. At twenty, Hanna escaped from East to West Germany. But the price of freedom—leaving behind her parents, eight siblings, and family home—was heartbreaking. Uprooted, Hanna eventually moved to America, where she settled down with her husband and had children of her own.
Growing up near Washington, D.C., Hanna's daughter, Nina Willner became the first female Army Intelligence Officer to lead sensitive intelligence operations in East Berlin at the height of the Cold War. Though only a few miles separated American Nina and her German relatives—grandmother Oma, Aunt Heidi, and cousin, Cordula, a member of the East German Olympic training team—a bitter political war kept them apart.
In Forty Autumns, Nina recounts her family's story—five ordinary lives buffeted by circumstances beyond their control. She takes us deep into the tumultuous and terrifying world of East Germany under Communist rule, revealing both the cruel reality her relatives endured and her own experiences as an intelligence officer, running secret operations behind the Berlin Wall that put her life at risk.
A personal look at a tenuous era that divided a city and a nation, and continues to haunt us, Forty Autumns is an intimate and beautifully written story of courage, resilience, and love—of five women whose spirits could not be broken, and who fought to preserve what matters most: family.
Forty Autumns is illustrated with dozens of black-and-white and color photographs.
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Nina Willner. (2016). Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall. HarperCollins.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Nina Willner. 2016. Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival On Both Sides of the Berlin Wall. HarperCollins.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Nina Willner, Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival On Both Sides of the Berlin Wall. HarperCollins, 2016.
MLA Citation (style guide)Nina Willner. Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival On Both Sides of the Berlin Wall. HarperCollins, 2016.
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Nina Willner is a former U.S. Army intelligence officer who served in Berlin during the Cold War. Following a career in intelligence, Nina worked in Moscow, Minsk, and Prague promoting human rights, children's causes, and the rule of law for the U.S. government, nonprofit organizations, and a variety of charities. She currently lives in Istanbul, Turkey. Forty Autumns is her first book.
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In this illuminating and deeply moving memoir, a former American military intelligence officer goes beyond traditional Cold War espionage tales to tell the true story of her family—of five women separated by the Iron Curtain for more than forty years, and their miraculous reunion after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Forty Autumns makes visceral the pain and longing of one family forced to live apart in a world divided by two. At twenty, Hanna escaped from East to West Germany. But the price of freedom—leaving behind her parents, eight siblings, and family home—was heartbreaking. Uprooted, Hanna eventually moved to America, where she settled down with her husband and had children of her own.
Growing up near Washington, D.C., Hanna's daughter, Nina Willner became the first female Army Intelligence Officer to lead sensitive intelligence operations in East Berlin at the height of the Cold War. Though only a few miles separated American Nina and her German relatives—grandmother Oma, Aunt Heidi, and cousin, Cordula, a member of the East German Olympic training team—a bitter political war kept them apart.
In Forty Autumns, Nina recounts her family's story—five ordinary lives buffeted by circumstances beyond their control. She takes us deep into the tumultuous and terrifying world of East Germany under Communist rule, revealing both the cruel reality her relatives endured and her own experiences as an intelligence officer, running secret operations behind the Berlin Wall that put her life at risk.
A personal look at a tenuous era that divided a city and a nation, and continues to haunt us, Forty Autumns is an intimate and beautifully written story of courage, resilience, and love—of five women whose spirits could not be broken, and who fought to preserve what matters most: family.
Forty Autumns is illustrated with dozens of black-and-white and color photographs.
- reviews
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"An excellent and intriguing account of the impact of the Cold War on families and their lives on either side of the Berlin Wall." — Library Journal (starred review)
"Willner's epic memoir traverses three generations of mothers, recounting the tragedy, estrangement, and overwhelming courage of a family torn apart.... Her interrogative and unabashed voice explores the painful intersection of national duty and familial responsibilities.... A thrilling and relevant read for historians and casual readers alike." — Publishers Weekly
Thoughtful and informative, Willner's book not only offers a personal view of the traumatic effects of German partition. It also celebrates the enduring resilience of the human spirit. A poignant and engrossing, occasionally harrowing, family memoir." — Kirkus Reviews
[A] moving account of one family's life under tyranny... Willner's sensitive and well-written account causes us to reflect on what is really important to us and how we would react in a similar situation." — BookPage
"This book is kind, honest, incredibly well-written, and important, a testament to humanity and courage." — LitHub
"[A] meticulous and compassionate family memoir... Charting the twists and turns of politics in communist East Germany over more than four decades, it shows how currents of repression and reform affected individual lives." — Chicago Tribune
"Forty Autumns is both an informative and timely read. In this increasingly tumultuous modern era when borders, both theoretical and physical, have once again become the front lines of critical issues such as immigration reform, pervasive prejudice and terrorism, stories like Willner's are especially important." — BookReporter
"Even if you well know the story of the East German sequester, you will be drawn to [Willner's] family story of living through the worst of times." — Manhattan Book Review
"A poignant parable of hope and, at times, a harrowing ghost story." — Christian Science Monitor
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August 29, 2016
Willner’s epic memoir traverses three generations of mothers, recounting the tragedy, estrangement, and overwhelming courage of a family torn apart by the ideological division of Germany during the Cold War. Willner, a former U.S. Army intelligence officer, weaves familial legends of escape from farmsteads guarded by roving East German border patrols, with tales of international espionage at the 1958 World’s Fair. Her interrogative and unabashed voice explores the painful intersection of national duty and familial responsibilities, as when she describes the first encounter of her maternal grandfather and her father in 1959: “The two shook hands: the tall East German and onetime soldier in the Third Reich meeting his new son-in-law, an Auschwitz and Buchenwald survivor and now a U.S. Army intelligence officer.” Faced with government-sanctioned propaganda and manipulation, readers follow a family of educators led by their daughters as they attempt to navigate “the fabric of East German society began to fray under the yoke of an Orwellian climate of oppression.” Willner’s depiction of the brutal East German regime and the fight of one family to unite is a thrilling and relevant read for historians and casual readers alike.
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A former U.S. Army intelligence officer's story of her East German mother's flight to the West and of the family she left behind.Willner was just 5 years old when she first learned that her mother Hanna's parents lived "behind a curtain" in East Germany. But it would not be until several years later that she would understand that this "curtain" was really a symbol of their political oppression and that Hanna had barely escaped entrapment herself. Her own mother, Oma, had literally pushed her into the arms of the departing American soldiers who had been occupying their hometown. The 17-year-old Hanna soon returned out of concern for her family. But when, after fleeing and returning a second time, she saw how communist ideology was changing her father and destroying the freedom, happiness, and security she had once known, she left, this time barely escaping with her life. Piecing together the story of Hanna's family from relatives encountered only after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Willner re-creates an at times painful account of how her aunts, uncles, and especially her grandparents survived a brutal East German dictatorship. Though marked as "politically unreliable" due to Hanna's defection, they never gave up hope that one day they would be reunited. However, the price they paid was high. Willner's grandfather became a target of communist officials, who banished him, his wife, and youngest daughter, born after Hanna's third and final escape, to a tiny farming community to prevent the spread of possible dissent and then forced him to undergo "intensive reeducation training" at a mental hospital. Yet through all the suffering, the family managed to stay together and survive by building a "Family Wall" of love and loyalty against the powerful outside forces they could not control. Thoughtful and informative, Willner's book not only offers a personal view of the traumatic effects of German partition. It also celebrates the enduring resilience of the human spirit. A poignant and engrossing, occasionally harrowing, family memoir. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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May 15, 2016
Willner became the first female U.S. Army intelligence officer to lead sensitive intelligence operations in East Germany during the Cold War, but here she gives us a much bigger story. When the Iron Curtain slammed down, her mother, Hanna, escaped from East to West Germany and eventually came to America, leaving behind her family--including Willner's grandmother Oma, aunt Heidi, and cousin Cordula, an East German Olympic athlete. Here, Willner shows us oppressive Communist East Germany, where she ran risky operations, and celebrates the reunion of all five women when the wall finally fell. With a 150,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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September 15, 2016
Written by the first female U.S. Army intelligence officer during Cold War operations, this gripping book details Willner's family's experience during the post-World War II conflict. As a little girl, Willner's mother, Hanna, would explain that her grandparents lived behind a "curtain" in East Berlin. Telling Hanna's story, the author describes how a shove by her grandmother Oma literally landed 17-year-old Hanna in the arms of an American sergeant, presenting her with a chance to escape East Berlin. On her third attempt, Hanna safely landed in West Berlin, where she met and ultimately married a U.S. Army intelligence officer. Leaving her family behind, Hanna moved to the United States at age 20, suffering extended periods when she was unable to communicate with her loved ones because her escape deemed them "politically unreliable." Willner's book follows her East Berlin family up to the destruction of the wall in 1989 and their reconciliation with Hanna. Throughout, Willner intersperses historical fact, which adds a brutal realism to the story. VERDICT An excellent and intriguing account of the impact of the Cold War on families and their lives on either side of the Berlin Wall. [See Prepub Alert, 4/25/16.]--Rebecca Hill, Zionsville, IN
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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In this illuminating and deeply moving memoir, a former American military intelligence officer goes beyond traditional Cold War espionage tales to tell the true story of her family—of five women separated by the Iron Curtain for more than forty years, and their miraculous reunion after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Forty Autumns makes visceral the pain and longing of one family forced to live apart in a world divided by two. At twenty, Hanna escaped from East to West Germany. But the price of freedom—leaving behind her parents, eight siblings, and family home—was heartbreaking. Uprooted, Hanna eventually moved to America, where she settled down with her husband and had children of her own.
Growing up near Washington, D.C., Hanna's daughter, Nina Willner became the first female Army Intelligence Officer to lead sensitive intelligence operations in East Berlin at the height of the Cold War. Though only a few miles separated American...
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