Claire Arndt

Klara Claire Arndt

Klara Schulrabe, born in 1920 to German parents in the Ukraine, survived Stalin's collectivization and the 1932-33 Holodomor (famine) before escaping with her family to Germany just in time for the rise of Hitler and the Nazis. She trained as a nurse and worked in a sanatorium until World War II swept her into military service with the Luftwaffe. She escaped death in the RAF raid on Kassel, intercepted Russian radio messages in a top-secret Warsaw base, fell in love on the Russian front and got married, witnessed first-hand the Warsaw Uprising and the fire-bombing of Dresden, rescued her wounded brother from a hospital just ahead of the advancing Russians, and survived to see her town captured by American soldiers. This memoir recounts the first 25 years of life for a young woman who lived as an eyewitness through some of the most traumatic and historic events of the twentieth century. To this day she is convinced that a guardian angel has been with her throughout her life.