Goring woman remembers mother's courage
AFTER more than 60 years, Renate Shave has finally got a lasting memory of how her "courageous" mother fled her home and saved her family.
Renate, who lives in Goring, was just five when her family were forced to flee their home in Silesia, Germany – which is now Poland – as the Russian front was approaching in January, 1945.
Now, using a report written by her mother Elisabeth and excerpts from her father Alfred Giertz's diary, Renate has written a book of the family's escape called Elisabeth's Journey.
Renate, 69, hopes the book will not only provide a lasting memory of what happened but will give something back to St Barnabas House hospice in Durrington, where her husband Geoff died from cancer in 1995.
Student encouragement
"I will never forget how wonderful they treated me and him," said Renate.
"I wanted to do something for them as well as providing a family memoir."
Renate was encouraged to write the book by language students she was teaching German at Northbrook College.
She said: "I gave one of the classes the report my mother had written for her grandchildren 30 years ago to study and they said 'you must write a book'."
Fleeing Germany
The book tells the story of the night Elisabeth Giertz had to take her two children, Renate and her brother Kurt, from their home while their father was in captivity.
"We had to leave everything," said Renate.
"We just got ready and jumped on the bus and then on the train. We really were packed in like sardines."
The family travelled across Germany from the east and were eventually met by their father who helped them cross the border into West Germany.
Mother courage
Renate said of her mother: "She was a really courageous woman. She wasn't sentimental like many other women who were sat there crying.
"She just got on with it. She even went back to get her parents."
Renate came to England in 1954 as a teenager to learn English.
In 1978, she moved over permanently and married Geoff Shave.
Charity benefits
Renate has already sold more than 100 copies of her book, which costs 5.99, and hopes to get it stocked in local bookshops in the next couple of weeks.
All profits will go to St Barnabas House hospice.
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Tuesday 14 February 2012
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