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4 of 12 found the following review helpful:
 A women's tale of the experiences on the opposite side Feb 26, 2008
I just finished "I Can't Forget" and have mixed feelings about the book. It is an interesting read as the book is written by a woman (civilian) and on the 'losing end' of WWII. The story enfolds like a historical family album with lots of (excellent) pictures. The description of the flight from Poland for the oncoming Russian Army as a 13 year old, the fear for the Russians (which is interesting as I've read this in many accounts of Germans and I'm still unsure what lay at the basis of this fear in the '30s (pre-war) and '40s), the chaos and the arrival in safer Bavaria are very good. Describing life in the first post-war years is interesting as well with many small details on day-to-day affairs. What is lacking though in my few is the total lack of insight in the thought of the writer and family members on their lives in Nazi Germany under Nazi rule? How did it affect them in their choices? What were people thinking? Hence you are kept at a distance of the true feelings of the writer and her family resulting in not feeling anything except wonder.
When reading the book one could come to the conclusion that everything just happened and that's that.
What bothers me in this repsect is the unhidden bitterness over the treatment of the German people and destruction of German cities and infrastructure by the Russians and Americans notwithstanding the horrors inflicted by the Germans on peoples and countries in the first place. Had this book been written directly after the war I would not have been bothered by the tone. Given the fact that the book was written in 2004-2006 one wonders how the writer, more than 60 years after war's end, was not capable of balancing her thoughts or at least provide the reader with more insight in why her judgement - after all these years - is still what it is.
I regret as well that the writer has not given more information on the family after the war (what has become of them at this day and age?).
In all I would recommend this book as - fair enough - the story is apparantly the writer's true experiences of life in Nazi and occupied Germany. I do emphasize that one should read other books on the subject as well to deny a one-sided few on the events!
3 of 10 found the following review helpful:
 Another side to the picture Feb 11, 2008
I just finished reading "I Can't Forget" and am bothered by several aspects of it. It does give a different side to WWII victims but it still bothered me. Gudrun Everett tells the story of her childhood first in Germany where her father was mayor of a Bavarian town. This part was fine as it told her life in pre-war times. Her father obviously a Nazi was given a position in Poland where he oversaw a large district. The family moved there and Gudrun described her perfect childhood with animals and living in huge and beautiful home all this taking place in the country where millions were dying in concentration camps at this very time.
Their perfect life came to an end in 1945 when the Soviets came and they became refugees and from Jan'45 to June of that year were on the road fleeing for survival along with millions of others. She describes their hardships after they were finally settled in Bavaria in June of that year. [...]
I am glad to have read the book and can recommend it as the pictures were excellent and it was good to read the other side however I found I could not garner up much sympathy for her. She found a good life in America judging from the picture of her on the back cover but was very critical of America's part in and after the war.
10 of 12 found the following review helpful:
 Describes a Neglected Chapter of European History Dec 30, 2007
World War II ended in 1945, but interest in that conflict remains high. I CAN'T FORGET by Gudrun (Koppe) Everett is a memoir of her "journey through Nazi Germany and WW II." Published in 2006, this book is a BookSurge product.
My copy is securely bound, well-illustrated with black and white photographs, most of which aren't credited. Furthermore, I haven't seen most of these before and suspect that they might be from the author's collection. There are also some helpful maps and line drawings.
I carried this book around for a couple of weeks while I was reading it and am impressed to see that the binding is still tight and the pages still secure. The quality of this book is comparable, or better, than the quality of most paperbacks in my opinion.
The author provides some unique insights into the catastrophe she survived. Her father, for example, was assigned to be the mayor of Dolsk, Poland, and she arrived there with her family a short time after the "Bromberg Bloody Sunday" slaughter of September 3, 1939. Polish mobs reportedly hunted down German speaking residents of the area and murdered many of them. The author's book includes what appear to be snapshots of the aftermath of that little-known atrocity.
I'd heard of the treks trough the blizzards in January, 1945, when the Red Army initiated its massive offensive. The author gives a dramatic, evocative account of her own trek with her family and the narrow escapes including one in which Red Army units overran the town in which she and her family were sheltering.
If you're interested in European History, World War II, the Eastern Front, or epic tales of survival against long odds, you'll want to read I CAN'T FORGET. I like the book and gave it five stars.
16 of 18 found the following review helpful:
"I can't forget" is a wonderful book. Aug 04, 2007
I have been fascinated, appalled, depressed and mesmerized by the author's story. She has written a vivid and poignant picture of her life and time in Germany and Poland, and of aspects of the war and the post-war period that many of us in this country know little about.
I am sure that much of what happened, not only to Jews of course, but also to Germans and other nationalities from all over Europe who experienced the War and its aftermath in their own country, is still influencing the psyche and the politics of millions of people, even of the younger generations, who are not really conscious on a first-hand basis of what actually took place.
The pictures and maps, (some of them rare) that accompany the text, make the author's narration even more expressive - all those mountains of rubble and bodies!
Also, I think that most Americans have no idea how it really was for the civilian population, nor do the younger Germans (or others) who were born later than about 1950. And of course the reasons and the consequences of the division of Europe after the war, including the Cold War and even up to the discussions about Israel, Palestine, Iraq etc. are certainly very unclear for many.
On the whole, it was a very good read!
12 of 16 found the following review helpful:
excellent May 12, 2007
Im a WWII Vet and fought in Germany. I'm familiar with some of her experiences and some of the places she traveled through
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