Elke's Memoirs of Hamburg 1941

Elke N. Taylor lives in Dunmore, West Virginia. Where she



and her husband live on a farm, raising cattle. She was an Air Force



Brat and lived in Japan from 1956-1959. In her book Hamburg 1941,



she tells of her life in Germany.



When they lost their home to a bomb, she lived in a castle and a convent until they moved into the Quonset hut, which became her permanent home until she arrived in America. We learn that as a toddler, how she foraged in the forest of Bavaria for food. At the tender age of four, her mother smuggled her into a hospital broom closet where she would spend up to ten hours at a time, waiting for food scraps, and contracted diphtheria.



How her mother tied a stocking around her neck on a string to smuggle food scraps out for the family. "We would wait up till after 10:00 at night when Mama came home, and when the rest of the people in the Quonsets had their lights out and slept with empty bellies, we dined like kings, thanks to Mama."



This is the unforgettable story of Hamburg 1941.