Gone Without a Trace

Gone Without a Trace: German-Russian Women in Exile

by Nelly Däs, Compiler and Editor
Translated, with additional materials, by Nancy Bernhardt Holland
Lincoln, Nebraska
2000
Paperback

A compilation of memoirs and memorials based on the recollections of German-Russian women who experienced the terrors of Stalinism first hand—from the “dekulakization” of 1929 through the years of Siberian exile. The volume traces the horrific consequences for ethnic Germans—even those who had been living in Russia for generations—after the outbreak of war between Germany and Russia. Condemned to forced labor in the snow, ice, and bitter cold of Siberia without adequate clothing, always at the brink of starvation, and subject to the brutalities of sadistic overseers, German-Russian women describe their valiant efforts to survive. The shattering scenes are recreated in highly detailed prose that reads like fiction and in several examples of vivid verse.