This book tells the story of life during World War II for Else Hanöver, a young woman from Maastricht. In 2000, at the request of her children, Else wrote down her life story using diaries she had meticulously kept during the war years.
This book is based on this life story and focuses on the wartime period. It is set against the background of the German occupation of the city of Maastricht and its liberation by the US Army on the 13th and 14th September 1944. Else writes about her German grandmother who, by necessity, moved in with the family after her house in Aachen had been destroyed during the bombardment on 11th April 1944. It seems from Else’s comments that families and borders are not always compatible. Else emigrated to the United States and lived in Florida, where she passed away on 22nd October 2013.
In recognition of 65 years after the liberation, the then Foundation for Fields of Margraten set up an oral history project with the aim of writing up the experiences of locals living near the American Cemetery in Margraten. In their search for eyewitnesses to the construction of the cemetery, they came across Else Hanöver. In the years 1944 and 1945 she, together with her colleague Yosta van Wijk, had answered hundreds of letters from families of fallen US soldiers. During this time, plans were being made for the adoption of the war graves. In the first edition of the book, the story of Else’s friendship with the first American soldier she met on 13th September 1944 provided the reader with a surprising ending. Fifteen years later, the second edition does likewise.
Wim Hillenaar, Mayor of Maastricht has written the ›foreword for the second edition.