Much has been written about the leaders of the Nazi Party which dominated Germany from 1933 to 1945. But what about the lives of ordinary Germans who struggled to survive World War II and rebuild their lives and cities in the post war period? The last five years have seen an intensification of efforts to capture their stories and perspectives as they pass on into history. The survivors of this time period often choose not to remember war-associated events either publicly or sometimes even inside their own families. But there were memories, witnesses and the occasional diary. A Time To Remember attempts to catch some of this past in eight narratives focused on varying locations, time periods and challenges. All are based on real people and real events as recorded by the author in his forty-plus years of close association with Germany and Germans.
About the Author: With degrees from Princeton University and the University of California at Berkley, New Jersey native Harry R. Roegner has lived in France, Belgium and Germany plus traveled extensively in Asia, Africa and Latin America in his vocation as an international businessman and in his avocation as an avid butterfly enthusiast. Roegner's ancestors were some of the first Dutch settlers to move into Lenape territory across the Hudson River from Manhattan in the 1680's. He has amassed one of the major butterfly private collections in the country which now resides at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. In 1999, Mr. Roegner started to collect notes made during this 40-plus years of collecting which led to publishing of his first set of butterfly adventures memoirs-Butterfly Trails. Adventures with Butterflies is his second set of memoirs with at least one more set in the planning stage. In addition to being a leading authority on the international automotive business and the butterfly, Mr. Roegner, who speaks five languages, was an advisor from 1984 to 1992 to the U.S. Commerce Department and the U.S. Trade Representative on international trade policy. In 2004, Mr. Roegner began a series of books focusing on significant events in history as lived and witnessed by ordinary people at the time. Gerrit was focused on Dutch settlement of what is now New York City and western Long Island in the mid-1600's. A Time to Remember, the third book in the series, was suggested by Mr. Roegner's wife, Anneliese, who was ten years old in the ruins of Berlin in 1945.