East Wind: A Survivor's True Story of Faith in the Gulag of WWII by Ruth Hunt

East Wind: A Survivor's True Story of Faith in the Gulag of WWII Reviews

• 
  Yibbie

  This is a hard book to read. The author’s life is so full of pain, separation, and loss that it is overwhelming. But then against the darkness and death, we see God’s love and sustaining power shining powerfully. That is why you should read this book. Because it will encourage you to rely on God no matter what is happening around you.
  It is also a very personal way to learn about the injustice and despair that pervades a communistic society. First, she shows us the tragedy of a nation overtaken by communism, and then the ultimately unjust results of a society creating its own morality.
  Parts though are incredibly brutal. It is the story of a German woman captured by the Russain army. It is delicately written, but still, it might be too much for younger teens.
• 
  Charlie

  Bought this book at Half-Price book store. GLAD I did. Wow.
  Maria Zeitner Linke managed to live thru NINE years of hell during Stalin's Gulag after World War 11. Yes. after WW11. Unbelievable.
  She got caught up in the ID of her life. Born in Russia to German parents was apparently a SERIOUS crime.
  Her faith kept her going and it helped her to survive under the worst kind of conditions and again for NINE years after WW11. She spent time in six different prison camps. She lived till 1978.
  This book will be read again. AND AGAIN by me.
• 
  Adrianne

  We read this together in our Bible study group. How soon my generation has forgotten what a true fascist looks like. What Hitler was truly capable of. And yet, out of these horrific stories, Christians could still emerge triumphant in will and thought and lead others to Christ. Such an inspirational story. I highly recommend this to just about anyone.
• 
  Tim

  I was given this book to read which turned out to be a good thing. Based on the title, I would have been unlikely to buy it, assuming it would be a rather simplistic tale of triumphant faith under some shade of brutality. (Not that I haven't read dozens pretty much like that ...).
  
  Instead, this was as much a social history book into little known populations of Germans living in eastern Europe and Russia for centuries, then buffeted by two global wars, along with Naziism and Communism. The tale is delivered first hand via the main character in this story, a Maria Zietner.
  
  The author, Ruth Hunt, deftly captured the story after interviews with Maria, who had ended up in America in 1957. She lived through a precarious and eventful childhood growing up in Germanic villages sprinkled across eastern Russia up to and through World War I, including the Bolshevik revolution in the war's latter years, as well as the Russian civil war that followed. As a child, she was gathered up as part of a suspect population by Communist authorities and sent to Siberia for years after the Communists consolidated their hold.
  
  Eventually (long interesting story short), she was able to be repatriated back to Germany in the early 30s, as a young married woman, only to find that country falling under the sway of Hitler. Her story runs through to World War 11, and then begins detailing the misfortune of being in east Germany, separated from her husband, when Russian troops swept through on their way to Berlin.
  
  At that point, based on her past of living in Russia under official distrust (and records to prove it), as well as being a citizen of the defeated enemy, she returned to captivity for nine years under Communist rule.
  
  Shocking to think that she was held prisoner in Buchenwald - an infamous Nazi death camp for Jews - that had suddenly been transformed into a Russian holding pen for a new wave of suspected political prisoners. Same setting, but now new inmates, new guards, and new reasons to be degraded and treated as animals.
  
  I think the title is misleading. The author Hunt, who is a devout conservative Christian herself, does not allow the story to devolve into a glossy tribute to a body of Christian doctrine and triumph. Rather, Maria's story remains factual, her faith is in fact exhibited here and there, and internally held tightly, but Hunt does not repeatedly pound away at that aspect in order to make sure the reader gets it.
  
  The writing rather, is thoughtful and understated while the personal story sobering and rich. One of the most poignant vignettes is recounted regarding a mother held along with Maria for nine years, separated from her young children and husband. When the day of freedom occurred for her friend Katie, it did not turn into the joyous expected reunion with her two teenaged children.
  
  Maria remembers, "To prepare properly for our home-coming we were each given 50 deutschmarks to spend at a clothing commissary on the grounds. I was on my way there with Katie when suddenly she froze. Then shrieking "Karl!" she flew into the arms of her husband. When the happy pair released each other at last, Katie turned to the tall boy beside his father. "Christian," she said almost shyly, "is it really you? You've grown ..." She could say no more, and reached for her son, a look of infinite love and tenderness on her face. But something was wrong. The boy was pulling back, disbelief and revulsion plainly written on his thirteen-year-old face. "You're not my mother. You're an old woman. I've seen her pictures," he said. Katie fainted ..."
  
  Later the story continues that Katie's sixteen year old daughter also rejected her for a time, with Maria subsequently writing to the daughter, "If you can't accept her as your mother, accept her as a human being who has suffered." Over the course of two more years, "when time and maturity had taken its course, the girl broke down and asked for forgiveness for the additional suffering she had caused her mother. The son too, came to accept her, and they did become a happy, loving family."
  
  Fascinating personal story of the aftermath for this German woman after the Nazi defeat and the rise of the Soviet Union.
• 
  Sue

  A riveting book of Maria Zeitner Linke’s life. She was born in the Volga village of Urbach, to German parents. When WWI begins her father is arrested and shipped to Siberia. Later her mother and all of her siblings are loaded into cattle boxcars and also shipped east to Siberia. A chance meeting in a Bashkirs village reunited the family. They lived as political prisoners for many years and then finally make their way to Germany during the chaos of the Russian Bolshevik Revolution.
  Then years later during WWII, after her mother and sisters escape to the American zone near the end of the war, she gets arrested while trying to return to Berlin to help her father. She goes on to serve nine long years, first as a Russian prisoner and then later as a prisoner of the East Germans. Her one constant hope is her faith in God and serving as his witness. She finally gets released to West Germany and joins her parents.
  This is a compelling read, especially if you want to learn of the treatment and suffering of the Germans from Russia during WWII and afterwards.
  #GermanRussians
• 
  Thomas Freeman

  Recommended for study on suffering by Mike Sullivan
• 
  Jammie

  Excellent book. A page turner!
• 
  Sharon

  This was a most incredible story of faith and courage against horrendous odds...and faith and courage won! This is one of those books that should be read by everyone.