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HEIMAT: Steppes of Russia My Country, My Home
by Shirley Wegner Nitschke
Was presented on March 9, 2002
The North Star Chapter was pleased to welcome Shirley Wegner Nitschke to the March meeting. Shirley is a first time author and has lived her entire life in the state of North Dakota. A desire to know how our grandparents survived in Russia inspired her to write; Heimat: Steppes of Russia, My Country, My Home. “I was always curious about our ancestors' Russian life so I decided to research the people known as the Germans from Russia. My next decision was to write of what I imagined their life was like, in Germany and Russia, and their final destination - America!”
It was my desire to share it with you in the character of Helga and her family. Helga traveled as a young girl with her father and sister to Russia, on the promise of a new life, once it became apparent that life in Germany was falling apart.
It is a love story, a coming-of-age story, a family unity story, an adventure story, a dramatic story, a woman's story, an immigrant's story. This is not simply a history lesson. It is a saga of a brave, courageous woman. It is a personal story, that humanizes history, and touches all of us. It is a story of the Germans in the nineteenth century. The Germans who chose to make the trip to Russia, and the Russia-Germans who came to America. It is a story of hope, survival, conviction, and determination. The story of an individual, a family, of three groups and three nations.
BOTTOM LINE to all of above is: I wrote for my readers - who have done little or no research - but hunger to know the story of their ancestors.”
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