Kathleen O'Dell and Andrea Croley
Recorded
April 21, 2022
Archived
April 21, 2022
40:07 minutes
0:00 / 0:00
Id:
mby021649
Description
Andrea Croley [no age given] tells her friend, Kathleen O'Dell [no age given] about her family's experience of the Bombing of Dresden, immigrating to Missouri as a child, and how her family history and personal experiences inform her condemnation of the current war in Ukraine.Subject Log / Time Code
AC describes the Bombing of Dresden, her father's opposition to Germany's involvement in World War II, and her father's subsequent experience in a concentration camp.
AC compares the devastation of the Bombing of Dresden to the current destruction in Ukraine.
AC remembers the brutal treatment of Germans by Russian soldiers, including the rape of German women and the looting of German homes and businesses.
AC tells KO about her family's canning business and how her grandfather spread hope through sharing sugar with friends and neighbors.
AC describes her own birth and childhood in Dresden post-bombing. She also contrasts the ease of life in the city sector occupied by American soldiers with the hardship experienced by Germans living under Russian occupation.
AC recalls fleeing East Germany with the support of her grandmother and living in Rome for two years while her family's immigration papers were approved.
AC describes landing in New York City, moving to Webster Groves, Missouri, and growing up as a German child in 1950s America.
AC remembers visiting Germany as a teen and again with her own children.
AC expresses pride for her cousin, an accomplished architect who helped rebuild Dresden, Germany after the bombings.
Participants
- Kathleen O'Dell
- Andrea Croley