EBOOK
The Golden Daughter
My Mother's Secret Past as a Ukrainian Slave Worker in Nazi Germany
Halina St. James4.2
(12)
About
Secret wartime letters, a volatile love triangle, an unmarked grave, a noble heritage-a revelatory mother-daughter memoir about discovery, love, and forgiveness.
Sorting through her late mother's possessions, Halina St. James found a secret stash of letters. They told how her mother, Maria, was abducted as a teenager in Ukraine by Nazis and sent to Germany as a slave.
After the war, Maria found herself pregnant in a displaced persons camp. She married the father, an older man from a noble Polish family. But her life changed when her husband introduced his friend, a young Polish freedom fighter. In Canada, the younger man betrayed his friend and ran off with Maria and Halina.
The letters made Halina realize how little she knew of her mother or her heritage.
The Golden Daughter is the gripping story of a mother and daughter shaped by forces they had no control over.
After uncovering truths hidden for a century, Halina was finally able to make peace with her mother, her father-and herself.
Secret wartime letters, a volatile love triangle, an unmarked grave-a revelatory mother-daughter memoir about discovery, love, and forgiveness.
• 2025 will be 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
• Halina's mother was an Ostarbeiter, German for "worker from the east." They had to wear a patch, OST, on their clothing identifying them as Untermensch-"subhuman." The story of the Ostarbeiters is the story of 5.7 million people, many of them children, who were snatched from homes and classrooms by Nazis in World War II and forced into labour for the Third Reich.
• Readers will be enthralled by St. James' mother's secrets. The author finds out the man she always thought was her father isn't and finally gets answers about who her birth father was and what happened to him.
• The book is a compelling and illuminating tale of intergeneration trauma. In uncovering her mother's story, Halina comes to understand how her mother's life shaped her own.
• Canada has the second-largest Ukrainian diaspora in the world. About 1.36 million people, or close to 4% of the Canadian population, reported at least one of their ethnic origins as Ukrainian, with most living in the Prairie provinces.
• Thousands of Ukrainians moved to Canada after WWII when the western part of Ukraine was annexed by Russia. The current wave of immigration began with the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine displacing millions of Ukrainians.
• For those who loves Wild game by Adrienne Brodeur or The Watchmaker's Daughter by Larry Loftis.
Sorting through her late mother's possessions, Halina St. James found a secret stash of letters. They told how her mother, Maria, was abducted as a teenager in Ukraine by Nazis and sent to Germany as a slave.
After the war, Maria found herself pregnant in a displaced persons camp. She married the father, an older man from a noble Polish family. But her life changed when her husband introduced his friend, a young Polish freedom fighter. In Canada, the younger man betrayed his friend and ran off with Maria and Halina.
The letters made Halina realize how little she knew of her mother or her heritage.
The Golden Daughter is the gripping story of a mother and daughter shaped by forces they had no control over.
After uncovering truths hidden for a century, Halina was finally able to make peace with her mother, her father-and herself.
Secret wartime letters, a volatile love triangle, an unmarked grave-a revelatory mother-daughter memoir about discovery, love, and forgiveness.
• 2025 will be 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
• Halina's mother was an Ostarbeiter, German for "worker from the east." They had to wear a patch, OST, on their clothing identifying them as Untermensch-"subhuman." The story of the Ostarbeiters is the story of 5.7 million people, many of them children, who were snatched from homes and classrooms by Nazis in World War II and forced into labour for the Third Reich.
• Readers will be enthralled by St. James' mother's secrets. The author finds out the man she always thought was her father isn't and finally gets answers about who her birth father was and what happened to him.
• The book is a compelling and illuminating tale of intergeneration trauma. In uncovering her mother's story, Halina comes to understand how her mother's life shaped her own.
• Canada has the second-largest Ukrainian diaspora in the world. About 1.36 million people, or close to 4% of the Canadian population, reported at least one of their ethnic origins as Ukrainian, with most living in the Prairie provinces.
• Thousands of Ukrainians moved to Canada after WWII when the western part of Ukraine was annexed by Russia. The current wave of immigration began with the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine displacing millions of Ukrainians.
• For those who loves Wild game by Adrienne Brodeur or The Watchmaker's Daughter by Larry Loftis.