Vera Oredsson

When the Flagpoles Bloomed Vera Oredsson

Few subjects evokes so many feelings as the Third Reich. Thousands and thousands of pages have been written about the revolutionary years in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. Portraits have been made of the great leaders, as well as the soldiers and generals. The events of the Second World War have been examined and twisted and turned in the countless number of books that have been written on the subject. Everyone from experts to amateur historians has expressed their opinions on the matter. But in the larger context, there is often one piece that is forgotten or not allowed to be heard: the story of the normal little person. This is her story.

Vera Oredsson was born in Berlin in 1928 and grew up in the changing Germany. She saw with her own eyes how the city she grew up in changed and how National Socialism swept across the country. We follow Miss Vera on her crazy adventures and attempts to run away, to her time in the Hitler Youth. With colorful descriptions without blinders she depicts the Third Reich through the eyes of a young girl and thus presents a totally unique perspective to one of the most discussed epochs in world history.