A thousand kisses - Frieda Lindemeyer

The Lindemeyers were an affluent, very closely knit family living in Dusseldorf. They were also among a minority of German Christian families of Jewish origin. Georg was a lawyer and a scholar of classics, as well as a writer and a linguist, his wife Frieda was a staunch member of the Evangelical Church,devoted to her husband and three children, Eva-Maria, Edith and Wolfgang.

After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, the Lindemeyers, like all 'non-Aryans', began to be discriminated against. Realising that the climate of the country was increasingly hostile to them, they managed to send their three children to England. As the war began, and the oppression against the Jews intensified, George and Frieda tried desperately to move to England themselves. They never succeeded. In 1941, they were sent off to a concentration camp in Minsk where they both died.

The letters in this book begin in 1937 when Edith, the first of the children, left home, and end in 1941, on the day George and Frieda were deported to Minsk. They are the letters of any loving parent: full of deep affection, pride and anxiety. And they are also a testament to the immense courage of the family as they struggle to remain strong, hopeful that they will one day be together again.

Written simply and straight from the heart, A Thousand Kissesis the deeply moving story of an extraordinary family and their tragic fate.