Born in 1922 near Thorn Emilie, who was called by the name Milusch, was the eighth of eleven siblings. This region had already experienced five changes of occupying power between the Germans and the Polish. She lives an idyllic childhood and adolescence that is increasingly endangered by the political developments. Yet another shift of power casts a dark shadow and the turmoil that ensues threatens to devour the young girl.

Emilie Büntjen und Ruth Damwerth: Zitronenberge an der Weichsel. Die bittersüße Lebensgeschichte der Emilie "Milusch" Büntjen.
ISBN: 978-3-937772-09-7; 18,90 Euro

An impressive piece of work that closely confronts the reader with the difficult pre-war years of a Polish citizen with German nationality in the lower region of the river Weichsel. An insight into a simple rural life riddled with hardship, so poignant that the uprooting of these people through their displacement at the end of the Second World War becomes convincingly close and palpable. At the end it is clear why this life story is “bittersweet”. A book that is easy to read and easy to recommend.

Der Westpreusse, 12/2007, on “Zitronenberge an der Weichsel“