“Close your eyes and ears. I’m here.” The child buried her head in Mother’s chest, sharp flashes of light bouncing off her blonde locks before the dark swallowed them up. Thunder shook the cellar’s walls. Debris grayed the girl’s hair, and their neighbors groaned. Both had just made it down in time into the cellar … More A Mother’s Tale

She came with thousands from the East and he met her halfway. “You still have that mole,” she mocked him, flicking a grey curl out of her face. “The only thing you remember?” he asked. They crossed the bridge together, first with hands apart. Then his fingertips touched her clutched gloved hand before they reached … More Glienicke Bridge

“It’s over, Klaus.” His commander, a veteran at eighteen, blew cigarette smoke towards the scorching anti-aircraft gun. “Back to school if you can find it.” The streetscape lay broken. Skeletons of apartment blocks remained next to others, untouched by the firestorms. Clouds of dust lingered over the debris and the burnt. Silence had set in, … More Thousand Years

Granddad had more than twenty thousand days to tell. Did he leave the old photos for me? To discover who he was until he had nearly vanished from my memory? Together with the other past lives left behind in his attic, in the country I once knew. A young man in grey uniform, standing at … More Twenty Thousand Days