Red Devils. Or: Emilia, My Mother from Ukraine.

About the Book

This story was meant to be a near autobiography of a young boy, from age five to twelve, during a horrible period of our time—World War II and the direct aftermath. The events in the book were witnessed by me or are firsthand accounts of one form or another. However, some important characters in the book are not described, therefore I included them in the prologue.

About the Author

I was born in Kiev on November 1, 1937. My father, a world-class chemist, was murdered by the Soviets in 1941, six days before Kiev fell to the Germans. We retreated with the German front to Berlin in 1943. My mother remarried (George, a Russian journalist) in 1943. I got my elementary schooling in Berlin (1945–1949). We were rescued by the Allied commander in Berlin in 1949 and transferred to West Germany in 1949 (Cornberg-Fulda-Mittenwald)—with the intervention by Eleanor Roosevelt. My parents were debriefed in Mittenwald by Americans (1949–1951). We moved to Munich (1951–1957). When George was nearly caught by the Soviets in Munich again in 1957, we emigrated to the USA, March 15, 1957. I graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in 1960 with a BS degree in mathematics. I entered the workforce in 1960 and continued with my postgraduate work at CCNY (MS in math in 1963). I took further graduate work at Adelphi University in mathematics while working full time.