While discussing family history with Miss Mary, I learned that her grandmother Irene had diaries from her younger years, including during WW2, and she had turned some of them into a book several years ago. Based on what she had told me about this fascinating woman, I knew I needed to read this book.
Fire Burn begins in 1939 in Latvia, Irene’s home country, and takes readers on a journey with Irene from an idyllic life where the war seems to have no existence, to the extreme hardships and constant fear that soon become daily life. Readers get a glimpse of what Irene, and the people in her life, experienced over the course of the war. The book is organized in four sections – Latvia as she knew it before the war came to her home country, Latvia under Soviet rule, life in Germany during the war (where she moved to escape the Red Terror of Soviet rule), and life in Germany after the Allies arrived and the war ended.
Most of what I’ve read, seen or heard about WW2 usually revolves around the politics or military of the war. Reading about the experiences of this woman and her family, friends, and coworkers, provides a very different perspective. Readers see how Irene’s life changes and how she deals with the various challenges – a difficult relationship with her mother, sexism at work, the difficulties in finding food, the constant fear of bombings, her grief and anger at the destruction of both life and culture, her mental and physical reactions to her experiences, and the humor she and others found in some situations. Throughout the book, readers see Irene’s intelligent and spirited personality as she makes difficult choices and finds ways to survive each day.
While this can be a difficult read, it is an important contribution to our historical knowledge. Irene did not know the full scope of the war at the time she was experiencing it, though she does reference rumors of horrors beyond what she already knew about. Through her memoir we have a better idea of how terrible, chaotic, and confusing the war was for the average person who was simply trying to survive each day without fully understanding why the war was even happening, or the politics and military strategies that were in play.
Fire Burn is available in the Minerva catalog in two libraries. After reading it you’ll likely want to know more about this amazing woman, so be sure to stop by the Children’s Room to chat with Miss Mary about her fascinating grandmother (I have her permission to suggest this :-).
-Karen, Children’s Room
