AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: Elisabeth Haggblade

Born in 1942 in Munich, Germany, I am a naturalized U.S. citizen.

My academic credentials consist of a B.A. in German, a B.A. in Russian, a Master’s in Linguistics from the California State University, Fresno, and a PhD in English Philology from the Freie Universität Berlin.

Retired from teaching part-time English and Linguistics at California State University, Fresno, California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, and the Freie Universität Berlin, I am currently living in Santa Barbara, CA.

My publications began with academic articles and book reviews as well as book reviews of fiction in "The Los Angeles Times." I have recently published nonfiction short stories. My creative nonfiction memoir, “Trauterose: Growing Up In Postwar Munich,” was published by Glass Spider Publishing in September, 2023.

Awards

On May 30, 2024, Elisabeth Haggblade's book, "Trauterose: Growing Up in Postwar Munich," received the "2024 IndiReader Discovery Award Genre Memoir."
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Personal Resilience and Healing:
There was basically no community support because of our location away from the center of town. Instead, I had: Music, Nature, Church, and Family Cohesion. Music, because I loved to sing in church choirs. Nature, because of my foster father’s teaching about our garden and the nearby municipal park. Family, because it gave me a sense of belonging. And there was also hope for a better future. 

Inherited Guilt and Identity:
In navigating complexities, I just accepted the foster parents as my guardians and what they had experienced. I didn’t ask questions, then, about their past actions. I saw the past struggles written in their faces and in that of neighbors and others. Each person had to grapple with his/her own past and experiences.

Humor Amidst Hardship:
Humor was not writ large in our lives, but for a few examples, such as the story of Aunt Meta sister, where the baby peed into the soup. And there were daily living annoyances; e.g., teasing my foster brother about paper bits sticking to his face to stop the bleeding from shaving cuts. Some incidents seem humorous in retrospect but were not at the time; e.g., sitting on the toilet in an outhouse without a door. 

Lessons for Modern Readers:
​For our Collective Memory, we need to: Examine the past, teach about Holocaust, engender conversations among generations–old and young–and continue the conversation. We need to be vigilant about the dangers of Nationalism, of the movement of the FarRight, which is active everywhere, not just in Germany and in Europe, but also in the United States. 

Book is: A coming-of-age story, a foster-care story, a refugee story, an immigration story, a learning English as a foreign language story, and it’s an education story working through conflicts with parents, school, and church.

This narrative is bookended by critical thoughts about nationality: Being considered German in the US versus being American in Germany. I close with reflections on today’s Germany, with the past intruding on the present and with my inherited trauma and inherited guilt still pursuing me.

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Visit Elisabeth on her website: 
https://www.trauteroseauthor.com
Follow Elisabeth on Instagram: 
www.instagram.com/elisabethhaggblade
Join Elisabeth on Faceboook: 
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100068643734863
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LINK for BOOK:
https://www.amazon.com/Trauterose-Growing-Up-Postwar-Munich/dp/1957917342