A Life in Two Suitcases

Part biography, part memoir, A Life in Two Suitcases - Gundel's Story evolves through the recollections of her daughter and the painstaking sifting through material in two suitcases which had been left untouched for almost forty years. Gundel was a talented writer, poet, artist and musician and the material which helped piece together her life-story included Gundel's writings - poems, diary entries, letters, drafts of stories and random thoughts scribbled on scraps of paper - as well...
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Part biography, part memoir, A Life in Two Suitcases - Gundel's Story evolves through the recollections of her daughter and the painstaking sifting through material in two suitcases which had been left untouched for almost forty years. Gundel was a talented writer, poet, artist and musician and the material which helped piece together her life-story included Gundel's writings - poems, diary entries, letters, drafts of stories and random thoughts scribbled on scraps of paper - as well as photographs and documents. Gundel's story commences in 1917 in a small rural community in south-western Germany and ends with her untimely death in Melbourne, Australia in 1976. The story chronicles Gundel's experiences as a Jewess under the Nazi regime, living in an isolated house in the Black Forest and foraging for food, the death of a beloved child, eking out a living from her writing and drawings, her migration to Australia in the early 1950s and its subsequent challenges culminating in the end of her marriage. Despite the many hardships and thwarted dreams that faced Gundel, she managed to maintain a sense of humour and pass on to her daughters a legacy of love, strength and dignity.