Recalling WWII Behind German Lines

When ABC News producers were looking for a World War II refugee to interview for its upcoming documentary series “The Century,” they found who they were looking for right here in Orange County.

Eva Krutein, who wrote about her World War II experiences in a 1989 book, “Eva’s War: A True Story of Survival,” was interviewed by the ABC film crew at her Irvine home in 1995.

The 27-part series won’t air until March (12 hours on ABC and 15 hours on the History Channel), but a portion of Krutein’s interview can be found in “The Century” (Doubleday; $60), the just-published companion volume to the series. (The 604-page book soared to the No. 1 spot on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list last Sunday, its first week on the list.)

Co-written by ABC news anchor Peter Jennings and senior editorial producer Todd Brewster, the heavily illustrated book chronicles the key events of what is described as “the most eventful 100 years in human history.” In telling the story of the 20th century, the book includes accounts from hundreds of witnesses and participants.

Krutein’s first-person account, drawn from her interview, can be found on Page 300.

In it, she talks of fleeing her hometown of Danzig on the Baltic Sea with her baby daughter, Lilo, in January of 1945 as the Red Army advanced on the former free state, which had been annexed by Germany in 1939. Her husband, Manfred, now 81, was serving in the German navy.

Arriving in the German port city of Kiel, she and her baby lived in a two-bedroom home with five other refugee families who were forced to live there by the German police. “The hunger was the worst part of it because it never left you,” Krutein says in the interview. Her infant daughter was sick and malnourished. To survive, Krutein says, she had to resort to looting.

Her parents, who stayed behind in Danzig, suffered worse fates.

Shortly after Krutein left, her mother was gang-raped by Russian soldiers. Unable to bear what had happened to her, she took a cyanide pill provided by a pharmacist who had handed out the pills to women before the feared Russians arrived.

When Danzig was turned over to Poland, Krutein says, everyone who was German was expelled. Krutein’s father was among the Germans who were herded into box cars and sent on a five-day trip to Berlin. It was standing room only, and there was no food or water. On the way to Berlin, Krutein relates, bandits robbed everyone in the train cars of what little they had, including their clothes. Krutein’s father died a few weeks later of typhus fever.

Krutein, a retired music teacher and opera coach, recently received a complimentary copy of “The Century.”

“I’m very excited, of course,” says Krutein, 77, “not only because I am in the book but that people can read about it. There is no information about all those happenings because it was held back [at the time]. The information would have asked for sympathy with the Germans and there was no sympathy in those times because the media never picked up those stories. Now, it’s out there.”

Eva and Manfred Krutein a retired ocean-mining engineer, arrived in America in 1960 after living in Chile for nine years. They recently moved from Irvine to Leisure World, Laguna Hills.

Coming Up

* Author Sean Diviny will read “Snow Inside the House” at 10:30 a.m. today at Barnes & Noble, 26751 Aliso Viejo Road, Aliso Viejo.

* “Drabble” cartoonist Kevin Fagan will sign his new collection, “Mall Cops, Ducks and Fenderheads,” at 7 tonight at Borders Books and Music, 25222 El Paseo, Mission Viejo.

* Poet Christopher Strople will read at 8:30 tonight at the Ugly Mug Cafe, 261 N. Glassell St., Orange.

* Host Barbara DeMarco Barrett will interview Lisa See, author of “Flower Net,” on “Writers on Writing” at 6:30 tonight on KUCI-FM (88.9) in Irvine.

* Ray Bradbury will sign his new novella, “Ahmed and the Oblivion Machines,” and special 40th-anniversary copies of his classic “Fahrenheit 451” at 5 p.m. Friday at Borders Books and Music, 1890 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa.

* Poet Robert Mezey will read at 7 p.m. Friday at the Mission Viejo Library, 25209 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo.

* An evening discussion with newspaper cartoonists Mark O’Hare (“Citizen Dog”), Kevin Fagan (“Drabble”) and Steve Moore (“In the Bleachers”) will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday at Barnes & Noble, 26751 Aliso Creek Road, Aliso Viejo.

* Surfing photographer LeRoy Grannis will sign “Surfing’s Golden Age: 1960-1969” at 1 p.m. Saturday at the International Surfing Museum, 411 Olive St., Huntington Beach.

* Children’s book author Leonard Bernard will sign “A Tale of Two Kitties” and other books at 2 p.m. Sunday at Martha’s Bookstore, 308 1/2 Marine Ave., Balboa Island.

Send information about book-related events at least 10 days before event to: Dennis McLellan, O.C. Books & Authors, Life & Style, The Times, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626.