Historical snippets interspersed throughout the book illuminate tensions between the Soviet bloc and Western world during the Cold War. Communications between East and West are sparse, censored carefully and at times cut off. Meanwhile, Hanna lives her parallel life of relative freedom and prosperity in the West, apart from those she loves. Her loving and positive mother, her tormented father and various siblings, over 40 years, work to make life bearable while missing their oldest sister. In contrast, some of his children succeed in small measure to stay true to themselves. Opa compromises in order to please those above him and keep his job, but his struggle under communist idealogy is ongoing and it nearly breaks him. Willner lovingly narrates the family’s lives as they navigate the totalitarian German Democratic Republic (DDR) and its effects on their family ties, finances and freedom. For Hanna and her loving family, long term separation causes pain on all sides. Over the years, escaping becomes increasingly difficult, and repercussions on families left behind are costly. Hanna, a restless teen, rebels under the bleak strictures of this new reign. The “People” replace “The Fatherland,” communism replaces fascism and Young Pioneers replace the Hitler Youth. Almost a mirror image of the Third Reich, The communist regime boasts new governing officials, restrictions on freedom, youth programs, and its own set of propaganda. For Willner’s family, as for millions of others behind the Iron Curtain, a new normal, intrudes upon their lives. The Second World War has wound to a close. Willner’s account, Forty Autumns, chronicles the experiences of her family during the iron-fisted regime of the German Democratic Republic (1949-1990).
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