Patricia McCune Irvine Sing to Me, Papa

Annotation

Gretchen Muellers chronicle begins in the present in her Southern California garden with her granddaughter, Megan, and flashes back to Chicago in the late thirties. The Muellers are a happy family then and Papa (Gerhard) sings and tells stories of his boyhood in Furth im Wald, in eastern Germany, and also of his admiration for Adolf Hitler. During WWII U. S. authorities cannot tolerate Papas allegiance to Germany and Gretchens happy life becomes a series of painful changes and adjustmentsshe is a German in America and an American in Germany. Through the years, adversities are overcome with the help of new friends, neighbors and a tender reconciliation.