Ruin By The Reich Chapter Summary

Ruined by the Reich is a novel that is written from firsthand experience about the time periods of 1916-1945 that follows Christel Weiss Brandenburg and her family. This story starts off talking about how her father, Wilhelm Friedrich Weiss, was in The Great War and how that impacted the family after he was sent back home on medical leave after sustaining injuries from a Russian bayonet in his arm and his leg; this injury is the reason why Wilhelm was not drafted into World War II along with his sons. The Weiss family owns several farms that they mostly live off of besides the trips to a local town to get supplies that they cannot make on their own. Soon after WWII starts Christel’s brothers, Alfred and Erwin Wiess, join the Hitler Youth a …show more content…
This is a unique view of the history of World War II because it is normal to hear the story of the war from the eyes of the allies or from Germany not from Prussia a country that does not exist anymore due to it being split between Poland and Russia after the war. This book is a first-hand view of the war from not only a Prussian civilian but a young girl whose father is injured in The Great War and had both of her brothers drafted for the war. Ruined by the Reich is written with personal experiences and information that is shared with the Weiss family and the other families through propaganda. This book is also written as a memoir to that family by the young girl whose point of view the story is in, Christel Weiss Brandenburg, with the help of Daniel Laing; this book is not only written in remembrance it is also written to help others understand how the war affected Prussian …show more content…
The most in-depth view of being a soldier in the front lines is during the beginning of the book when Brandenburg explains her father’s life during WWI in the trenches. Other than the parts of the war that Brandenburg experienced she does not know much else about how the war was for the Prussians outside of her