Embers in Ice - Four Generations between five Dictatorships

Range of topics: 

life of an educated middle class Hamburg citizen from 1897 - emigration to Vladivostok - European Russia and the "development area" Siberia - colonialism of the imperial powers (including Germany) in Asia - seven wars in the Far East - World War I with tsarist banishment - Russian civil wars - persecution by 'white' and 'red' warlords in Siberia - subjugation of Vladivostok by Bolsheviks - capture and flight to Harbin - life before and during the Manchukuo dictatorship - World War II - Nazi influences in Harbin - Stalinist banishment. 

Frame of reference: In terms of the protagonists and the course of the story, the novel is based on the life of our family in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century in successive generations. It is dedicated to my maternal grandparents and their experiences. The action takes place between Germany, Russia, China, Japan and Korea. The plot is written from the perspective of the persons involved. The descriptions of the geographic and historical backgrounds of this epoch are also authentic. 

Plot:

My maternal grandfather, pseudonym Josef Naumann, born in Hamburg in 1877, went to work as an accountant in the R&R company in Vladivostok/Siberia in 1900, which, in addition to its own trade, promoted the development of the region. The Tsarist regime was very interested in foreign specialists. Josef N. was confronted with the consequences of the Chinese Boxer Rebellion, experienced the 1st Japanese-Russian War, the tsarist regime's search for culprits for its defeats, and the declaration of companies founded by Germans as contributors to the same. 

With the outbreak of World War I, Josef N. was banished as a civilian prisoner to a camp in Wercholensk, Buryat, where he spent seven years. In 1917, he married a Buryat woman there, our grandmother, pseudonym Tanya, they had two children, including my mother. There, Josef N. was in mortal danger several times, most recently during an attack by the Red Army. He organized the return of German civilian prisoners for the IRK, which delayed his own escape with his family. The latter finally succeeded in 1921/22 under adventurous circumstances. 

Back in Vladivostok, the R&R company had been plundered by the Soviet administration. It asked Josef N. to reorganize the care of the population, but at the same time massively hindered his efforts with one exception. He was threatened and arrested several times. The family had an emergency plan in case something should happen to Josef N. When he helped a member of R&R escape, he was betrayed and captured again. This time he faced death penalty or the Gulag. 

The German consul in Vladivostok was repeatedly able to delay the criminal proceedings and the implementation of the penalties. Tanja managed to escape to Harbin, Manchuria, China with her two children. After a little more than a year, Josef N. was freed from prison by Chinese friends and also fled to Harbin. There, he started an import business for medical and technical products. 

Between 1923 and 1936 the family experienced an economically secure, socially and culturally stimulating life for a while. But Manchuria was at the mercy of political conflicts from three sides: on the Russian side between pro-Tsarist (white) and revolutionary (red) movements, on the Chinese side between the nationalist Kuomintang and the Comintern army, plus Japan's expansionist drive in East Asia. In 1931, Japan occupied Manchuria. The family stayed in Harbin during the Manchukuo satellite regime (1932-1945) as it offered more security than Germany under Nazism. When the Red Army unexpectedly invaded Manchuria in 1945, all men of German descent were arrested along with White Russians and Japanese, including Josef N. and his son-in-law, both of whom were tortured. 

Josef N. died close to the Irkutsk station while being transported to a gulag. Their daughter died, leaving three children. With the help of White Russian friends, Tanja managed to escape to Germany with her grandchildren via the IRK. Her son, who had been drafted during World War II, took them out of the detention center and took care of their life in Germany, where they gradually found a settled life and new identities.