Notes From Across the Pond
A Young Woman's European Odyssey in the 1950's
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Without thinking I spoke up and said, "What about the slave labor camps in Siberia such as Vorkuta?" A hush fell over the group, and I realized that I had gone too far that time. Olga's face turned as red as borscht, her blue eyes flashed with rage, she ground her steel teeth, and I knew that if she could have taken a chunk out of me or had me dragged off she would have. "There are no prisoners in Siberia, you are repeating lies that you have heard about our Soviet Motherland," she said in a voice she struggled to keep under control.
I said no more. What could I say about the countless millions who died in these slave labor camps under the most brutal conditions? As we moved along, my newfound friend Manya inched up to me, and whispered, "You must be careful, you are putting yourself in danger." I knew she was right, and I felt my heart beating rapidly and my palms becoming sweaty. Now I was sure that the KGB would pick me up. After all, Lidya would back up Olga and tell the IGB that I kept discussing politics, disputed what the Soviet Union stood for, spent a lot of time talking to a Jewish man in an antique shop, and tried to corrupt the morals of good communist children by giving them "decadent bourgeois gum," to use Lidya's words.
I was trembling with fear when Olga came up to me and said, "Maybe in Stalin's time there were slave labor camps, but they don't exist now under Khrushchev." I couldn't believe what I was hearing, and felt it best not to respond. Obviously, what I had said really got to Olga because about twenty minutes later she again came up to me and said, "Now those Siberian camps have become retirement homes, and our people have even more freedom than you do in your country." This was so ludicrous, that in spite of my nervousness, I bit my lips to refrain from laughing.
Shortly after we returned to the hotel we went to the dining room for dinner. Manya said, "Benita, you look terrible, let me treat you to some champagne and caviar, and let's try to forget what happened today, after all you will be leaving soon." Manya was staying on in order to spend more time with her brother.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
Starting out as a teenage college student in 1953,
the author takes us on a journey of discovery in Europe over a period of seven
years. We move from the highlands of
Scotland to Moscow’s Kremlin at the height of the Cold War. Coming soon after the end of World War II,
this was an era when few Americans traveled overseas. Cruise ships plied the Atlantic, or “the pond,” and airport
security was unheard of. The author
describes her travels in eighteen countries; how she met her husband while both
were studying under a Fulbright Grant in Italy and her experiences living in
England as an exchange teacher. Her
adventures led to romances, royal garden parties, a papal audience, czarist
palaces, bullfights, encounters with Nazis and communists and some scary moments. The historical background of the period and
the tensions of the Cold War are vividly described and explained for everyone
to be able to comprehend and enjoy.
About the Author
Benita Bross Fuchs, a first time author, has a
master’s degree in European and English.
She taught history for most of her career in New York City. She first went “Across The Pond” as a
teenage college student and continued traveling to Europe over the decades. She studied in Italy under a Fulbright Grant
and was an exchange teacher in England.
She is now retired and lives with her husband in a suburb of Washington,
D.C.