A child in the midst of battle : one family's struggle for survival in war-torn Manila / Evelyn Berg Empie, Stephen H. Mette

A child in the midst of battle : one family's struggle for survival in war-torn Manila / Evelyn Berg Empie, Stephen H. Mette

World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, German.

Personal account of Evelyn Berg Empie, not yet ten when the war started. Evelyn’s father, Ernest Berg, was of German descent and owned a prominent department store in Escolta. During the war, he was forced to work for the Japanese, although he provided assistance to the guerrillas.

Evelyn writes about life in Manila before the war, the outbreak of war, conditions in Japanese-occupied Manila and the trauma of the Battle of Manila. Since the Bergs were German, they were not interned by the Japanese. The Berg family lived in Ermita and was thus caught in the thick of the fighting, but miraculously survived; servants and neighbors living near the family’s house in the suburbs, where the family had initially planned to evacuate to, were massacred.

The memoir ends with life in post-war Manila, migration to the US and starting over. Evelyn’s father was denounced as a collaborator and was imprisoned for about a year, while the rest of the family rebuilt itself in the US mainland.

Empie, Evelyn Berg

Rolling Hills Estates, CA : Satori Press, c2001

2001

24 x 19 cm.

Hardbound

961726881

D 811.5 E4 2001

14175

185 p.

ill.