Daughters of the Fatherland

In this griping true-to-life historical novel, Berlin-born Rosa is abandoned as a baby during the height of Germany’s Great Depression but rescued by an elderly couple in a passing Gypsy caravan. Ten years later, on the brink of World War II, Rosa is the unwitting cause of her adoptive Romani family being incarcerated: Rosa and her mother are sent to the Women’s Gypsy Concentration Camp in Austria, while her father is sent to the Men’s Gypsy Camp in Berlin. The women’s camp despises her rebellious spirit, so Rosa vows to escape to rescue her beloved father. However, before she can enact her escape plan, Rosa and thirty other Romani children are conscripted to appear in Nazi Director Leni Riefenstahl’s ill-fated movie about a Gypsy Queen, Tiefland. Daughters of the Fatherland highlights the plight of the children during World War II with a special focus on the Romani Holocaust, Porajmos (devouring or destruction). Wars tear families apart, with children being left to fend for themselves in a chaotic world. During war, the conflict between and within nations can result in the loss of humanity; however, in Rosa’s case, love and peace ultimately restore her community allowing personal redemption for Rosa.