Eycke Strickland, author of the war-time memoir, “Eyes are Watching, Ears are Listening: Growing up in Nazi Germany 1933-1946,” will appear in a free, public reading and lecture March 4 at Bellevue Community College.
The event begins at 10:30 a.m. in the college’s Library Media Center, located in the D Building on the south courtyard of the college’s main campus, 3000 Landerholm Circle S.E.
Through anecdotes and commentary, Strickland juxtaposes childhood adventures against day-to-day fear, and describes her role in helping her parents and siblings endure the terror of Nazism and all-out war.
Eycke (Laabs) Strickland was born in Germany in 1933, the year Hitler came to power. She was six years old when World War II broke out.
In 1941 the Nazis order her father to move to a small town only 11 miles east of Auschwitz, in southwestern Poland, where as county architect he supervised public construction projects.
The dilapidated cottage and gardens that made up her home were in one way a paradise for Eycke and her siblings, but outside the gate the horrors of the Holocaust unfolded before their eyes. On her way to school Eycke routinely heard the cries of imprisoned Jewish families.
However, what she did not know at the time was that her father was risking his life by hiding and rescuing large numbers of Jews despite posters warning, “Those who help Jews will be killed.”
In January 1945, with temperature well below zero, Eycke’s family of seven hurried through the snow to flee Poland on the last available train, arriving in Germany, hungry and exhausted, but grateful to be alive and together.
The book concludes with Eycke’s memories of her family’s struggle to survive as refugees amidst a society near total collapse.
Eycke and her husband Charles emigrated to the United States in 1958. They settled in Atlanta, where both taught at Emory University, he in history, and she in visual arts. Now, in retirement, they make their home on the northern coast of the Olympic Peninsula.
Eycke Strickland’s BCC presentation is co-sponsored by the college’s Communication Studies Department and Center for Liberal Arts.
Her book may be purchased at the BCC bookstore or on her website, at http://www.eyckestrickland.com/.
