For the Fatherland

In October of 1944, the fifth year of World War II, the war escalated in Germany and all hands-including women-were needed to keep the offensive alive. In For the Fatherland, author Ilsa Fanchin records the last eight months of the war as seen through her eyes. She tells about receiving her draft notice, along with other young, unmarried twenty-two-year-old women who were physically able and employed in nonsensitive positions not vital for the war effort. Along with approximately three hundred young, female draftees, she boarded a special train from her home in Frankfurt am Maim to the large industrial town of Leipzig in Eastern Germany. The women were inducted, underwent physicals, received uniforms, and took a mandatory oath in a solemn ritual to "serve the Fatherland." This memoir narrates the story of how these women served under primitive conditions during a bitterly cold winter, working on searchlights and replacing young male soldiers needed in combat on several fronts of fighting. For the Fatherland provides an insightful look into the role women played during World War II in Germany and the sacrifices that were made for the cause.