Program Description
About this event:
It is 1939 when five-year-old Marlies Adams travels with her family on a transatlantic journey from Naples, NY to Germany so that her mother can visit her terminally ill father. As the SS Bremen leaves New York Harbor with Marlies and her family as passengers, Marlies has no idea that what is intended to be a three-month stay will turn into a seven-year struggle to stay alive in a living hell. No one could have predicted the events that are about to unfold as the Bremen docks in Bremerhaven, Germany six days later. As World War II begins, Hitler comes into power, and all borders and ports are closed; the Adams family is prohibited from leaving Germany-now a Nazi-controlled country. In her compelling autobiography, Marlies chronicles a little girl's unforgettable journey through starvation, bone-chilling cold, prejudice, bombings, abuse, homelessness, and fear instigated by an dictator. Marlies DiFante will present her autobiographical book and talk about her experiences a child from the Finger Lakes region of New York trapped in Nazi Germany.