William Tannenzapf never wavered in his determination to survive and save his wife and baby girl from the evil that gripped his home town of Stanislawów. Blond, cherubic, Renate Krakauer was a “miracle baby” born as the world descended into war and soon surrounded by misery and death. Starved and enslaved, Tannenzapf entrusted his daughter to a Polish family so that little Renate could live in “childhood oblivion” – yet still under the eyes of her loving parents. Later reunited and thrown into the trials of refugee and immigrant life, Krakauer’s thoughtful observations provide fascinating insight into the perceptions of a child survivor and offer a poignant counterpoint to Tannenzapf’s adult reflections on the same events. This gripping volume offers the reader the rare opportunity to read survival stories from two members of the same family.

William Tannenzapf was born in 1911 and his daughter, Renate, was born in March 1941, during the Nazi occupation. The family immigrated to Canada in 1948. William Tannenzapf passed away in 2011 at 100.

William Tannenzapf's profile page

Renate Krakauer's career included senior roles in education, and municipal and provincial governments. She retired as president of a Health Sciences educational institution. She has published short stories in literary among them Parchment, The Storyteller, and Foliate Oak; essays in the The Globe and Mail, journals and two anthologies; a memoir But I Had a Happy Childhood; and two plays. Only By Blood is her first novel. Renate lives in Toronto with her husband. She has three adult children, two stepsons, and six grandchildren.

Renate Krakauer's profile page