Why does my mother, Anna Kurovcova, have two different birth dates that are two years apart and no birth certificate as proof of identity?
Born during WWI into a middle-class farming family in Moravia, Czechoslovakia, Anna grows up during the halcyonian era that follows, until WWII changes everything.
During this conflict, she witnesses the theatre of clandestine activity through her father’s ardent Partisan support, distracting him from his family and farming responsibilities. He leaves this task to the women folk to carry out, placing a heavy burden onto Anna’s shoulders, while watching family fortunes dwindle, and her education and career prospects fading into the incoming tide of uncertainty.
Suffering the fall-out of German occupation and subsequently, post war annexation of her homeland to the Soviet bloc under Stalinist dogma, the Iron Curtain begins to surround her country, eventually closing off access to the west.
Assisted reluctantly by her brother’s friend, whom she barely knows, Anna takes her chances and escapes into Austria during Easter of 1948.
She then spends close to eighteen months shunting between refugee camps throughout Austria and Germany.
Finally, Anna immigrates to New Zealand and discovers a new homeland and career, and finds solace in new friendships.
But her life takes an unexpected turn, and she travels to Australia where marriage awaits her, followed by a family of her own in a country with new challenges.