KTNV Las Vegas The Morning Blend Interview with Renate Stoever
Channel: Escape from Plauen
Date: 2014-09-01

Renate Stoever, author of Escape from Plauen, is interviewed on KTNV Las Vegas.

Find out about the book at http://www.escapefromplauen.com
Find out about the Indiegogo movie campaign at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/escape-from-plauen-book-to-film-adaptation

HOST:  World War II was the deadliest military conflict in history.  More than 60 million people were killed.  The events that followed shortly after the war are often overlooked.  Escape from Plauen is a true story about the ravages of war seen through the eyes of a nine-year-old girl living in Germany during the 1940s.  Joining us now is the author of the moving book, Renate Stoever.  Good morning to you, Renate.
  
STOEVER:  Good morning.

HOST:  Tell us about your escape and your life after.

STOEVER:  Well, the escape was an extremely risky undertaking because a lot of people were escaping from Communist East Germany to the American west.  And a lot of people got killed crossing the border because they had watchtowers all along the border with armed guards.  But, you know, and people are desperate, they do almost anything.  So we did.  And we got caught, of course.  And when they tried to separate my mother and us children, us kids, we started screaming bloody murder and hanging onto our mother.  And, so they gave us to the mayor of a little village, and this good man told us how to get to the border the correct way and what time the guards changed on the towers.  So we managed to do that.  And—but when we crossed a little brook, which was the demarcation line between East and West, they opened fire on us.  They had seen us.  And, we threw ourselves to the ground, and we saw boots in front of us, and we thought we got caught again.

HOST:  Mmhmm.

STOEVER:  But it was…was an American GI, thank God.

HOST:  Mmhmm.

STOEVER:  And he told us we could go.  You know, he didn’t send us back.  Because sometimes they sent people back.

HOST:  He was your angel.  And you talk about--

STOEVER:  Yes.

HOST:  And you talk about surviving in your book.  Your town was bombed, the caves were bombed—

STOEVER:  Yes.

HOST:  But your church stood, your home stood—why do you think--?

STOEVER:  No.

HOST:  No, it got bombed, but you went back into the house to retrieve your things and stay at your—

STOEVER:  Yes.

HOST:  --your parents’ house, your grandparents’ house.

STOEVER:  Right, the walls still stood.

HOST:  Mmhmm.

STOEVER:  Yes.

HOST:  And what inspired you to write about your experience?

STOEVER:  Well, I think I have suppressed the whole thing all my life and…I have flashbacks sometimes.  And I decided it was time to…open up that drawer and take it out and to the—you know, to the air, and let it out.  Because a lot of people don’t realize what happened to the average German…the women and the children, after the war.

HOST:  Mmhmm.

STOEVER:  And I thought maybe that story should be told.  That war is a horrible, horrible thing.  And the women are the real heroes.  (laughs)  Not everybody’s going to like that I say that, but from my point of view—

HOST:  Mmhmm.

STOEVER:  The women—have always been trying to save their kids.  

HOST:  Right, your--your mom did that, your sister was there for you—

STOEVER:  Yes.

HOST:  She was so small at the time, and—and really saw a lot of horrible things unfold, as you did as well.

STOEVER:  Yes.

HOST:  And—and did you write the--the book?  Or did you enter a contest to write--?

STOEVER:  No, it was—no, I entered just one chapter for a newspaper competition.

HOST:  Mmhmm.  And then it just--?

STOEVER:  And they liked it.  Yeah, and it grew from there.

HOST:  And now—

STOEVER:  I never thought—

HOST:  You never thought, yeah, that that was going to happen—

STOEVER:  Sorry.  Yeah, that--that I would even publish it, you know.

HOST:  And now there’s talk of a movie being made.  Can you tell us about that?

STOEVER:  Yes, my agent Alan Morell sold it to Greg O’Connor, CEO of Solar—Solaris Entertainment, and they are now working on the [unintelligible] to have it produced.  And you can get more information about it on Indiegogo.com and also on my website, EscapefromPlauen.com

HOST:  Well I read the book, and it’s incredible.

STOEVER:  Did you?

HOST:  Thank you so much.

STOEVER:  Thank you.

HOST:  Take the journey with author Renate Stoever as she recounts her story in—of life in war-torn Germany.  Escape from Plauen is available now and will be adapted for the silver screen.  To learn more, go to the website right there on your screen.

OTHER HOST:  Wow, what an amazing story.  Thank you, Dao.