baptized as a Catholic, and her daughter was the illegitimate child of a Jewish schoolteacher. [Eavan] Boland cites a poem where Langässer speaks to "anemone," and it's not clear if she means a flower or a child. The poem and its subject of innocence seem out of place in Germany of 1946, but Boland provides us with the key. In a letter dated January of that year, Langässer wrote Cordelia lebt!--Cordelia lives. The poet wrote of flowers because her child had survived Auschwitz. This story is important: Men make history, while women, if they're lucky, survive it.The story is actually even more dramatic than that, cleverer and rich with mother love, but this should be left for readers to discover.
from San Francisco Chronicle: 'A Journey With Two Maps,' by Eavan Boland
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