After the End

For Sarah Morgenstern, Liberation Day doesn’t mark the end of World War II. Nor does VE Day. Rather, these milestones signal merely a new phase of wartime existence, launching Sarah on a quest to find what might remain of her family and her home—and the life she knew before the Nazis took everything. After the End opens on May 5, 1945, three days after the 82nd Airborne and the U.S. 8th Infantry Division liberated Wöbbelin concentration camp. With nothing to her name but the filthy, raggedy camp uniform on her back, Sarah welcomes the end of the war. She is a survivor. Now a displaced person instead of a prisoner, she and thousands of other survivors remain confined to Wöbbelin before being transported to Feldafing, still under guard, although now under the watchful eyes of the Americans. During the year following Liberation, Sarah reenters society. She begins a job working as a translator with the U.S. Army. She makes lasting friendships. She lets go the fears that plagued her while living under Nazi rule. She discovers the fate of her family. And she makes a decision that will set the direction for the rest of her life—a new beginning in a new land in the wake of war. Read more