The Martels, shortly after being reunited, Alfeld, western Germany, March 1947.
DISCUSSION GUIDE
The Last Green Valley is a work of historical fiction, inspired by a true story. Do you feel that the story is authentic? How well do you think the author told a compelling story while also sticking to historical facts?
Have you or your family members lived through World War II? Have you or your family immigrated to the US? How do your memories or family stories reflect the emotions in this book?
Given the hardships the Martels had already endured, what emotional reserves do you feel they had to call upon to remain hopeful and stay on their trek to freedom?
Rese almost dies after suffering through a horrific accident. Emil almost starved to death and faced an unforgivable ultimatum at gunpoint. The family endures unimaginable peril on their journey and at the hands of the Nazis. What does it mean to be brave in the face of death?
There is a moment when Major Haussmann helps Rese after her accident. What do you think the author intended by choosing to portray such an evil man in this light? How did you feel about Haussmann’s action in contrast with the ultimatum given to Emil?
Karoline is sometimes very cruel to Adeline, who is the mother of her grandchildren. Why do you think this is? What do you think of their reconciliation before they part ways?
What are your thoughts on Corporal Gheorghe’s philosophy of life and how it influences Emil?
When Emil and Adeline are torn apart, what gives Adeline the faith and strength to carry on? What makes her so sure they will be together again?
What is your “green valley”?
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am hugely indebted to a host of people who helped me in the research and writing of The Last Green Valley.
Foremost in that group were Bill and Walter Martel and their families. I thank the entire Martel clan for sharing their Emil and Adeline stories with me. I pray I did them justice.
In Romania and Moldova, my enormously resourceful guide, Florin Burgui, was able to track down a handful of people who either survived or witnessed the Long Trek of ethnic German refugees in the spring of 1944. They included Victoria Chmara, age ninety-one; Nicolae Hurezeanu, ninety-five; Ioan Muth, ninety-five; Gheorghe Voiculescu, then ninety-seven; and Victor Caldarar, ninety-six. Thank you for sharing your memories.
I was also aided by Flavius Roaita at the National Museum of Romanian History in Bucharest, Ottmar Trasca of the George Baritiu Institute of History in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and Ramf Dan, a Romanian historian who interviewed more than two hundred and fifty survivors and witnesses of the German retreat from Ukraine. Historians Corneliu Stoica, Dorin Dobrincu, and Lutz Connert helped me understand the plight of people sent east by the Soviets after the end of World War II and those who never returned.
In Hungary, historian Eva Kuierung gave me insight into the transit of ethnic German refugees through Budapest on their way to Poland. In Ukraine, Dr. Sergey Yelizarov, an expert on ethnic German colonies, guided us to the remains of the Friedenstal colony, and to Poltava, where Oleksandr Suprunenko of the Poltava Museum of Local Lore helped us understand the conditions and challenges of the prison camp during the time Emil was held there.
Red Famine, Anne Applebaum’s book about Stalin’s starvation of Ukraine, gave me a good idea of what the Martels went through before the war. I was aided in my understanding of the Holocaust and Soviet and German rule in Ukraine by the works of historians and writers Wendy Lower, Gail Gligman, Alexander Dallin, Joshua Rubenstein, Ilya Altman, Eric C. Steinhart, Diana Dumitru, Ray Brandon, Daniel Joseph Goldhagen, Gerald Reitlinger, Sefer Zikaron, Walter Koenig and Avigdor Shachen. Thank you all.
The writings of Dr. Alfred de Zayas gave me a deeper understanding of the expulsion of ethnic Germans across Central and Eastern Europe between 1944 and 1948. The research of Dr. Eric J. Schmaltz of Northwestern Oklahoma State University gave me insight into the SS transfer of ethnic Germans to the Warthegau region of Poland and their indoctrination into Hitler’s Greater Germany. I appreciate the guidance.
Silvia Lass-Adelmann was my translator for research at the Political Archives of the German Foreign Office in Berlin concerning the Long Trek. I was also helped by archivists at the Romanian National Archives in Bucharest, at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, and at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem.
I am blessed to have gone to O&O Academy in India to learn the principles of the spiritual philosophy of “Oneness” from my incredible teachers Krishnaji, Preethaji, and Kumarji. All three sages ended up influencing my depiction of the character Private Kumar. My experience at O&O also informed many other parts of this book and ultimately changed my life for the better. Bless you all.
Thank you to my early readers: Damian Slattery, Connor Sullivan, and Betsy Sullivan.
I am grateful for Danielle Marshall, my editor at Lake Union Publishing, who has had unshakable belief in this project since the beginning, and to Mikyla Bruder, publisher of Amazon Publishing, who has also been a big supporter of the Martels’ story. Thanks go as well to developmental editor David Downing, copyeditor Jane Steele, and production editor Nicole Burns-Ascue for making the story stronger and the prose tighter.
Blessings also to my incredible publicity team—Ashley Vanicek at Amazon Publishing and Dana Kaye, Julia Borcherts, and Hailey Dezort at Kaye Publicity. I appreciate your getting the word out!
And a big double curtain-call bow to my literary agents, Meg Ruley and Rebecca Scherer, for reading and rereading and rereading the various drafts of The Last Green Valley. Your eyes and sensibilities make me a better novelist. Thanks also to Jane Rotrosen, Sabrina Prestia, and everyone else at the Jane Rotrosen Literary Agency who keep my writing dream alive.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2020 Elizabeth Sullivan
Mark Sullivan is the acclaimed author of more than twenty novels, including
