My Three Countries A Journey from Privilege to Slavery to Freedom

Born in Romania, Anna Untch grew up in a community that gave special privileges to Saxons. She spent her childhood working on the family farm and learned German in school. But after World War II, the reparations Germany owed the Soviets were paid in the form of hard labor. Anna, her sisters, and thousands of Germanic people were rounded up at gunpoint and marched to the nearest train station, where boxcars waited to take them to the Soviet bloc. What followed were years of slave labor, starvation, illness and little hope—until a daring escape changed everything.

Sick and emaciated, Anna was sent to East Germany to recuperate. There she found her sister, and together they escaped across the border into the American Zone in West Germany. Barred from returning to their home, they relied on an uncle in the United States to send for them—a bureaucratic process that took two years. But once in America, the young woman from Romania found her footing. All that remained was to tell her story: a story of privilege, slavery and freedom. A story of a woman who achieved the American Dream.

Amanda (Violette) Melgaard grew up on Air Force bases around the world. She graduated from the University of Montana in Missoula. She married Anna's youngest son John in 1993. They live in the Pacific Northwest.