Before the Iron Curtain: My WWII Childhood (Book 1) At the time Anne Frank lived in Holland, Irene Kucholick grew up in eastern Germany, 75 kilometers southwest of Dresden. Banned from her father's study, because it was there he taught the fleeing Russian nobility German. Irene's first experience evading police came at age five. By eight she realized grownups frequently listened to Hitler's radio speeches. Soon her friend, Esther, wore a yellow star and Nazi youth marched in the streets while the half-Polish Irene was deemed unfit for membership in the Party. From Kristallnacht and hidden neighbors to whistling bombs, a prison cell and her father's draft to the Russian front, Irene takes us on a World War II journey through the eyes of a child who lived to tell the tale.