Overview

Salomea Genin was born in Berlin in 1932 to Polish-Russian Jewish parents. In 1939, the family fled and settled in Melbourne, Australia. As a teenager, Salomea found a home in Australia's Communist Youth League and, in 1951, attended the Third World Festival of Youth and Students in East Berlin as a member of the Australian delegation. She was so enthusiastic about the visit that from then on she wanted to live in the GDR. So Salomea returned to Berlin in 1954 to help build a better, anti-fascist Germany, but the GDR did not want her. The path to living and working in the workers' and farmers' state only became possible in 1963 and remained rocky...