The Radio Signal

Review of Radandt’s "The radio signal" by Paul F. Ross Friedhelm Radandt recalls the displacement in the Radandt family’s life, the tenth year of Friedhelm’s life, that began as the Russian army, advancing west against Germany in World War II, approached his hometown in Poland on 30 January 1945. He then steps back to the time of his birth to describe life as it was before the war. In parallel, he describes the life of the Job family, also of German ____________________________________________________________________________________Radandt, Friedhelm The radio signal 2016, Deep River Books, Sisters OR, 288 pages____________________________________________________________________________________ethnic background living in Poland. Step by step, first a chapter about the Radandts, then a chapter about the Jobs, he recounts the January 1945 – May 1945 migrations. The families in Poland were able to know of the advance of the Russian army because they owned radio receivers, not just ones that received only the German radio broadcasts, but radios that could be tuned to the broadcast stations in Poland and France and England where there was news of the Russian advances not reported on the German radio stations. The story closes as Friedhelm Radandt and Elizabeth Job meet in 1955 and are married in 1958 in the church where they met just outside Hamburg, Germany.Not recounted in these pages but available on the last page and retrievable after a bit of time with Google, the couple emigrated to the United States in 1960 and began a life in America which, among other things, included life as a university academic for Friedhelm at the University of Chicago and then as President of King’s College, a small Christian-based liberal arts college with its campus in Manhattan. One day (3 October 2016) an email arrived in this reader’s inbox from “Elizabeth Radandt,” the message signed Friedhelm, saying “I’ve published my story of our flight from the Russians.” My wife and I had met the Radandts over dinner at a neighbor’s house in the early 2000s, had been out of touch. I emailed Friedhelm immediately saying I had ordered a copy of his book. This reader, having his own personal reasons for wanting to understand the dislocation of many people by World War II, had read Judt’s history of Europe since 1945 (2005) and learned of many features of life in Germany as the war ended. He learned of the massive migrations of peoples out of Eastern Europe as the Russian armies advanced against Germany. His wife to be, a girl of eight, was a member of one of those families as they departed Liegnitz, Germany (now Poland) in early January, 1945, and fled over 500 airline kilometers to Rendsburg, Germany, her mother’s hometown, leaving their home in Liegnitz, their possessions, their clothing factory, their friends – everything – never to be seen again. This husband, this reader, wanted to understand what they had experienced. Throughout the (until then) two decades of their marriage, she and her family had been unwilling to discuss those experiences, the memories very worth remaining buried. Having read Judt’s history, he then persuaded his wife to read it. It was not a reasonable account of the living-life experiences of those years immediately after the war, she said. With The radio signal in hand, this reader has Radandt’s stories of the parallel Radandt and Job family escapes. It is beautifully written, is very readable, thanks to Friedhelm’s and Elizabeth’s gathering of their family stories as well as Bree Barton’s writing help according to Friedhelm. It is a page-turner, the author fully aware of the many moments of suspense, describing them beautifully. A core part of the experience was each family’s participation in the Baptist protestant Christian communities in Poland and their continued participation in those communities as they fled west. As they entered each new community in that turbulent half year, January – May 1945, the Baptist communities provided these migrant families “home” and “friends” and the welcome needed to keep life moving forward. Gregory Thornbury, writing a sentence supporting the purchase of this book, says “The radio signal is a true story of conviction and faith among religious dissenters and exiles at the height of Nazi aggression.” As a Methodist preacher’s son living in tiny towns in Ohio during his eighteen years at home, and now a behavioral and management scientist, I think Radandt’s story reflects accurately the community strength that gatherings of faith can produce. When people gather because they share values, and they communicate enough to know they share values, it is the social linkage that builds community and is effective. There is less evidence, in this reader’s mind, that it is the link to God that is the active agent in the good fortune experienced in life, the good fortune clearly experienced in the lives of the Radandt and Job families. God has several billion people to attend to. I suspect She is pretty busy and may miss a few details about each of our needs. It is the community of shared-values that the German Baptist protestants formed that provided home to the Radandts and Jobs as they experienced their flight from the Russians. Each family, the Radandts and the Jobs, were scattered during the five or six month migration, not knowing where other family members were. They reunited, the means worth story-telling moments. In 1936, the year this reader’s now-wife was born, his Methodist-pastor father spoke from a pulpit in a tiny village in Ohio, that village site now underwater in a Muskingum River flood control lake, citing German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s courage in condemning the Nazi brutalities. Occasionally our family radio brought to our ears the hysteric sounds of Hitler’s voice speaking to the German people, brief parts of a speach being rebroadcast to the local American audience by an Ohio radio station as a part of the day’s news. My school classmates chased this ten-year-old boy around the school yard because my father spoke English from the pulpit each Sunday morning with a German accent, an accent I could not hear. That boy went on delivering the Zanesville "Signal" to his newspaper customers each day after school.Radandt, reaching early maturity in 1955 as a university student in Hamburg, began to understand and explore the Nazi inhumanities and wonder why the German people had not risen in opposition to that behavior. His peers understood. German citizens in 1939 - 1945 did not talk against the Nazis since doing so might lead to one’s disappearance. As the Job family caught the last train out of Barwalde in February, 1945, they left behind relatives who were going to catch the next train. There was no next train. Barwalde was entered by the Russian army and, in the few months that followed, became a part of East Germany. The train and the Job family moved on to Hamburg, perhaps safe from the Russians for the moment but still being bombed daily by the Allies. The family learned how to use an air raid shelter, walking there from their one-room family quarters in a barracks when the sirens sounded. Radandt indeed recounts in very readable fashion the day to day, family meaning of those 1945 migrations of German families from eastern Europe to escape the advancing Russians. His and Elizabeth Radandt’s accounts are sensitive, eye witness stories about the experience. The Radandt stories convert Judt’s recounting of numbers and national policies and occupation zones into something very human and very understandable. Thank you, Friedhelm.Bellevue, Washington7 November 2016Copyright © 2016 by Paul F. Ross All rights reserved.ReferencesJudt, Tony "Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945" 2005, The Penguin Press, New York NYRadandt, Friedhelm "The radio signal" 2016, Deep River Books, Sisters OR

Great book. Dr. Radandt was the President of Northwestern College in Orange City, IA when I attended there in 1980's. I don't think any of us knew what he and his wife had experienced as children in Germany during World War II. It is a great true story of the Grace and hand of God directing their lives in what had to be one of the most horrible times in our World's history. Seeing how God brought their families back together after the war and how He brought Friedhelm and Elizabeth together is a great testament to God's love for us even some of the most difficult times in our lives. Great book that puts a face on the horrible things experienced during war and the grace of God in history.

Excellent. I have not finished the book, but I highly recommend it. Written well. Interesting. I am learning things that I did not know about WWII from someone who lived it. Excellent example of courage within Christian families as they had to make choices to do the right thing. Thank you, Dr. Radandt, for leading TKC through some turbulent years. I can see, now, how your life prepared you for such a time. I am so glad to read your biography.

I liked that it had a Christian message. A history of Europe in WWII of two families and God's unseen hand in their survival. A true story .

The Radandt family's escape from a war-torn area of Europe during the Hitler era kept me turning the pages. Weaving the harrowing experiences of both families was cleverly and clearly written. I also became aware of aspects of that terrible time that I had never known. I especially developed a new understanding of the need for forgiveness.

What a different way to write a story! I loved how the lives were interwoven. Also, it was interesting to see how two families survived without really trying to take sides.

For me the best line, " The humanity in people could and would flourish, even under the direst of circumstances ."How appropriate for this time in history. One can only hope...,

Fascinating first-hand account of one of the darkest times in our history. The personal perspective provided insight into the impact of these events on the people caught in the middle of them.

Fascinating true story- could not put this book down.I learnt so much of the history of the war years and the impact of the war on refugees fleeing for their lives.The best though was the testimony of God's plan, provision and protection of the praying,faithful families.Thank you for this enlightening and edifying book