Description

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Fire Burn is based on diaries kept during World War II by a single, young professional woman, Irene Zarina White. From September 1939 through May 1946 Irene lived under four different governments: the Republic of Latvia, the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and the United States Occupation. She carefully recorded the details of each government's regime, World War II in full swing, and her everyday challenges. She met a remarkable variety of people who became astonishingly candid in her presence. And she documented it all. For a sample click below to read about her encounter on a crowded train with an undercover Gestapo officer.]

Irene survived the Soviet occupation of her home country, Latvia, an ancient multicultural crossroads of East and West at the Baltic Sea. In Fire Burn, she describes that last year of peace while she studied chemical engineering at the University of Latvia. Then in 1940 two days after graduating (the only female among 150 students) the Soviets invaded. Terrible months of terror, torture, arrests, and deprivation followed for the citizens of Latvia.