Swiss Aristocrats & the Second World War Paperback - 2004

From the publisher

Swiss Aristocrats and the Second World War My Personal Voyage through History and the War in Italy This fast-paced voyage through history is a biography of an aristocratic family whose roots start at the end of the fourteenth century and terminate two years after the Second World War. This story starts in Sumatra, Indonesia, where my grandfather, Dr. Othmar Imhof, and his family lived for several years at the beginning of the twentieth century. He was the physician for the Dutch colony. Life was good, at least for the family. They had a beautiful home, fifteen servants (coolies), and a Chinese chef. Dr. Imhof worked close to eighteen hours every day. He was the head physician, chief of staff, and chief surgeon. He was overloaded with responsibilities. Their two children, Marguerite Luise and Othmar, were born in Sumatra. Toward the end of the First World War, the Imhofs had to return to Switzerland. My grandmother and the two children went first because Dr. Imhof had to satisfy his contractual duties with the Dutch. From this point this biography picks up the von Wyttenbach side of the family. It starts with Bertschi Wyttenbach in the thirteenth century and goes directly to Thomas Wyttenbach, the reformer (sixteenth century), and the massacre of the Huguenots in Paris, France, in 1572. You will also read how New Berne in North Carolina was founded in 1710. Back in Berne, the Imhof family settled in nicely. Maiti (Marguerite Luise) met Baron von Wyttenbach in the early nineteen twenties. They married in 1925 in the cathedral in Berne (the M]nster). Maiti did not like to live in Switzerland. The cold winters and all the mountains seemed to suffocate her. I think that after having lived inIndonesia, this is quite understandable. After their honeymoon, the young couple decided to move to Italy. Tomi was offered a good position as director of a large property in the