Annita Rodgers, BCAC’s October Artist of the Month, never planned to become a published author. But at age 83, with encouragement from her husband and daughter, she found the strength to share her family’s extraordinary story. Her book, Shadows of the Past, begins with the shocking WWII memoirs of her German SS officer father, Hans Bosse, and continues with Annita’s own painful—but ultimately hopeful—journey.
Born in 1941 in German-occupied northeastern France, Annita’s early years were filled with the sounds of air raid sirens, bombs, and fighter planes. She endured poverty, neglect, and abuse at the hands of an unloving mother. As the French daughter of an absent German father she barely knew, she was often bullied by classmates who taunted her for being the child of a Nazi. Later, alongside her brother and stepsister, she survived unimaginable cruelty, at times barely surviving.
We sat down with Annita to discuss her remarkable journey. Please watch the brief interview here:
At 22, Annita married an American soldier and left France for the United States in 1963. Four years later, she became a U.S. citizen. In 1972, her father visited her in America and handed her his wartime memoirs. “I am saving these writings of my life for my eldest daughter Annita,” he wrote, “in the hope she will someday understand, not judge me too harshly, and forgive where I went wrong.”
For decades, those pages remained tucked away—unread. Forty-four years later, long after her father’s passing, Annita rediscovered the manuscript. As she read, she began to see him in a new light—not as the monstrous figure her mother’s family had despised, but as a flawed man burdened by remorse, who loved his children and had tried to protect them.
Determined to translate the memoirs from German into English so her second husband, Robert, could read them, Annita began to write her own story as well—a personal record to pass down through the generations.
“It was never meant to be published,” she insists. “I always thought, when I’m gone, the kids will find it, read it…and there was never an idea of any publishing.”
But fate had other plans. An acquaintance connected her with local publishers Michael Jenet and Dafna Michaelson Jenet of Journey Institute Press, who immediately recognized the power of her story and urged her to share it with the world. Though hesitant, Annita was persuaded by her husband Robert, her daughter Nathalie, and other loved ones—and Shadows of the Past was published in July of this year.
Annita hopes readers will find inspiration in her resilience. “I feel stronger for all the misery I went through,” she says.Shadows of the Past is available directly through Annita or online here: IngramSpark Bookshop link.