A portrait of the harrowing effect of war told through the individual stories of the author's familyThe immense dislocations of World War II have no precedent in human history: 28 million Russians died, 10 million Germans, 6 million Jews, and several hundred thousand French, English, Americans and Canadians. The Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, briefly independent between the wars were virtually devastated and many of their inhabitants scattered to the ends of the earth. Walking Since Daybreak tells of the impact of war on these republics. Personal stories of the survival or destruction of Modris Eksteins's family members lend an intimate dimension to this narrative of those millions who have surged back and forth across the lowlands bordering the Baltic Sea during the middle of this century. 'The book evolves organically into a beautiful meditation, written with both intellectual and moral urgency, on the nature of guilt, collaboration and European consciousness in the middle of the 20th century.' Publishers Weekly