I was born in 1942 so I was 3 years old when the war ended. I have no recollections of any events which took place during the war, yet its effects were very evident in the life of my family and in the world I was growing up in. For the more than 60 years of my life it has seemed as if the war was a highwater mark, a hiatus. The events which took place during those 6 years have dominated and marked the pattern of our lives and still do.