Renate Hong

In 1952, while the Korean War was still raging, the rulers of North Korea sent hand-picked students to other socialist countries to be trained there and later use their newly acquired knowledge to rebuild their destroyed homeland on their return. The majority of them ended up in the GDR, where they soon found their way around the German language and culture. During their stay, many of the North Korean students also met young women with whom they fell in love and with whom they eventually had children. But when the young men were ordered back to their homeland in the early 1960s, some of the newly formed families were left behind. The story of those left behind is told in "In love, engaged, lost".