Paternoster

Berlin 1935. In the paternoster of the Shell-building George Geysel, hardly a year employed, bumped into his highest boss, Mr Deterding. It is one of the first countless hilarious, moving and exciting events that altogether shapes the story of Paternoster. The high-spirited and ambitious Geysel managed to get transferred from gloomy nazi-Berlin to The Hague where later he met his future wife, Cay, and thereafter to London. Some times things go well, other times it is going against him, just like a paternoster keeps continously going up and down, but the whole story has been described with color and humor. And then follows the Dutch East Indies, posted at Sibolga (Sumatra). In the meantime Geysel has moved up the ladder from having been an attendant at a service station to an oil-marketing manager of an area larger than the Netherlands. Together with his wife and -already soon- a child they lived through a short and happy period. But then the Japanese came. What now folllows in 'Paternoster' is not such-and-such depressing story of misery in war time. George Geysel succeeded superbly well in throwing light under the most unlikely situations on the 'ups and downs' of life. His vitality and optimistic view on events kept him upright, even under the most distressful circumstances he remained confident in a positive outcome of the war, above all in a reunion with his beloved Cay and little son. Ten years in a 'nut-shell': „Paternoster“ presents a sharp and detailed character of an area at widely different locations. But in the first place it is an ego-document written by a vigorous 80-years old - and translated by him at 90 - who casts a a short look back on his stirring young years.