Four Girls From Berlin

Four Girls From Berlin
Author: Marianne Meyerhoff
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2007-08-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 0471224057

A pair of silver Regency candlesticks. Pieces of well-worn family jewelry. More than a thousand documents, letters, and photographs Lotte Meyerhoff's best friends risked their lives in Nazi Germany to safeguard these and other treasured heirlooms and mementos from her family and return them to her after the war. The Holocaust had left Lotte the lone survivor of her family, and these precious objects gave her back a crucial piece of her past. Four Girls from Berlin vividly recreates that past and tells the story of Lotte and her courageous non-Jewish friends Ilonka, Erica, and Ursula as they lived under the shadow of Hitler in Berlin. Written by Lotte's daughter, Marianne, this powerful memoir celebrates the unseverable bonds of friendship and a rich family legacy the Holocaust could not destroy. "What a delightful book, and important, too. It gives us the courage and inspiration to utterly reject the fatalistic idea that fratricide, polemic, and enmity between Christians and Jews is inevitable and unchangeable. Finally, it reminds us never to forget or fail to appreciate those forces of light that bear witness to, and instill hope for, mankind and our world." —Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, President, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews "Four Girls From Berlin is an evocative story of friendship, challenged in the most sinister environment. For Christians, it echoes the words of Jesus, 'greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for his friends.' The friendship of these four women, three Christians and a Jew, speaks of a greater humanity that in the face of the Nazi horror could not be broken. I strongly recommend men and women of all faiths to learn from it." —The Venerable Lyle Dennen, Archdeacon, London, England

A Woman in Berlin

A Woman in Berlin
Author:
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2005-08-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780805075403

With shocking and vivid detail, the journal of a woman living through the Russian occupation of Berlin in 1945 tells of the shameful indignities to which women in a conquered city are always subject and describes the common experience of millions.

Four Girls in Europe

Four Girls in Europe
Author: Clarissa Sands Arnold
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2009-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1440186588

"To think we are really across the Atlantic and have but to look around to find ourselves hurrying to be off the Steamer onto the tug to be brought into Liverpool!" Clarissa Sands Arnold, October 27, 1900. So begins the Diary of a year in the life of one American young woman. The beginning of a journey of wonder as Four Girls and their two female chaperones tour England and the Continent, following the well traveled path of The European Grand Tour. They become part of the throngs of middle class and wealthy Americans trying to acquire some Old World polish while experiencing the ancient history and varied cultures not available back home. Clarissa's account chronicles the experiences and logistics of such a prolonged trip by six women traveling alone, without any male protection. It also serves as a fascinating glimpse into the political and social world of Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The Forger

The Forger
Author: Cioma Schönhaus
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2008-01-25
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0306817659

In Nazi Germany, 20-year-old graphic artist Cioma Schöus found a unique outlet for his talent: he forged documents for people fleeing the Reich, ultimately helping to save hundreds of lives. Yet, even as the Gestapo posted his photo in public, he lived a daringly adventurous life, replete with fine restaurants and beautiful women, all the while managing to elude the Nazis. Breathtakingly bold, Schöus talked his way out of an arrest, defended Jewish diners being harassed by the police, and ultimately fled Germany by bicycling to Switzerland. Schöus's story-his courageous exploits that saved so many, as many others around him were deported, one by one, to the concentration camps-is an astonishing tale of wartime heroism and survival.

Four Girls From Berlin

Four Girls From Berlin
Author: Marianne Meyerhoff
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2007-08-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1620459132

A pair of silver Regency candlesticks. Pieces of well-worn family jewelry. More than a thousand documents, letters, and photographs Lotte Meyerhoff's best friends risked their lives in Nazi Germany to safeguard these and other treasured heirlooms and mementos from her family and return them to her after the war. The Holocaust had left Lotte the lone survivor of her family, and these precious objects gave her back a crucial piece of her past. Four Girls from Berlin vividly recreates that past and tells the story of Lotte and her courageous non-Jewish friends Ilonka, Erica, and Ursula as they lived under the shadow of Hitler in Berlin. Written by Lotte's daughter, Marianne, this powerful memoir celebrates the unseverable bonds of friendship and a rich family legacy the Holocaust could not destroy. "What a delightful book, and important, too. It gives us the courage and inspiration to utterly reject the fatalistic idea that fratricide, polemic, and enmity between Christians and Jews is inevitable and unchangeable. Finally, it reminds us never to forget or fail to appreciate those forces of light that bear witness to, and instill hope for, mankind and our world."--Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, President, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews "Four Girls From Berlin is an evocative story of friendship, challenged in the most sinister environment. For Christians, it echoes the words of Jesus, 'greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for his friends.' The friendship of these four women, three Christians and a Jew, speaks of a greater humanity that in the face of the Nazi horror could not be broken. I strongly recommend men and women of all faiths to learn from it."--The Venerable Lyle Dennen, Archdeacon, London, England

The Girl from Berlin: An Utterly Heart-wrenching and Gripping World War Two Historical Novel

The Girl from Berlin: An Utterly Heart-wrenching and Gripping World War Two Historical Novel
Author: Kate Hewitt
Publisher: Bookouture
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2021-02-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781838888008

They sat together on the roof, watching Berlin burn, as traces of smoke and cloud floated through the air. "I just want to be free," Rosa said quietly, "Even if only for a few minutes. It might be the last chance I have." Berlin, 1936 From her beautiful new home a young woman named Liesel Scholz barely notices the changes to the city around her. Her life is one of privilege and safety thanks to her father's job working for the new government. But soon a chance encounter with Rosa, the daughter of their Jewish housekeeper, leaves Liesel in no doubt that something isn't right. That this government's rules are not fair and that others aren't as safe as she is. When Rosa begs Liesel to help-pressing her grandfather's gold pocket watch into Liesel's hand-Liesel recklessly agrees. She will help hide Rosa and her family-in the dusty, unused rooms at the top of their house-even if it means putting everyone she loves in danger. Even if it means risking her own life. Frankfurt, 1946 An idealistic American captain, Sam Houghton, arrives in Germany to interrogate prominent Nazis on trial and to help rebuild a battered country. He hires an enigmatic and damaged woman named Anna as his interpreter. But, as sparks fly between them, the question of what happened to Anna in the war raises its head. Because Anna has secrets-ones that link her to the Nazi party, the darkest days in Europe's history, and the story of one gold pocket watch and two young women who became friends even when they were told it was impossible... A compelling and haunting story about courage, love and betrayal set in war-torn Berlin. Fans of The Alice Network, All the Light We Cannot See and The Nightingale will be not be able to put this down. Praise for Kate Hewitt: "An emotionally charged story right from the first chapter... I knew once I started I would not be able to put this book down... I was up till 4AM reading fighting for my eyes to stay open... Gripping and captivating!" Sinfully Wicked Book Reviews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Never to Be Forgotten

Never to Be Forgotten
Author: Beatrice Muchman
Publisher: eBookIt.com
Total Pages: 80
Release: 2012-03
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1602802009

From Booklist Muchman was born in Berlin in 1933. In March 1939, she, her parents, and four relatives fled to Brussels to escape the Nazi regime. In 1942, Germany occupied Belgium, and Muchman's parents brought her and her cousin to the home of two Catholic women for safekeeping. Her parents were killed; she survived and was ultimately brought to the U.S., where she was adopted by an aunt and uncle in Chicago. Muchman grew up believing that her Jewish parents had abandoned her. In 1990, a box was discovered in her uncle's home that contained faded letters, documents, and old photographs; the letters had been written by her parents in the 1940s. "I finally was able to discover, in a deep, fundamental way, that my parents had loved me more than life itself," the author relates. This important book brings the enormous magnitude of the Holocaust down to a very personal level. It contains poignant black-and-white family photographs and reproductions of passports and other documents.

The German Girl

The German Girl
Author: Armando Lucas Correa
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2016-10-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1501121243

AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER Featured in Entertainment Weekly, People, The Millions, and USA TODAY “An unforgettable and resplendent novel which will take its place among the great historical fiction written about World War II.” —Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of The Shoemaker's Wife A young girl flees Nazi-occupied Germany with her family and best friend, only to discover that the overseas refuge they had been promised is an illusion in this “engrossing and heartbreaking” (Library Journal, starred review) debut novel, perfect for fans of The Nightingale, Lilac Girls, and The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Berlin, 1939. Before everything changed, Hannah Rosenthal lived a charmed life. But now the streets of Berlin are draped in ominous flags; her family’s fine possessions are hauled away; and they are no longer welcome in the places they once considered home. A glimmer of hope appears in the shape of the St. Louis, a transatlantic ocean liner promising Jews safe passage to Cuba. At first, the liner feels like a luxury, but as they travel, the circumstances of war change, and the ship that was to be their salvation seems likely to become their doom. New York, 2014. On her twelfth birthday, Anna Rosen receives a mysterious package from an unknown relative in Cuba, her great-aunt Hannah. Its contents inspire Anna and her mother to travel to Havana to learn the truth about their family’s mysterious and tragic past. Weaving dual time frames, and based on a true story, The German Girl is a beautifully written and deeply poignant story about generations of exiles seeking a place to call home.

Stranger in My Own Country

Stranger in My Own Country
Author: Yascha Mounk
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2014-01-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1429953780

A moving and unsettling exploration of a young man's formative years in a country still struggling with its past As a Jew in postwar Germany, Yascha Mounk felt like a foreigner in his own country. When he mentioned that he is Jewish, some made anti-Semitic jokes or talked about the superiority of the Aryan race. Others, sincerely hoping to atone for the country's past, fawned over him with a forced friendliness he found just as alienating. Vivid and fascinating, Stranger in My Own Country traces the contours of Jewish life in a country still struggling with the legacy of the Third Reich and portrays those who, inevitably, continue to live in its shadow. Marshaling an extraordinary range of material into a lively narrative, Mounk surveys his countrymen's responses to "the Jewish question." Examining history, the story of his family, and his own childhood, he shows that anti-Semitism and far-right extremism have long coexisted with self-conscious philo-Semitism in postwar Germany. But of late a new kind of resentment against Jews has come out in the open. Unnoticed by much of the outside world, the desire for a "finish line" that would spell a definitive end to the country's obsession with the past is feeding an emphasis on German victimhood. Mounk shows how, from the government's pursuit of a less "apologetic" foreign policy to the way the country's idea of the Volk makes life difficult for its immigrant communities, a troubled nationalism is shaping Germany's future.

In the Garden of Beasts

In the Garden of Beasts
Author: Erik Larson
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 481
Release: 2012-05-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 030740885X

Erik Larson, New York Times bestselling author of Devil in the White City, delivers a remarkable story set during Hitler’s rise to power. The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Nazi Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history. A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance—and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition. Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Göring and the expectedly charming--yet wholly sinister--Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.