Life and Loss in the Shadow of the Holocaust
A Jewish Family's Untold Story

A uniquely fascinating and moving account of a German-Jewish family under the Third Reich and Holocaust.

Rebecca Boehling (Author), Uta Larkey (Author)

9780521899918, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 June 2011

350 pages, 42 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.69 kg

'The authors have eloquently evoked the pain of a family scattered over three continents by Nazi persecution. Using gender and intergenerational analyses of a recently discovered cache of 600 letters, they have shown how increasing persecution forced German Jews to address the heart-wrenching question of whether to 'go or to stay'. This unique correspondence between siblings and their elders as well as among siblings also documents the ultimate terror of trying to escape Germany as the noose tightened, first around the younger ones, who managed to flee, and then around the older ones. This collective family biography will be hard to forget: it reveals the sheer agony of family decisions, the maddening frustration of emigration and immigration red tape, and the deafening silence of the people left behind.' Marion Kaplan, author of Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany

A family's recently discovered correspondence provides the inspiration for this fascinating and deeply moving account of Jewish family life before, during and after the Holocaust. Rebecca Boehling and Uta Larkey reveal how the Kaufmann-Steinberg family was pulled apart under the Nazi regime and dispersed over three continents. The family's unique eight-way correspondence across two generations brings into sharp focus the dilemma of Jews in Nazi Germany facing the painful decisions of when, if and to where they should emigrate. The authors capture the family members' fluctuating emotions of hope, optimism, resignation and despair as well as the day-to-day concerns, experiences and dynamics of family life despite increasing persecution and impending deportation. Headed by two sisters who were among the first female business owners in Essen, the family was far from conventional and their story contributes new dimensions to our understanding of Jewish life in Germany and in exile during these dark years.

1. Introduction
2. German-Jewish lives from Emancipation through the Weimar Republic
3. Losing one's business and citizenship: the Geschwister Kaufmann, 1933–1938
4. Professional roadblocks and personal detours: Lotti and Marianne, 1933–1938
5. The November Pogrom (1938) and its consequences for Kurt and his family
6. New beginnings in Palestine, 1935–1939: Lotti and Kurt
7. Rescuing loved ones trapped in Nazi Germany, 1939–1942
8. Wartime rumors and postwar revelations
9. Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Jewish studies [JFSR1], The Holocaust [HBTZ1], Social & cultural history [HBTB], European history [HBJD]