Ruth Galinski was forced to leave Germany for Poland in 1938. She learned the language, got married and ended up in the Warsaw Ghetto. When her husband didn't return home one day, she feared the worst and fled to the Tatras with a small resistance group. After the war, she ended up back in Germany for what she thought would be a short time. Then, she met her second husband, a man famous for rebuilding the Jewish community in Berlin.
Steffi Wittenberg first fled to Uruguay with her family when she was 14. There she learned Spanish and English, along with office skills that earned her a living as a foreign language secretary. She married a German Jew, who had also fled to Uruguay, and had family in Houston, Texas. They went to Houston to work for his cousin but ended up fighting with union workers and against racism. They were harassed during the McCarthy Hearings and felt like there was nowhere else to go but to East Germany. They were rejected as potential American spies!
Eva Fröhlich had to leave everything behind. She went with her family to Uruguay, where she improved her Spanish skills while helping her mother earn money by making embroidered dresses. She met her future husband while visiting a cousin in Brazil. She spent decades there giving private English lessons while her husband sold this and that. After their retirement, he wanted to return to Germany, where many of his friends had gone, but she didn't want to.
Perhaps not surprising, family underscores the reason each went back. Many biographies about holocaust survivors are displays of bravery and triumph of the human spirit. Beneath the surface of these diary-like entries, we discover a compelling survival guide. And we find illuminating perspectives on Jewish history and Jewish identity.
