Lost in a Labyrinth of Red Tape is the story of one family's desperate attempts to emigrate from Nazi Germany. The Frühaufs faced enormous obstacles with the German and foreign authorities when they attempted to take advantage of matriarch Hilde Frühauf's U.S. citizenship. At the mercy of various agencies and shippers, they became more and more entangled in the red tape of the title. The daughter went into hiding and fled to Belgium, where she was hidden by the Resistance and survived the war. Tragically, the remaining members of her family failed to emigrate, and were killed by the Nazis.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
The Schmids, who are German journalists living in Munich, have put together a harrowing story of one German Jewish family's desperate attempts to emigrate from Nazi Germany after 1938. The Fruhaufs unfortunately waited too long to begin emigration proceedings, and this work, based on certificates, letters, and emigration papers found in a suitcase in postwar Berlin, chronicles their tribulations fighting corrupt officials, greed, and a "labyrinth of red tape." In the end, only one family member, aided by the Resistance, escaped; the rest of the Fruhaufs were murdered by the Nazis. This unusual book is a companion piece to John Dippel's Bound Upon a Wheel of Fire (LJ 5/1/96). Highly recommended for all Holocaust collections.?Robert A. Silver, formerly with Shaker Heights P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
From Kirkus Reviews
A unique Holocaust biography focused on the bureaucratic nightmares of a family fighting to leave Nazi Germany. Armin and Renate Schmid are German journalists who pieced together the Frhauf family's wartime ordeal, based largely on a paper trail of tears. While most of this Jewish family perishes in the death camps, the villains here are not infamous camp commandants but the bureaucrats who consigned them to Hitler's killing field. These faceless and merciless pencil pushers include American immigration officials, Belgian relief workers, Spanish shipping clerks, Swiss consuls, and a dozen German bureaucrats of organizations ranging from Lufthansa to the Gestapo. Because Hilde Frhauf was born in the US, the best way out of post-Kristallnacht Germany seemed to be through the family's American ties. Reams of desperate red tape, all documented here, do not help the doomed family get past the evil of bureaucratic banality that conspires to destroy them. After exploring expensive and complicated escape options involving China, Cuba, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, and various South and Central American states, the family's matriarch hangs herself in exasperation as German legislation chokes off the Frhaufs' ability to survive. Over time, all but one family member are shipped off to labor or death camps. The lucky one, Helga, is young and pretty enough to slip into Belgium with the help of various men--but we never learn what she has to compromise to survive. Where emotion or drama is called for, all the authors can provide us with are flat lines like: ``Felix had to turn to the Swiss legation and beg `most humbly' for an extension of the Cuban visa. Once again it had all been in vain.'' Because we don't get to know the principal subjects well enough, the appeal of this book, though not its historical significance, gets lost in the labyrinth of red tape. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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ship tickets, blocked account Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Felix Frühauf, United States, Hilde Frühauf, Meyer Vomberg, Helga Frühauf, Regular Quota, American Export Lines, State Department, Getting Out of Germany, Monroe Schwerin, American Consulate, Miss Fröhlich, Jewish Community, Fleeing the Bloodhounds, Storm Clouds, All Hope Is Lost, Herrn Felix Israel Frühauf, Verbandssparkasse Meiningen, Hermann Schwerin, American Express, Arrival of the Allies, Unterschrift Notar, Hiding Place, Lina Schwerin Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
ship tickets, blocked account Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Felix Frühauf, United States, Hilde Frühauf, Meyer Vomberg, Helga Frühauf, Regular Quota, American Export Lines, State Department, Getting Out of Germany, Monroe Schwerin, American Consulate, Miss Fröhlich, Jewish Community, Fleeing the Bloodhounds, Storm Clouds, All Hope Is Lost, Herrn Felix Israel Frühauf, Verbandssparkasse Meiningen, Hermann Schwerin, American Express, Arrival of the Allies, Unterschrift Notar, Hiding Place, Lina Schwerin Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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