Customer Reviews

Oral History Series: Crossing Over: An Oral History of Refugees from Hitler's Reich (Twayne's Oral History Series)

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These stories give a glimpse of Jewish Holocaust victims who were fortunate enough to escape and what became of them. The oral histories in this book are not at all dull, but almost like watching a short movie for each one because there is so much drama in what they went through. All eventually came to Los Angeles which gives the reader a glimpse of what it was like to be an immigrant in L.A. during World War II.

This is a very well-written and gripping story about several families of Jewish Professionals who providently made it to the United States during Hitler's Pogrom(Kristallnacht)in Vienna, and what happened to them in the U.S. The author's parents are one of the couples featured in the book, and the author relates struggles beyond what her parents have articulated. She also conducted extensive interviews with her parents' friends, and their children. It was fascinating to read how refugees cope...and don't cope. Some were able to build a modicum of success, and others were unable to break through their emotional trauma.

I saw the author on her book tour, and she has great presence and intellect.