Beate's Transcontinental Journey From Berlin To Brooklyn

Beate's Journey is an autobiographical story of a German Jewish family living in Berlin prior and during the Hitler era. It is important to recognize that the narrative is written in the third person because its author felt more comfortable with a detached view of her early lifetime. In the early l930s, Germany's new national leader, Adolf Hitler, became obsessed with the belief that the Jews and those who dissented from his national politics were in the way of putting the country on its feet again after the defeat in WWI. This story provides material for a dialogue with young as well as older readers, who might learn from and gain a better understanding of a period of history in the twentieth century, in which six million lives were destroyed due to religious differences. There is an interesting chain of events occurring through both good times as well as difficult ones. Leaving Berlin, Germany in the fall of l940 was a heart-breaking experience for a German-Jewish family. Beate, the youngestmember did not understand the urgency of the trip. The mother was yearning for the good old past, and frightened of the future. The brother was all ready for an adventure beyond his wildest dreams with his journal ready to take notes. The father, who had suffered several set-backs during a two-year long emigration process, but stayed the course, was now elated and anxiously looking forward to a safe and speedy journey to freedom. There are many unusual aspects concerning the journey. Just to mention a few, there is the incident early into the train ride when the young son mysteriously disappeared during a long station-stop. The parents were frantic when they couldn't find him as the train wasabout to depart. Luckily, the boy had only temporarily vanished. He had met an elderly refugee woman who was diabetic and needed an errand boy to fetch her cold beverages from the club car. At the end of this escapade, the family was extremely embarrassed for having held up tSoofer, Bea is the author of 'Beate's Transcontinental Journey From Berlin To Brooklyn' with ISBN 9781420807516 and ISBN 142080751X.