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The Last Escape
The last escape;: The launching of the largest secret rescue movement of all time,
First published September 1, 1975
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 12, 2017
When I first read “The Last Escape” some forty years ago, I had no idea that part of the story it tells is that of my own family.
Since then, I have learned that my maternal grandparents were part of a clandestine transport of more than a thousand Jewish refugees from the Nazis (which came to be known as the Kladovo-Sabac group) that became stranded in the former Yugoslavia while trying to reach Palestine. Ruth Aliav Kluger, an agent of the Mossad le Aliyah Bet (illegal immigration organization), worked desperately with her colleagues to find a ship that could take the refugees to Palestine via the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, with the goal of evading British patrols and landing in defiance of the draconian restrictions on Jewish immigration imposed by the U.K.’s 1939 “White Paper.”
Tragically, Ruth and her colleagues did not succeed in saving the Kladovo-Sabac group, and my grandparents and their fellow refugees were murdered after the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941. But with courage, daring and resourcefulness that almost surpass belief, Ruth overcame countless and seemingly insuperable obstacles to get thousands of other “illegals” into Palestine, who would have otherwise almost certainly shared my grandparents' fate.
Ruth’s story is a thrilling and inspiring one. And the writing (which merits a nod to Kluger’s collaborator, Peggy Mann) is beautiful and often very moving.
This is compulsive reading.
It is also horrifying and heartbreaking reading. It is horrifying when Kluger recounts the anti-Semitic massacres she witnessed as a small child, and the unspeakable sadism of the pogroms (which Kluger barely escaped) perpetrated by the Rumanian Iron Guard and their supporters after taking power.
It is also heartbreaking to be reminded once again of the bureaucratic heartlessness with which the Western democracies largely responded to the European Jews in their extremity. A little common humanity might have saved hundreds of thousands.
Since then, I have learned that my maternal grandparents were part of a clandestine transport of more than a thousand Jewish refugees from the Nazis (which came to be known as the Kladovo-Sabac group) that became stranded in the former Yugoslavia while trying to reach Palestine. Ruth Aliav Kluger, an agent of the Mossad le Aliyah Bet (illegal immigration organization), worked desperately with her colleagues to find a ship that could take the refugees to Palestine via the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, with the goal of evading British patrols and landing in defiance of the draconian restrictions on Jewish immigration imposed by the U.K.’s 1939 “White Paper.”
Tragically, Ruth and her colleagues did not succeed in saving the Kladovo-Sabac group, and my grandparents and their fellow refugees were murdered after the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941. But with courage, daring and resourcefulness that almost surpass belief, Ruth overcame countless and seemingly insuperable obstacles to get thousands of other “illegals” into Palestine, who would have otherwise almost certainly shared my grandparents' fate.
Ruth’s story is a thrilling and inspiring one. And the writing (which merits a nod to Kluger’s collaborator, Peggy Mann) is beautiful and often very moving.
This is compulsive reading.
It is also horrifying and heartbreaking reading. It is horrifying when Kluger recounts the anti-Semitic massacres she witnessed as a small child, and the unspeakable sadism of the pogroms (which Kluger barely escaped) perpetrated by the Rumanian Iron Guard and their supporters after taking power.
It is also heartbreaking to be reminded once again of the bureaucratic heartlessness with which the Western democracies largely responded to the European Jews in their extremity. A little common humanity might have saved hundreds of thousands.
March 13, 2017
Fantastic read.
Read
April 22, 2020It was a great book. It is about helping the last Jews they are able to get out of Europe, and how they managed to do it before the remainder of the Jews were trapped. True story. Well written.
November 9, 2022
I loved this book. I love WW2 genre, and this was a true story about Ruth, who helped Jewish people during that time escape. It was incredible!
May 23, 2012
Great non-fiction, set in Romania during the Holocaust.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews