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Indezirabilii
Indezirabilii este relatarea intima a unui sat mic de la marginea Padurii Negre, ale carui familii evreiesti au urmarit cu disperare sa obtina vize americane pen- tru a fugi din fata nazistilor. Luptand impotriva unor obstacole birocratice formidabile, unii ajung in Statele Unite, in timp ce altii nu reusesc sa obtina documentele necesare.
Unii sunt omorati in lagarul de la Auschwitz, cererile lor pentru vizele americane fiind inca "in curs de rezolvare". Bazandu-se pe scrisori, jurnale, interviuri si cererile de viza anterior nepublicate, Michael Dobbs ofera un raport iluminant al raspunsului Americii la criza refugiatilor dintre anii 1930 si 1940.
MICHAEL DOBBS s-a nascut si a studiat in Marea Britanie, dar, in prezent, este cetatean american. In calitate de corespondent strain pentru The Washington Post, a realizat cronici despre prabusirea comunismului. A predat la universitati americane de varf, printre care Princeton, Universitatea Michigan si Georgetown. In prezent, face parte din conducerea Muzeului Memorial al Holocaustului din SUA. Locuieste la periferia Washingtonului.
Unii sunt omorati in lagarul de la Auschwitz, cererile lor pentru vizele americane fiind inca "in curs de rezolvare". Bazandu-se pe scrisori, jurnale, interviuri si cererile de viza anterior nepublicate, Michael Dobbs ofera un raport iluminant al raspunsului Americii la criza refugiatilor dintre anii 1930 si 1940.
MICHAEL DOBBS s-a nascut si a studiat in Marea Britanie, dar, in prezent, este cetatean american. In calitate de corespondent strain pentru The Washington Post, a realizat cronici despre prabusirea comunismului. A predat la universitati americane de varf, printre care Princeton, Universitatea Michigan si Georgetown. In prezent, face parte din conducerea Muzeului Memorial al Holocaustului din SUA. Locuieste la periferia Washingtonului.
424 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2019
129 people are currently reading
3368 people want to read
About the author
Michael Dobbs
7 books217 followersTo distinguish myself from all the "presidential historians" out there, I have invented a new area of expertise: "presidential crisis historian." How a president confronts the gravest challenges of modern times, and how his decisions affect the rest of us, has been a recurring theme of my seven books.
One Minute to Midnight focused on possibly the gravest crisis ever, in October 1962, when John F. Kennedy stepped back from the nuclear brink at the last possible moment. The Unwanted looked at Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the Jewish refugee crisis that preceded the Holocaust. Six Months in 1945 examined how FDR and Truman negotiated the perilous transition from World War to Cold War. My latest book, King Richard: An American Tragedy, relates the Shakespearean tale of the self-made man who scrambled his way to the top only to see his dreams turn to nightmares because of tragic character flaws.
Before becoming an author, I was a journalist and foreign correspondent. After a stint in Rome as a correspondent for Reuters, and a tour of Africa, I lived in Yugoslavia during the twilight years of Marshal Tito. I moved to Poland for The Washington Post just in time to witness the extraordinary spectacle of workers rebelling against the "workers' state." I was the first western reporter to visit the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk in August 1980. As The Post's bureau chief in Moscow, I was standing in front of Boris Yeltsin in August 1991 when he climbed on a tank to face down Communist hardliners. In between these two events, I covered the imposition of martial law in Poland, the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, Gorbachev-Reagan summits, the Tiananmen uprising in China, and the 1989 revolution in Romania.
In addition to my work as a journalist and a historian, I have taught courses at the universities of Princeton, Michigan, and Georgetown, as well as American University. I also spent seven years at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum where I organized conferences on the genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia, and researched and wrote The Unwanted. King Richard is my seventh book.
One Minute to Midnight focused on possibly the gravest crisis ever, in October 1962, when John F. Kennedy stepped back from the nuclear brink at the last possible moment. The Unwanted looked at Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the Jewish refugee crisis that preceded the Holocaust. Six Months in 1945 examined how FDR and Truman negotiated the perilous transition from World War to Cold War. My latest book, King Richard: An American Tragedy, relates the Shakespearean tale of the self-made man who scrambled his way to the top only to see his dreams turn to nightmares because of tragic character flaws.
Before becoming an author, I was a journalist and foreign correspondent. After a stint in Rome as a correspondent for Reuters, and a tour of Africa, I lived in Yugoslavia during the twilight years of Marshal Tito. I moved to Poland for The Washington Post just in time to witness the extraordinary spectacle of workers rebelling against the "workers' state." I was the first western reporter to visit the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk in August 1980. As The Post's bureau chief in Moscow, I was standing in front of Boris Yeltsin in August 1991 when he climbed on a tank to face down Communist hardliners. In between these two events, I covered the imposition of martial law in Poland, the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, Gorbachev-Reagan summits, the Tiananmen uprising in China, and the 1989 revolution in Romania.
In addition to my work as a journalist and a historian, I have taught courses at the universities of Princeton, Michigan, and Georgetown, as well as American University. I also spent seven years at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum where I organized conferences on the genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia, and researched and wrote The Unwanted. King Richard is my seventh book.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
December 17, 2018
If you are (as I am) a person of a certain age, with a certain family background, and a certain intellectual predisposition, you will doubtless have read numerous books about the Holocaust. I have, and each one... I don't want to say 'each one teaches me' because 'teach' is most certainly not the right word. I'm not sure the word even exists for an event of this magnitude and significance.
I've been avoiding Holocaust related books of late (the book I recently reviewed about Elie Wiesel notwithstanding). But this new book is by Michael Dobbs, whose work I've admired for many years, beginning when he worked for the Washington Post. I don't know that "The Unwanted" breaks new ground but it definitely brings a very powerful immediacy to its subject. The book alternates between the experiences of Jews living in the German village of Kippenheim and what was taking place on the global stage, in Washington and Berlin, Marseilles and Havana. Thus we read of the inexorable erosion of Jews' civil rights, Kristallnacht, the abortive journey of the St. Louis, the strangled immigration quotas set by the United States, international negotiations, etc., but we also watch as these things are being lived through by a group of ordinary people. We of course know the awful larger outcome of these events, but "The Unwanted" enables us to witness these things being played out on a small stage peopled by men, women, and children who now have names and faces: how they are forced to respond as all of their possessions are abruptly taken from them, as they desperately seek to get their children out of Germany, to leave Germany themselves, to survive in one camp or another. At this granular level, the challenges we watch them try to navigate are alternately harrowing, infuriating, and heartbreaking. And the suspense we feel as we read is real.
Dobbs is, as always, an exceptional -- and exceptionally gracious -- writer. At the end of "The Unwanted" he talks about what motivated him to write the book, but I can't help but feel that behind every word is a keen awareness to our current situation. He never brings any of today's events up, but he doesn't have to, does he? It's clear enough in passages like this: In a Senate speech, [North Carolina senator Robert] Reynolds claimed that "Nazi and Communist agents" had infiltrated "every boatload of refugees" arriving in American ports. The only way to stop America becoming "a cesspool of revolutionary activities" was to erect an impenetrable barrier. "If I had my way," the Senator thundered, I would today build a wall about the United States so high and so secure that not a single alien or foreign refugee from any country upon the face of the earth could possibly scale or ascend it."
Read it. You will see the events of then -- and now -- in a different way.
I've been avoiding Holocaust related books of late (the book I recently reviewed about Elie Wiesel notwithstanding). But this new book is by Michael Dobbs, whose work I've admired for many years, beginning when he worked for the Washington Post. I don't know that "The Unwanted" breaks new ground but it definitely brings a very powerful immediacy to its subject. The book alternates between the experiences of Jews living in the German village of Kippenheim and what was taking place on the global stage, in Washington and Berlin, Marseilles and Havana. Thus we read of the inexorable erosion of Jews' civil rights, Kristallnacht, the abortive journey of the St. Louis, the strangled immigration quotas set by the United States, international negotiations, etc., but we also watch as these things are being lived through by a group of ordinary people. We of course know the awful larger outcome of these events, but "The Unwanted" enables us to witness these things being played out on a small stage peopled by men, women, and children who now have names and faces: how they are forced to respond as all of their possessions are abruptly taken from them, as they desperately seek to get their children out of Germany, to leave Germany themselves, to survive in one camp or another. At this granular level, the challenges we watch them try to navigate are alternately harrowing, infuriating, and heartbreaking. And the suspense we feel as we read is real.
Dobbs is, as always, an exceptional -- and exceptionally gracious -- writer. At the end of "The Unwanted" he talks about what motivated him to write the book, but I can't help but feel that behind every word is a keen awareness to our current situation. He never brings any of today's events up, but he doesn't have to, does he? It's clear enough in passages like this: In a Senate speech, [North Carolina senator Robert] Reynolds claimed that "Nazi and Communist agents" had infiltrated "every boatload of refugees" arriving in American ports. The only way to stop America becoming "a cesspool of revolutionary activities" was to erect an impenetrable barrier. "If I had my way," the Senator thundered, I would today build a wall about the United States so high and so secure that not a single alien or foreign refugee from any country upon the face of the earth could possibly scale or ascend it."
Read it. You will see the events of then -- and now -- in a different way.
December 4, 2021
Dupa violentele ramase in istorie sub numele de "Noaptea de Cristal", cozile la ambasada si consulatele SUA din Germania au devenit interminabile. Sute de mii de evrei se bateau pe cele 27 370 de vize oferite anual tuturor cetatenilor Germaniei.
Doar 5% din americani sustineau cresterea cotei de emigrare, in timp ce 77% isi doreau REDUCEREA cotei de emigrare. Presedintele F.D Roosevelt a fost nevoit sa aiba mare grija unde isi investeste capitalul politic de teama de a nu-si submina baza de putere. Presedintele nu voia sa-si iroseasca autoritatea pe o cauza pierduta. In acel moment pregatirea tarii pentru razboi beneficia de prioritate. "Merg, aproape la propriu, pe coji de oua", i-a marturisit FDR unui oficial britanic.
Legea Wagner-Rogers a fost respinsa de Congres. 20 000 de copii evrei nu au mai fost primiti de teama ca "douazeci de mii
de copii fermecatori ar fi crescut, devenind in scurt timp doauzeci de mii de adulti urati." dupa cum remarca cinic o verisoara a presedintelui. Purtatorul de cuvant al fortelor antiemigrare , senatorul Robert Reynolds din Carolina de Nord, a denuntat initiativa privind copii refugiati intr-o transmisiune nationala. America lui Reynolds nu difera mult de America lui Trump, asa cum reiese din discursul acestuia:
"Sa pastram America pentru baietii si fetele noastre.
Sa dam slujbele americane cetatenilor americani.
Sa pastram America pentru americani."
"Daca ar fi dupa mine ", a strigat senatorul,"as construi chiar azi un zid in jurul Statelor Unite atat de inalt si de sigur incat niciun strain si niciun refugiat din nicio tara de pe fata pamantului nu ar putea sa-l intreaca sau sa-l urce."
Pe acest fundal politic s-au desfasurat dramele "strainilor indezirabili".
Doar 5% din americani sustineau cresterea cotei de emigrare, in timp ce 77% isi doreau REDUCEREA cotei de emigrare. Presedintele F.D Roosevelt a fost nevoit sa aiba mare grija unde isi investeste capitalul politic de teama de a nu-si submina baza de putere. Presedintele nu voia sa-si iroseasca autoritatea pe o cauza pierduta. In acel moment pregatirea tarii pentru razboi beneficia de prioritate. "Merg, aproape la propriu, pe coji de oua", i-a marturisit FDR unui oficial britanic.
Legea Wagner-Rogers a fost respinsa de Congres. 20 000 de copii evrei nu au mai fost primiti de teama ca "douazeci de mii
de copii fermecatori ar fi crescut, devenind in scurt timp doauzeci de mii de adulti urati." dupa cum remarca cinic o verisoara a presedintelui. Purtatorul de cuvant al fortelor antiemigrare , senatorul Robert Reynolds din Carolina de Nord, a denuntat initiativa privind copii refugiati intr-o transmisiune nationala. America lui Reynolds nu difera mult de America lui Trump, asa cum reiese din discursul acestuia:
"Sa pastram America pentru baietii si fetele noastre.
Sa dam slujbele americane cetatenilor americani.
Sa pastram America pentru americani."
"Daca ar fi dupa mine ", a strigat senatorul,"as construi chiar azi un zid in jurul Statelor Unite atat de inalt si de sigur incat niciun strain si niciun refugiat din nicio tara de pe fata pamantului nu ar putea sa-l intreaca sau sa-l urce."
Pe acest fundal politic s-au desfasurat dramele "strainilor indezirabili".
August 3, 2019
“A piece of paper with a stamp on it meant the difference between life and death for thousands and thousands of people,” wrote American journalist Dorothy Thompson after Kristallnacht in late 1938. Truer words were never written. For Jews trying to escape the Nazi terror as the Final Solution approached the only avenue of escape seemed to be emigration from Germany to the United States. But as Michael Dobbs describes in his remarkable new book, THE UNWANTED: AMERICA AUSCHWITZ, AND A VILLAGE CAUGHT IN BETWEEN victims of Nazi deportation policies ran into a stone wall in trying to gain entrance into the United States. Whether it was the stonewalling of the State Department, the leadership, or lack of thereof of Franklin Roosevelt, or plain apathy or anti-Semitism, Washington could have done a great deal more. As Dobbs points out, “the wheels of the U.S. bureaucracy continued to turn, disconnected from the tragic events that had set them in motion.” It seemed obstacle after obstacle was increasingly instituted to make it more and more difficult for Jewish refugees to gain entrance into America and avoid “transport to the east.”
Dobbs’ focus is on the small village of Kippenheim in Baden in western Germany with a population of 144 Jews out of a total population of 1800. The author follows the plight of a number of families who lived through the events of Kristallnacht in November of 1938 and realized that they must try and leave Germany. The families, the Valfers, Wertheimers, and Wachenheimers, among a number that Dobbs concentrates had varied experiences. All are subject to Nazi violence and torture in some measure. All are torn from their homes and deported to camps in France, all make valiant attempts to leave Germany by dealing with the US immigration system, first with the consulate in Stuttgart, and the result is many will escape through Marseilles or other avenues and cross the Atlantic, go to Palestine, while others will perish in Auschwitz. The book focuses on the period of late 1938 to the fall of 1942 when the Final Solution is in full motion. The narrative is poignant and elicits a great deal of anger on the part of this reader as the story of the US State Department’s immigration policy under the aegis of Breckenridge Long the Assistant Secretary of State for immigration becomes crystal clear, and the lack of action and empathy on the part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt whose excuses for not acting in any meaningful way is fully described.
One of the most important questions remaining pertaining to the Holocaust is whether the United States could have done more to save lives be it bombing Auschwitz or allowing increased immigration. In the recent past historian Richard Breitman focused on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s impact and David Wyman zeroed in on the US Department of State. In both instances the president and the bureaucracy were found wanting. In the case of Roosevelt political concerns about Neutrality legislation, fears of anti-Semitic backlash, enforcement of immigration law and isolationist elements in Congress along with his own inherent biases made it difficult for the President to come out in public and act. As far as the State Department is concerned, they would enforce the restrictionist 1924 Johnson Act quotas that legally called for 27,370 Germans to immigrate to the US each year. It is clear that in 1940-41 only 62.1% of the quota was filled, and the 1941-42 only 7.2% was filled – the period of greatest need for victims of the Baden deportations from 1938. According to the historical record, officials in the State Department purposely created roadblocks to deny Jewish refugees admission to the United States, even women and children.
Dobbs empathetically describes in detail the damage, arrests, and fear in Kippenheim during Kristallnacht and uses the residents of the village as a microcosm of the overall crisis that Jews faced as the true intention of the Nazi regime came to the fore. Dobbs explores the violence against the residents of Kippenheim and the attempts by families to try and emigrate to the US and the roadblocks they faced. He delves into the State Department bureaucracy and how certain people created roadblocks to entry into America. At times it seemed that some of these impediments could be overcome, but officials following orders from Washington created even more hoops to go through in order to obtain the necessary visas, or “more stamps” on further documentation which may not have been called for months before. The consulate interview begins the process, but so many Jews wanted to emigrate there was a three year wait to begin the process. The tragedy for many, like the Laflers is that when their numbers finally came up and the process for approval was gain, Freya and Hugo were already victims of the crematoria in Auschwitz.
Dobbs takes the reader through the transport of refugees from Baden to the internment camp of Gurs, through Marseilles and its poor living conditions, the bureaucratic run-a-around, and their final fate. Vichy governmental collaboration with the Nazis led by Prime Minister Pierre Laval and French police is ever present. The trauma of family members is plain as day as they deal with the daily attempts at survival and the highs and lows of believing they have the necessary paperwork to leave, and then have their hopes dashed by bureaucratic stalling, events like Pearl Harbor and the invasion of Russia. Dobbs follows the families in detail based on assiduous research and interviews with survivors like Hedy Wachenheimer who at the age of fourteen became part of the Kindertransport program and left her parents to live with families in London, while eventually her parents would perish.
Perhaps the most poignant narrative describes Hedy’s visit to Germany and Kippenheim in particular after the war working for the US military and wearing a uniform, she must face people who harassed and demeaned her as a child. Dobbs goes on to relate how people, both Jewish and non-Jewish worked to rebuild the synagogue in the village as a memorial to what occurred. The process was long and difficult, but because of survivors like Kurt Maier and Mayor Willi Mathis the building was restored to its role as a true house of worship in 2003.
Dodd is to be commended for his effort in bringing to life the fate of the Kippenheim Jews, but more so at a time when immigration is such a hot controversial issue, perhaps politicians should review US immigration policy during WWII and contemplate whether at times history should force us as a people to open up our hearts, and let political partisanship recede into the background, at least for a short time. At the outset of Dobbs ’narrative Hedy Wachenheimer rode from her home on her bicycle to school. Upon arrival and seated in class for her lessons the usually gentle principal pointed at her and yelled, “Get out, you dirty Jew.” This sounds like current political rallies and comments that tell “brown” people who are hear on legal visas and those legally seeking asylum to “get out and go home,” or ”send her home.” Is this who we are as a people?
Dobbs’ focus is on the small village of Kippenheim in Baden in western Germany with a population of 144 Jews out of a total population of 1800. The author follows the plight of a number of families who lived through the events of Kristallnacht in November of 1938 and realized that they must try and leave Germany. The families, the Valfers, Wertheimers, and Wachenheimers, among a number that Dobbs concentrates had varied experiences. All are subject to Nazi violence and torture in some measure. All are torn from their homes and deported to camps in France, all make valiant attempts to leave Germany by dealing with the US immigration system, first with the consulate in Stuttgart, and the result is many will escape through Marseilles or other avenues and cross the Atlantic, go to Palestine, while others will perish in Auschwitz. The book focuses on the period of late 1938 to the fall of 1942 when the Final Solution is in full motion. The narrative is poignant and elicits a great deal of anger on the part of this reader as the story of the US State Department’s immigration policy under the aegis of Breckenridge Long the Assistant Secretary of State for immigration becomes crystal clear, and the lack of action and empathy on the part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt whose excuses for not acting in any meaningful way is fully described.
One of the most important questions remaining pertaining to the Holocaust is whether the United States could have done more to save lives be it bombing Auschwitz or allowing increased immigration. In the recent past historian Richard Breitman focused on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s impact and David Wyman zeroed in on the US Department of State. In both instances the president and the bureaucracy were found wanting. In the case of Roosevelt political concerns about Neutrality legislation, fears of anti-Semitic backlash, enforcement of immigration law and isolationist elements in Congress along with his own inherent biases made it difficult for the President to come out in public and act. As far as the State Department is concerned, they would enforce the restrictionist 1924 Johnson Act quotas that legally called for 27,370 Germans to immigrate to the US each year. It is clear that in 1940-41 only 62.1% of the quota was filled, and the 1941-42 only 7.2% was filled – the period of greatest need for victims of the Baden deportations from 1938. According to the historical record, officials in the State Department purposely created roadblocks to deny Jewish refugees admission to the United States, even women and children.
Dobbs empathetically describes in detail the damage, arrests, and fear in Kippenheim during Kristallnacht and uses the residents of the village as a microcosm of the overall crisis that Jews faced as the true intention of the Nazi regime came to the fore. Dobbs explores the violence against the residents of Kippenheim and the attempts by families to try and emigrate to the US and the roadblocks they faced. He delves into the State Department bureaucracy and how certain people created roadblocks to entry into America. At times it seemed that some of these impediments could be overcome, but officials following orders from Washington created even more hoops to go through in order to obtain the necessary visas, or “more stamps” on further documentation which may not have been called for months before. The consulate interview begins the process, but so many Jews wanted to emigrate there was a three year wait to begin the process. The tragedy for many, like the Laflers is that when their numbers finally came up and the process for approval was gain, Freya and Hugo were already victims of the crematoria in Auschwitz.
Dobbs takes the reader through the transport of refugees from Baden to the internment camp of Gurs, through Marseilles and its poor living conditions, the bureaucratic run-a-around, and their final fate. Vichy governmental collaboration with the Nazis led by Prime Minister Pierre Laval and French police is ever present. The trauma of family members is plain as day as they deal with the daily attempts at survival and the highs and lows of believing they have the necessary paperwork to leave, and then have their hopes dashed by bureaucratic stalling, events like Pearl Harbor and the invasion of Russia. Dobbs follows the families in detail based on assiduous research and interviews with survivors like Hedy Wachenheimer who at the age of fourteen became part of the Kindertransport program and left her parents to live with families in London, while eventually her parents would perish.
Perhaps the most poignant narrative describes Hedy’s visit to Germany and Kippenheim in particular after the war working for the US military and wearing a uniform, she must face people who harassed and demeaned her as a child. Dobbs goes on to relate how people, both Jewish and non-Jewish worked to rebuild the synagogue in the village as a memorial to what occurred. The process was long and difficult, but because of survivors like Kurt Maier and Mayor Willi Mathis the building was restored to its role as a true house of worship in 2003.
Dodd is to be commended for his effort in bringing to life the fate of the Kippenheim Jews, but more so at a time when immigration is such a hot controversial issue, perhaps politicians should review US immigration policy during WWII and contemplate whether at times history should force us as a people to open up our hearts, and let political partisanship recede into the background, at least for a short time. At the outset of Dobbs ’narrative Hedy Wachenheimer rode from her home on her bicycle to school. Upon arrival and seated in class for her lessons the usually gentle principal pointed at her and yelled, “Get out, you dirty Jew.” This sounds like current political rallies and comments that tell “brown” people who are hear on legal visas and those legally seeking asylum to “get out and go home,” or ”send her home.” Is this who we are as a people?
April 6, 2019
Historian Michael Dobb's new book, "The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught In Between", is one of the best works of non-fiction I've read in a while. Dobbs writes about the fight to get Jewish refugees into the United States in the years right before WW2 (and extending into 1941), using the plight of Jews from the small German village of Kippenheim as they realised what was happening to them.
Kippenheim is located in the German area of Baden. It's not far from the French/German border of the Rhine River. (Dobbs helpfully puts maps of both the village and it's location in Germany). Jews and Christians lived peacefully with each other for generations. The town's synagogue was right down the street from the Catholic Church. However, by the mid-1930's, as the Nazis consolidated their hold on the government and the people, Kippenheim's Jews began to feel the regime's oppression. Some residents - perhaps more omniscient than others - left Kippenheim for safer places. But by 1938 and the Kristallnacht pogrom, Jews all over Germany woke up to the deep threat of the Nazis. Plans were made to leave Germany, but those plans entailed getting approvals from nations to emigrate to and approvals to leave Germany. (It was still the official German policy to encourage Jewish emigration rather than extermination. That came later.)
Dobbs details three or four families from the village and the attempts they made to "get out". Many were successful and were able to leave before and slightly after the breakout of war on September 3, 1939. But most of the remaining Jews were sent to Gurs - a holding camp in the southwest part of France. From there, attempts by United States charities and government entities to save these few thousands of German Jews ( including Kippenheim's contingent) and send them to safety in the US or Mexico or Martinique.
By concentrating on the fates of a hundred or so German Jews in the morass of Gurs and Marseilles, and interspersing the activities being carried on by the US to both save them from being "sent East" OR foil that attempt because of prejudice by some American officials, Michael Dobbs has delivered a dandy of a book. He's an incredibly smooth writer and he seems to know that readers appreciate maps and pictures and charts because he includes them in the text. His story of the village of Kippenheim is complete when he looks at the village today.
(By the way, I have always thought that this Michael Dobbs was the same author who wrote "House of Cards" and other works of fiction. I just thought he was a very prolific writer. But they're not the same guy though they may be cousins.)
Kippenheim is located in the German area of Baden. It's not far from the French/German border of the Rhine River. (Dobbs helpfully puts maps of both the village and it's location in Germany). Jews and Christians lived peacefully with each other for generations. The town's synagogue was right down the street from the Catholic Church. However, by the mid-1930's, as the Nazis consolidated their hold on the government and the people, Kippenheim's Jews began to feel the regime's oppression. Some residents - perhaps more omniscient than others - left Kippenheim for safer places. But by 1938 and the Kristallnacht pogrom, Jews all over Germany woke up to the deep threat of the Nazis. Plans were made to leave Germany, but those plans entailed getting approvals from nations to emigrate to and approvals to leave Germany. (It was still the official German policy to encourage Jewish emigration rather than extermination. That came later.)
Dobbs details three or four families from the village and the attempts they made to "get out". Many were successful and were able to leave before and slightly after the breakout of war on September 3, 1939. But most of the remaining Jews were sent to Gurs - a holding camp in the southwest part of France. From there, attempts by United States charities and government entities to save these few thousands of German Jews ( including Kippenheim's contingent) and send them to safety in the US or Mexico or Martinique.
By concentrating on the fates of a hundred or so German Jews in the morass of Gurs and Marseilles, and interspersing the activities being carried on by the US to both save them from being "sent East" OR foil that attempt because of prejudice by some American officials, Michael Dobbs has delivered a dandy of a book. He's an incredibly smooth writer and he seems to know that readers appreciate maps and pictures and charts because he includes them in the text. His story of the village of Kippenheim is complete when he looks at the village today.
(By the way, I have always thought that this Michael Dobbs was the same author who wrote "House of Cards" and other works of fiction. I just thought he was a very prolific writer. But they're not the same guy though they may be cousins.)
September 14, 2021
Despre ororile holocaustului. Despre Hitler, Roosevelt, despre evreii care nu puteau emigra în nici una dintre tari pentru ca nimeni nu ii vroiau.
Trist, dur, adevărat :(
Trist, dur, adevărat :(
May 30, 2019
I devoured this book! It was by far the most interesting non-fiction book I have read about WWII and the Holocaust. It is a well written account most specifically about the Jews who lived in the small village of Kippenheim, Germany. It gave a specific view of the immense difficulties of obtaining visas to immigrate to America at the time when Hitler was just coming into play and about those that made it to safer parts of the world and those that did not. (If I remember correctly, there were 144 Jews in this village just before Kristlenaught.)
Well researched and laid out, Dobbs includes the back history of how this village was first terrorized and gives and excellent time line of the history from the early rising of Hitler to the end of the war including the time line of what was going on in America - FDR, anti-semetism and the efforts of many to either curb immigration or save as many as could be saved. Dobbs shows the plight of the St Louis with 937 Jews on board unable to hold port in Cuba or America and what happened to those on board as well as many examples of families and how they were torn apart.
The Unwanted is one of the best books I've read on this subject - very informative and learning!
Well researched and laid out, Dobbs includes the back history of how this village was first terrorized and gives and excellent time line of the history from the early rising of Hitler to the end of the war including the time line of what was going on in America - FDR, anti-semetism and the efforts of many to either curb immigration or save as many as could be saved. Dobbs shows the plight of the St Louis with 937 Jews on board unable to hold port in Cuba or America and what happened to those on board as well as many examples of families and how they were torn apart.
The Unwanted is one of the best books I've read on this subject - very informative and learning!
May 27, 2019
Hoorrific stories of how the lives of normal people-everyday neighbors-were cast into Nazi horror and international limbo. People watched-whether the people next door or governments like the United States-and did nothing. In the case of the U.S. State Department, there were active and sinister forces in the highest levels of the diplomatic corps who saw it as their mission to stop any Jews from entering the United States. We read in horror and say "not again," but look at our contemporary situation and, again, forces in the highest levels of power working overtime to keep out "undesirables" and in many cases return them to certain death. Those who do not know history-and that is our country NOW-are destined to repeat it.
September 19, 2021
Kippenheim was a small village with about 1,800 inhabitants in the Baden region of southwest Germany in the 1930's. Author Michael Dobbs relates the histories of several Jewish families devastated by the rise of Hitler and Nazism. Their travails in getting visas to the United States or other non-Axis countries is explored as the families had different experiences and world events changed their chances and hopes. American immigration policies are given, the balancing act of President Franklin Roosevelt is discussed as well as the reasoning of Washington DC officials dealing with the unemployment of the Depression, fear of the Soviet Union, and their own racism. Dobbs writes about the families in a way that lets the readers keep track of who was who and the photographs and notes help bring them to life. Prepare to be sad for and admiring of the people who strove to survive Hitler and help their fellow internees at Gur and other places and the outside people who tried to help others against Nazi atrocities.
August 22, 2023
O carte interesantă, cu multe date și informații reale, verificabile, o carte bine documentată. Finalul e precum un puzzle, așa cum însuși autorul mărturisește. Pentru noi, românii, e un bun subiect de reflecție asupra faptului că la rândul nostru, am primit refugiați care au plecat din calea războiului și e interesant de analizat dacă am avut sau nu o atitudine similară ca a unor americani, atunci când au trebuit să se confrunte cu valul de emigranți evrei din Germania. Ni se pare scandalos că unii nu erau de acord să primească vapoarele ce aduceau sute, mii de evrei, se revoltau și se simțeau puși în pericol, însă noi cum am reacționat când am observat că atât de mulți ucraineni au invadat, aproape, spațiul de nord est a României?
August 14, 2023
就我个人而言，前半本、特别是其中罗斯福在孤立主义盛行的国内环境中如何权衡对当时西欧犹太人的救助政策的部分，比后半本里那些被驱逐到法国的德国犹太人深陷在官僚主义黑洞中的无助命运更引人深思。对比其他那些关于奥斯威辛的著述的沉重、广阔和幽邃，这些周旋于一个又一个图章的求生过程就显得比较琐碎和平庸了，但这恰恰就是本书所关切的核心主题。
然而，作者在书中屡次引用了当年的孤立主义政客、北卡参议员罗伯特·雷诺兹的言论，从“美国的公民优先”到“如果我有办法，我会在美国边境修一堵墙”，才让我理解了迈克尔·多布斯选取这个看似平淡的主题背后的另一层关切和忧虑。
然而，作者在书中屡次引用了当年的孤立主义政客、北卡参议员罗伯特·雷诺兹的言论，从“美国的公民优先”到“如果我有办法，我会在美国边境修一堵墙”，才让我理解了迈克尔·多布斯选取这个看似平淡的主题背后的另一层关切和忧虑。
August 4, 2021
Nu au fost doriti, au fost purtati de colo-colo. Lumii internationale nu-i pasa ca oameni erau exterminati. Au gasit pana la urma un loc unde sa-i adune: Israel.
Cat de asemanator cu zilele noastre, cu refugiatii/migrantii, care nici ei nu sunt doriti, sunt tratati urat etc.
Cand invatam din trecut?
Cat de asemanator cu zilele noastre, cu refugiatii/migrantii, care nici ei nu sunt doriti, sunt tratati urat etc.
Cand invatam din trecut?
May 30, 2020
Every year, I teach the Holocaust in my classroom as we read about Anne Frank and other novels on the topic. And obviously, students always want to know what the US did to help. I thought I had answers before, but this was so much better.
Ostensibly, this is about the US immigration process in the 1930s and 40s, which was a tangled mess of bureaucracy and apathy. But this puts faces to those numbers, breathes life into the story. Focusing on the small southwest German town of Kippenheim, we follow a few different families: the Valfers, the Wachenheimers, the Weitheimers, etc. (I may have spelled one of those wrong.) These were bigger middle class families in this town and it seemed to be really indicative of what people actually went through. They were intelligent and determined and had enough money to try to change their circumstances without being considered wealthy.
On the US side of the pond, we focus on a few specific key players, namely Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, along with specific members of FDR's cabinet. The book clearly points out how FDR tried to do more, but he was aware of the political culture in which he served and how making too many changes could be even more catastrophic. It's a hard line to walk and I now understand more of the problems he faced, even if like many many others I wish he'd been able to do more.
This book is written in a way that's easy to read (not always achieved in nonfiction) and interesting. You get invested in what happens to each of the people involved. Some make it to safety, some don't. You see how complicated the process becomes and how strong these people were to try to escape that over and over and over again as the system kept spitting them back out. It's heartbreaking at times, but it's so worth reading.
Ostensibly, this is about the US immigration process in the 1930s and 40s, which was a tangled mess of bureaucracy and apathy. But this puts faces to those numbers, breathes life into the story. Focusing on the small southwest German town of Kippenheim, we follow a few different families: the Valfers, the Wachenheimers, the Weitheimers, etc. (I may have spelled one of those wrong.) These were bigger middle class families in this town and it seemed to be really indicative of what people actually went through. They were intelligent and determined and had enough money to try to change their circumstances without being considered wealthy.
On the US side of the pond, we focus on a few specific key players, namely Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, along with specific members of FDR's cabinet. The book clearly points out how FDR tried to do more, but he was aware of the political culture in which he served and how making too many changes could be even more catastrophic. It's a hard line to walk and I now understand more of the problems he faced, even if like many many others I wish he'd been able to do more.
This book is written in a way that's easy to read (not always achieved in nonfiction) and interesting. You get invested in what happens to each of the people involved. Some make it to safety, some don't. You see how complicated the process becomes and how strong these people were to try to escape that over and over and over again as the system kept spitting them back out. It's heartbreaking at times, but it's so worth reading.
August 1, 2019
Did FDR betray the Jews of Europe? Did he turn a blind eye toward the Nazi "Final Solution" by preventing thousands of Jewish refugees from entering the United States? Clearly, there is ample evidence that President Roosevelt resisted pressure to admit German Jews fleeing from the Nazis, and on more than one occasion. But the context in which he made those decisions suggests he had little choice. That's one of the dominant themes of Michael Dobbs's illuminating new book on the Holocaust, The Unwanted.
Dobbs's subject is the immigration policy of the United States, focusing on the years 1938 to 1943. These years spanned the period between Kristallnacht (November 9-10, 1938) and October 23, 1941, when Reichsführer "Heinrich Himmler issued a decree banning Jewish emigration from the Reich." The official Nazi practice from that date onward was systematic annihilation rather than expulsion.
Did FDR betray the Jews of Europe?
Americans tend to seek simple answers to complex questions. But that's not possible in evaluating the response of the United States government to the plight of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Many believe that FDR deliberately and callously rejected efforts to admit thousands of refugees on the St. Louis and other ships and that he repeatedly refused to increase immigration quotas that would permit many more to be saved. But did FDR betray the Jews? Dobbs makes it abundantly clear that the President had little or no choice in these matters. Four out of five Americans opposed increased immigration; many were especially hostile to Jewish refugees. And Congress was dominated by isolationists, many of them overtly anti-Semitic. FDR was convinced that any effort to circumvent the immigration quotas laid down in decades of restrictive policies would trigger an effort by Congress to restrict the inflow of immigrants even more harshly.
For FDR, the priority was to steer the United States toward its inevitable place among the Allies before Pearl Harbor and, after that, to keep Congress from shrinking the immigration quotas. Despite often intense pressure from his wife, the organized American Jewish community, and sympathetic allies such as the Quakers, he did in fact decline to open the rolls wider. But that practice must be seen in the wider context of the times. FDR believed the country was doing the most it possibly could to accommodate Jewish refugees.
The United States admitted more Jewish refugees than any other country except Palestine
As Dobbs reports, from 1933 to 1942, "162,575 'Hebrew immigrants' had been admitted to the United States since Hitler's rise to power in Germany. A hundred thousand had arrived in the three years following Kristallnacht. Adding visitor visas, the total number of self-identified Hebrew admissions for the decade came to 204,085." This number was far greater than that of any other country. "The only territory that accepted more Jews than the United States during the same decade was British-administered Palestine."
It's well known that the US State Department under Cordell Hull (1933-1944) was riddled with anti-Semitism. Clearly, some of the consular officials who served on the front lines in Europe in vetting visa applicants were themselves deeply prejudiced and dragged their feet when Jews appeared before them. But Dobbs reports that others played key roles in facilitating the escape of German Jews. Similarly, some officials based in Washington used every bureaucratic trick in the book to slow down or halt the admission of refugees from the Nazis. But others weighed in in support of the Jews, and often with success, sometimes with strong support from the President himself. It's clear that, whatever else might be said of FDR's actions, he was not acting dishonorably or in any way that might be termed prejudiced. To the question, Did FDR betray the Jews?, the direct answer is No.
Forty-one individual human beings caught up in the Holocaust
To bring his subject down to human scale, Dobbs illustrates the impact of the rapidly shifting currents of US immigration policy on the tiny Jewish community of a village called Kippenheim, near the French border in western Germany. In 1933, 144 Jews lived there among a total population of about 1,800. By the end of the decade, only forty-one remained in the village. And Dobbs keeps them all squarely in his sights as he traces American policy through those years.
A teenage girl survived. Millions didn't.
The Unwanted opens and closes through the eyes of Hedy Wachenheimer. Fourteen years old, she witnessed the madness unleashed throughout Germany by Kristallnacht. Although "she was used to being treated like a pariah," that event proved to be a watershed. Her life and that of her family and friends was never the same afterward. Yet through good fortune and the resolute action of loving parents, Hedy not only survived but, six years after fleeing Germany, she returned in an American military uniform as a translator for the Occupation.
Because her parents had forced her to leave on a Kindertransport to England (May 18, 1939), Hedy was among the survivors of Kippenheim's Jewish community. One hundred had left the village before her, although many simply moved to larger towns and cities and were later sent to the death camps. But most of those who remained after that event were not so lucky. Thirty-one were gassed at Auschwitz. They were among the 6,500 Jews deported from the state of Baden to concentration camps in unoccupied France in October 1940. "Roughly one in four of the deportees died [there] . . ., many from typhus or malnutrition. Four out of ten were deported to Auschwitz. Eleven percent found refuge overseas, mostly in the United States. A further 12 percent, mainly children and elderly women, succeeded in hiding out in France until the end of the war."
About the author
Michael Dobbs is best known on both sides of the Atlantic as the author of a book called House of Cards, on which both the British and American hit TV shows were based. At various times he has been involved in politics, journalism, advertising, and public speaking. He holds a doctorate from Harvard and Tufts Universities and sits in Britain's House of Lords.
Dobbs's subject is the immigration policy of the United States, focusing on the years 1938 to 1943. These years spanned the period between Kristallnacht (November 9-10, 1938) and October 23, 1941, when Reichsführer "Heinrich Himmler issued a decree banning Jewish emigration from the Reich." The official Nazi practice from that date onward was systematic annihilation rather than expulsion.
Did FDR betray the Jews of Europe?
Americans tend to seek simple answers to complex questions. But that's not possible in evaluating the response of the United States government to the plight of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Many believe that FDR deliberately and callously rejected efforts to admit thousands of refugees on the St. Louis and other ships and that he repeatedly refused to increase immigration quotas that would permit many more to be saved. But did FDR betray the Jews? Dobbs makes it abundantly clear that the President had little or no choice in these matters. Four out of five Americans opposed increased immigration; many were especially hostile to Jewish refugees. And Congress was dominated by isolationists, many of them overtly anti-Semitic. FDR was convinced that any effort to circumvent the immigration quotas laid down in decades of restrictive policies would trigger an effort by Congress to restrict the inflow of immigrants even more harshly.
For FDR, the priority was to steer the United States toward its inevitable place among the Allies before Pearl Harbor and, after that, to keep Congress from shrinking the immigration quotas. Despite often intense pressure from his wife, the organized American Jewish community, and sympathetic allies such as the Quakers, he did in fact decline to open the rolls wider. But that practice must be seen in the wider context of the times. FDR believed the country was doing the most it possibly could to accommodate Jewish refugees.
The United States admitted more Jewish refugees than any other country except Palestine
As Dobbs reports, from 1933 to 1942, "162,575 'Hebrew immigrants' had been admitted to the United States since Hitler's rise to power in Germany. A hundred thousand had arrived in the three years following Kristallnacht. Adding visitor visas, the total number of self-identified Hebrew admissions for the decade came to 204,085." This number was far greater than that of any other country. "The only territory that accepted more Jews than the United States during the same decade was British-administered Palestine."
It's well known that the US State Department under Cordell Hull (1933-1944) was riddled with anti-Semitism. Clearly, some of the consular officials who served on the front lines in Europe in vetting visa applicants were themselves deeply prejudiced and dragged their feet when Jews appeared before them. But Dobbs reports that others played key roles in facilitating the escape of German Jews. Similarly, some officials based in Washington used every bureaucratic trick in the book to slow down or halt the admission of refugees from the Nazis. But others weighed in in support of the Jews, and often with success, sometimes with strong support from the President himself. It's clear that, whatever else might be said of FDR's actions, he was not acting dishonorably or in any way that might be termed prejudiced. To the question, Did FDR betray the Jews?, the direct answer is No.
Forty-one individual human beings caught up in the Holocaust
To bring his subject down to human scale, Dobbs illustrates the impact of the rapidly shifting currents of US immigration policy on the tiny Jewish community of a village called Kippenheim, near the French border in western Germany. In 1933, 144 Jews lived there among a total population of about 1,800. By the end of the decade, only forty-one remained in the village. And Dobbs keeps them all squarely in his sights as he traces American policy through those years.
A teenage girl survived. Millions didn't.
The Unwanted opens and closes through the eyes of Hedy Wachenheimer. Fourteen years old, she witnessed the madness unleashed throughout Germany by Kristallnacht. Although "she was used to being treated like a pariah," that event proved to be a watershed. Her life and that of her family and friends was never the same afterward. Yet through good fortune and the resolute action of loving parents, Hedy not only survived but, six years after fleeing Germany, she returned in an American military uniform as a translator for the Occupation.
Because her parents had forced her to leave on a Kindertransport to England (May 18, 1939), Hedy was among the survivors of Kippenheim's Jewish community. One hundred had left the village before her, although many simply moved to larger towns and cities and were later sent to the death camps. But most of those who remained after that event were not so lucky. Thirty-one were gassed at Auschwitz. They were among the 6,500 Jews deported from the state of Baden to concentration camps in unoccupied France in October 1940. "Roughly one in four of the deportees died [there] . . ., many from typhus or malnutrition. Four out of ten were deported to Auschwitz. Eleven percent found refuge overseas, mostly in the United States. A further 12 percent, mainly children and elderly women, succeeded in hiding out in France until the end of the war."
About the author
Michael Dobbs is best known on both sides of the Atlantic as the author of a book called House of Cards, on which both the British and American hit TV shows were based. At various times he has been involved in politics, journalism, advertising, and public speaking. He holds a doctorate from Harvard and Tufts Universities and sits in Britain's House of Lords.
April 3, 2019
Michael Dobbs does and excellent job bring the people in this history to life in the most heart-wrenching and fact based way. Questions I had about where the western powers were and what they were doing to help alleviate the suffering of Jews on the European continent were thoroughly answered. And, it made me reconsider my thoughts on many of the moving historical pieces from that period. Definitely worth the read. He’s an excellent writer of nonfiction.
January 30, 2020
A clearly written history of the heartless immigration policies of the US in the face of clear and certain mortal danger to Jewish applicants for visas in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
The major contribution of this work is to take the level of detail to a critically higher magnification than most standard accounts of this sad history. We learn (are reminded) that US State department officials had anti semites in high places, but we see the specific, cruel and sadistic instructions handed down to minimize the number of people to be rescued.
Lessons for the 21th Century - the two policies of the 1940s which are most like current administration behavior -- separation of children from parents -- radical tightening up of the "public charge" rules.
Keep in mind - not only "it cam happen here" but "It IS happening here."
The major contribution of this work is to take the level of detail to a critically higher magnification than most standard accounts of this sad history. We learn (are reminded) that US State department officials had anti semites in high places, but we see the specific, cruel and sadistic instructions handed down to minimize the number of people to be rescued.
Lessons for the 21th Century - the two policies of the 1940s which are most like current administration behavior -- separation of children from parents -- radical tightening up of the "public charge" rules.
Keep in mind - not only "it cam happen here" but "It IS happening here."
June 20, 2019
A detailed but readable history of two intertwined threads of the holocaust.
1. The vivid stories of the Jews of Kippenheim, Germany __ their suffering, strength, and perseverance.
2.The response of the American bureaucracy, government, and people during this period. Xenophobia, antisemitism, political exigency, and fear of foreign subversives led to a severe limitation of visas when a piece of paper meant life or death. Although Dobbs does not draw an explicit link to the current political situation, the reader cannot help but see the parallels.
1. The vivid stories of the Jews of Kippenheim, Germany __ their suffering, strength, and perseverance.
2.The response of the American bureaucracy, government, and people during this period. Xenophobia, antisemitism, political exigency, and fear of foreign subversives led to a severe limitation of visas when a piece of paper meant life or death. Although Dobbs does not draw an explicit link to the current political situation, the reader cannot help but see the parallels.
June 18, 2024
I am so impressed with this book, the amount of research that went into it and how Michael Dobbs connected international, political developments with individual stories. Dobbs shares the complexity of political decisions while outlining the consequences these decisions had for Jewish people.
Reading about these individual stories, how people tried multiple times to get a U.S. visa and sometimes succeeded, made me hopeful, but often times angry and sad when it didn't work out because most often the alternative was Auschwitz.
Reading about these individual stories, how people tried multiple times to get a U.S. visa and sometimes succeeded, made me hopeful, but often times angry and sad when it didn't work out because most often the alternative was Auschwitz.
May 26, 2019
Oof, that hardcover slip is so electric in your hands. Stupendous design. The digital version just can't compare to the weight of the physical. Straight for the heart strings.
The Unwanted is a stripe of the Holocaust that is often overlooked: the frantic scramble to escape the Nazis and the immigration policies that blocked so many. The world is often aware of the murders, the mobilizations, the victims, the heroes, the leaders. Not so much the frustrating bureaucratic hurdles that stopped the possible survival of many. How so few wanted to help the refugees and migrants at the time, for one reason or another. It wasn't just Europe, the Americas had that rhetoric too. Antisemitism and xenophobia coming at a head, especially when Pearl Harbor drops.
Lovely lovely Sade nailed it over a decade ago:
"Coming from where he did
He was turned away from every door like Joseph
To even the toughest among us
Don't you know that would be too much"
Dobbs presents the struggle with insightful observations and abridged political troubles. His human element is following the events of five Jewish families from Kippenheim. Those who could escape and those who were stuck in the process of trying.
So, Dobbs often flips between the Kippenheim Jews waiting to negotiate their freedom followed by passages explaining to us what they would have no way of knowing. What a brilliant format. It captured a semblance of the nail-biting stress the hopefuls went through. Hang in there if you're not into it at the start. Takes time to get the flow going. Don't cheat the ending by flipping to the back.
What did I learn from The Unwanted that I didn't know before reading? Ignorance and apathy can kill, no matter what the era. Everybody thinks they're right until hindsight catches up to them. And Eleanor Roosevelt was a badass too. Many thanks to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for their help in this book.
Younger audiences might not get Dobbs's writing as much because of the plethora of names and diplomatic jargon. History fans who are already familiar with the racism around this time period may have their patience tried; it takes time to explain for those of us who aren't familiar with it. Anyone expecting a heroic WWII story with the troops rescuing the stranded will be disappointed.
Otherwise, please give The Unwanted a try if you're into learning some of the somber history of US immigration policies and the Holocaust. The powerful parallels you could draw from the Roosevelt administration to the Trump administration's tactics are heartrending. Might get that activist pulse or compassion pumping afterwards, who knows.
I received the book for free through Goodreads Giveaways.
The Unwanted is a stripe of the Holocaust that is often overlooked: the frantic scramble to escape the Nazis and the immigration policies that blocked so many. The world is often aware of the murders, the mobilizations, the victims, the heroes, the leaders. Not so much the frustrating bureaucratic hurdles that stopped the possible survival of many. How so few wanted to help the refugees and migrants at the time, for one reason or another. It wasn't just Europe, the Americas had that rhetoric too. Antisemitism and xenophobia coming at a head, especially when Pearl Harbor drops.
Lovely lovely Sade nailed it over a decade ago:
"Coming from where he did
He was turned away from every door like Joseph
To even the toughest among us
Don't you know that would be too much"
Dobbs presents the struggle with insightful observations and abridged political troubles. His human element is following the events of five Jewish families from Kippenheim. Those who could escape and those who were stuck in the process of trying.
So, Dobbs often flips between the Kippenheim Jews waiting to negotiate their freedom followed by passages explaining to us what they would have no way of knowing. What a brilliant format. It captured a semblance of the nail-biting stress the hopefuls went through. Hang in there if you're not into it at the start. Takes time to get the flow going. Don't cheat the ending by flipping to the back.
What did I learn from The Unwanted that I didn't know before reading? Ignorance and apathy can kill, no matter what the era. Everybody thinks they're right until hindsight catches up to them. And Eleanor Roosevelt was a badass too. Many thanks to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for their help in this book.
Younger audiences might not get Dobbs's writing as much because of the plethora of names and diplomatic jargon. History fans who are already familiar with the racism around this time period may have their patience tried; it takes time to explain for those of us who aren't familiar with it. Anyone expecting a heroic WWII story with the troops rescuing the stranded will be disappointed.
Otherwise, please give The Unwanted a try if you're into learning some of the somber history of US immigration policies and the Holocaust. The powerful parallels you could draw from the Roosevelt administration to the Trump administration's tactics are heartrending. Might get that activist pulse or compassion pumping afterwards, who knows.
I received the book for free through Goodreads Giveaways.
August 28, 2019
For years, Christians and Jews lived peacefully side by side in Kippenheim, a small town in Germany. However, after Hitler was appointed chancellor in 1933, the Nazi regime began to systematically remove Jews "from all aspects of German society." During Kristallnacht, the "Night of the Broken Glass," bands of Nazi thugs went on a murderous rampage. The Germans robbed the Jewish citizens of their civil rights, livelihoods, access to education, and personal possessions. Some individuals who saw the handwriting on the wall managed to emigrate, but others were unable to escape in time.
Michael Dobbs, author of "The Unwanted," obtained a wealth of information from interviews, oral histories, diaries, memoirs, newspaper articles, photographs, and speeches. He links the experiences of Kippenheim's inhabitants to the mood in Europe and America during the thirties and forties. We witness the agony and fear of desperate Jews waiting in long lines outside the U. S. consulate, hoping to acquire the necessary documents to book passage to America. Meanwhile, quite a few elected officials and their constituents in Washington, D. C. and elsewhere were isolationists and/or bigots. A few influential figures pushed to ease America's restrictive immigration quotas, but the majority of Americans were adamantly against allowing Jewish refugees to enter the United States. Mrs. Roosevelt urged FDR, at the very least, to authorize a rescue program for children, but President Roosevelt feared that if he granted her wish, he would pay a steep political price.
In this lucid and enlightening work of non-fiction, Dobbs provides an intimate, detailed, and infuriating look at man's inhumanity to man, and he demonstrates what can happen when a dictator sets in motion a "Final Solution" for eliminating "undesirables." Sadly, although newspapers published articles outlining the atrocities that were occurring in Europe, this knowledge did not lead to widespread efforts to assist the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free." "The Unwanted" is a wrenching work of non-fiction that is enhanced by its evocative photographs, superb introductory essays, and powerful epilogue.
Michael Dobbs, author of "The Unwanted," obtained a wealth of information from interviews, oral histories, diaries, memoirs, newspaper articles, photographs, and speeches. He links the experiences of Kippenheim's inhabitants to the mood in Europe and America during the thirties and forties. We witness the agony and fear of desperate Jews waiting in long lines outside the U. S. consulate, hoping to acquire the necessary documents to book passage to America. Meanwhile, quite a few elected officials and their constituents in Washington, D. C. and elsewhere were isolationists and/or bigots. A few influential figures pushed to ease America's restrictive immigration quotas, but the majority of Americans were adamantly against allowing Jewish refugees to enter the United States. Mrs. Roosevelt urged FDR, at the very least, to authorize a rescue program for children, but President Roosevelt feared that if he granted her wish, he would pay a steep political price.
In this lucid and enlightening work of non-fiction, Dobbs provides an intimate, detailed, and infuriating look at man's inhumanity to man, and he demonstrates what can happen when a dictator sets in motion a "Final Solution" for eliminating "undesirables." Sadly, although newspapers published articles outlining the atrocities that were occurring in Europe, this knowledge did not lead to widespread efforts to assist the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free." "The Unwanted" is a wrenching work of non-fiction that is enhanced by its evocative photographs, superb introductory essays, and powerful epilogue.
September 1, 2021
If The Unwanted teaches you nothing else, it's that humanity does not learn from its past, even its most recent past. Spoiler, this is less of a book review and more of a rant.
As the book chronicles the disrupted lives of Jews in a small German town during the 1930s and their deportation and murder during World War II, my most prominent feeling was one of disgust. Granted, I have a strong bias - I'm Jewish and I hate, not loathe or dislike, but hate the people involved in the Third Reich. I'm not particularly charitable towards their modern adherents, either.Now that that's out of the way, if you've come this far you probably already know that this book looks at the rise of anti-Jewish feeling and action taken against a small percentage of people among the German population vis-a-vis the small town of Kippenheim. Some were murdered in Auschwitz, others got lucky because they got out of France but stuck in a camp in Morocco under French control rather than German, and others were ever more fortunate because they got out to safety in the U.S., Palestine, the Caribbean, or the UK.My ire during my reading was not just toward those who committed past atrocities, but also toward those who cheered or stood silent and allowed it to happen. And my disgust continued because those bystanders have learned nothing from the past, when a minority was allowed to be scapegoated as the source of all that was wrong with society. That a small minority was deemed so awful that it was ok they should be deported or executed just because they existed. Because they did not fit into their idea of what a "real" German was. We see these patterns today in the U.S. and elsewhere. In the 30s, the American public and their elected representatives who could have helped prevent a genocide instead screamed "we don't want them" because they were Jews. So the Administration was politically hamstrung. People wanted to accept refugees, but the opposition to raising quotas was too strong to beat.Yes, I hear those same drums beating in the 21st century. And it sickens me.
August 14, 2019
Michael Dobbs is both a terrific researcher and a great storyteller, who seamlessly wove the individual stories of the Jewish families in Kippenheim, Germany immediately after the horrors of Kristallnacht, in November 1938, through the early years of WWII, with detailed analysis of the machinations of American bureaucracy, which held these innocent lives in their hands. It is impossible not to draw parallels to the current immigration crisis on America's southern border, where asylum seekers, if turned away, will be forced to return to extreme danger and possible murder. It is also impossible not to see the same isolationist stance of the American public, coupled with a fear of "the other," forcing the government, to a great degree, to take a hard and rather merciless line.
There was much in this book that was new to me, particularly the voyage of the doomed St. Louis, whose passengers were turned away from Cuba and the U.S., and returned to Europe. At the time, the resolution was actually seen as a success, including by the passengers who went to France, Belgium and the Netherlands, which at the time were not occupied by the Nazis. Of course that would change, and about 25% of the St. Louis's passengers would be killed in the Holocaust. I was also unaware that elderly refugees had better luck getting out of Europe, as they were seen as less of a threat because they were past their childbearing years.
This book was a gripping and haunting read, and a useful reminder that America has not morally advanced from the late '30s and early '40s. Highly recommended for anyone interested in WWII or 20th century history, or who wants to explore the parallel between then and now, with regard to how we treat asylum seekers.
There was much in this book that was new to me, particularly the voyage of the doomed St. Louis, whose passengers were turned away from Cuba and the U.S., and returned to Europe. At the time, the resolution was actually seen as a success, including by the passengers who went to France, Belgium and the Netherlands, which at the time were not occupied by the Nazis. Of course that would change, and about 25% of the St. Louis's passengers would be killed in the Holocaust. I was also unaware that elderly refugees had better luck getting out of Europe, as they were seen as less of a threat because they were past their childbearing years.
This book was a gripping and haunting read, and a useful reminder that America has not morally advanced from the late '30s and early '40s. Highly recommended for anyone interested in WWII or 20th century history, or who wants to explore the parallel between then and now, with regard to how we treat asylum seekers.
December 13, 2020
Great book, well written, meticulously researched, tons of first source material, footnoted, lots of background material. The author stays unbiased throughout the book. The timeframe of the book is November 1938 (Kristallnacht) through July 1942, the era before mass deportations to concentration camps, when the policy was to harass Jews to the point they would voluntarily emigrate. It focuses on residents of a small town in southern Germany, Kippenheim. After Kristallnacht many decided to emigrate, and faced huge problems in dealing with foreign government bureaucracies including the U.S. Palestine would have been an ideal option except the Brits had shut that down due to opposition from Arab natives. The U.S. maintained the quota system for immigrants from each country so those wanting to come to America had to get on a waiting list. Cuba was another possible destination at first, but then closed by its mercurical dictator, Fulgencio Batista. The denigrations these people endured from American consular officials, etc. is truly troubling. At that time most Americans were opposed to any immigration due to the depression, and there were some antisemites in government only too happy to make things as difficult as possible for the Jews. The only Americans who come out of the narrative looking good are Eleanor Roosevelt, and Henry Morganthau, the treasury secretary under FDR. Troubling reading, especially in light of the present pressure on Americas borders from those fleeing various forms of oppression in Central America .
August 26, 2019
This remarkable book tells a Holocaust story I'm less familiar with; not the one about the destruction of Eastern European Jewry, my great-aunts and uncles and cousins among them, but about a small town in southwest Germany. The Jews of Kippenheim have different journeys. Some board a Kindertransort to England; others manage to get on a ship to the US from Portugal or Morocco; some make it to Cuba or Palestine. Others end up on the ill-fated St. Louis and returned to Europe; or time runs out on their visas, and the Vichy government,
trying first to save French Jews by deporting Jews who were shipped to France by the Germans, send them to their fates. Against this background, FDR tries to walk a line between wanting to help refugees and the anti-refugee, anti-Semitic forces that sound remarkably like voices we hear
today, as Eleanor tries to save everyone she can. American Foreign Service employees, Quaker organizations, HIAS and HICEM, and some French civil servants with a conscience do their best against great odds. SPOILER ALERT: Hedy Wachenheimer, sent to England on a Kindertransport, lives to be a translator at the Nuremburg trials and to return to Kippenheim, neither of which feels quite like a triumph. Dobbs does an excellent job of telling the stories of individuals in the context of small-town life, as well as in the wider context of international negotiations and national politics.
trying first to save French Jews by deporting Jews who were shipped to France by the Germans, send them to their fates. Against this background, FDR tries to walk a line between wanting to help refugees and the anti-refugee, anti-Semitic forces that sound remarkably like voices we hear
today, as Eleanor tries to save everyone she can. American Foreign Service employees, Quaker organizations, HIAS and HICEM, and some French civil servants with a conscience do their best against great odds. SPOILER ALERT: Hedy Wachenheimer, sent to England on a Kindertransport, lives to be a translator at the Nuremburg trials and to return to Kippenheim, neither of which feels quite like a triumph. Dobbs does an excellent job of telling the stories of individuals in the context of small-town life, as well as in the wider context of international negotiations and national politics.
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April 1, 2020In 1940, getting a piece of paper with the correct stamp on it was literally the difference between life and death for many Jews. The Jewish community of Kippenheim, Germany left an extensive record of their efforts to get away from the Nazis. Dobbs uses their letters, diaries, and interviews with survivors to tell a gripping story. -Laurie, Information & Reader Services
Local history on a global stage.
"The Unwanted" interweaves the stories of Jewish families in Kippenheim, a small village in Baden, Germany, and the Shoah. The book's narrative details families' emigrations and expulsions; escapes and demises. The juxtaposed description and analysis of American response(s) in Washington D.C. and its consulates reveal further the evolution of events. Examinations of relief and assistance efforts provide additional insights to the human response as the Shoah unfolded. The narrative recounts rich descriptions of French camps and Marseille as a port of exit and quagmire of bureaucracy. The work also provokes thought on contemporary refugee crises.
Dobb's research in global, institutional, national, local, and family archives and interviews with survivors reveals the minute details of the families' responses and efforts to survive. This sublime research is crafted into a gripping narrative.
Detailed family trees at the end of the book surmise the families and individuals' lives and fates. The stories grip the reader intimately. -Nancy, Archivist
Local history on a global stage.
"The Unwanted" interweaves the stories of Jewish families in Kippenheim, a small village in Baden, Germany, and the Shoah. The book's narrative details families' emigrations and expulsions; escapes and demises. The juxtaposed description and analysis of American response(s) in Washington D.C. and its consulates reveal further the evolution of events. Examinations of relief and assistance efforts provide additional insights to the human response as the Shoah unfolded. The narrative recounts rich descriptions of French camps and Marseille as a port of exit and quagmire of bureaucracy. The work also provokes thought on contemporary refugee crises.
Dobb's research in global, institutional, national, local, and family archives and interviews with survivors reveals the minute details of the families' responses and efforts to survive. This sublime research is crafted into a gripping narrative.
Detailed family trees at the end of the book surmise the families and individuals' lives and fates. The stories grip the reader intimately. -Nancy, Archivist
May 15, 2019
Disclaimer: I received this book as part of GoodReads' First Reads program.
The Unwanted tells the story of the town of Kippenheim, Germany on the cusp of, and during World War II. It details how the Jewish population was caught up in the Nazi efforts to rid the world of their kind and how they were deported at first to Vichy France. Some of them would be able to get visas to get out to Britain, Palestine and the US, but many more ended up in Auschwitz, with the inevitable end results. Sadly, the US chose to limit immigration and made it very difficult to get into the country. There have been many books about the holocaust, but few that I've read have such detail of so many of the people involved. With the current state of affairs in the world, the return of fascism across Europe and in the US, and the anti-immigrant, antisemitic, in fact anti-anything that isn't WASP, I'd recommend everyone read this book to remind us of the terrible place these tendencies will lead us.
The Unwanted tells the story of the town of Kippenheim, Germany on the cusp of, and during World War II. It details how the Jewish population was caught up in the Nazi efforts to rid the world of their kind and how they were deported at first to Vichy France. Some of them would be able to get visas to get out to Britain, Palestine and the US, but many more ended up in Auschwitz, with the inevitable end results. Sadly, the US chose to limit immigration and made it very difficult to get into the country. There have been many books about the holocaust, but few that I've read have such detail of so many of the people involved. With the current state of affairs in the world, the return of fascism across Europe and in the US, and the anti-immigrant, antisemitic, in fact anti-anything that isn't WASP, I'd recommend everyone read this book to remind us of the terrible place these tendencies will lead us.
January 26, 2020
For me, a sign of a good non-fiction book is it makes me want to find out more..more on the specific topic; more on associated topics. While I am well versed in a lot of World War II history, this focus on the families deported from one single town, placed in the context of the overall efforts at immigration, was an eye opener.
Hard to listen and not cry, knowing that when people were being told they were being taken from the French internment camps to the “Jewish reservation in southern Poland” where they would have more space and freedom, they were being taken to Auschwitz. So many people so close to survival, unable to escape because of not having the right piece of paper or stamp on that paper. Heartbreaking.
It’s important to remember the individuals as well as the overall event and this books helps with this. I wish more people could read something like this and have the ability to put themselves on those shoes.
Well done, very much recommend.
Hard to listen and not cry, knowing that when people were being told they were being taken from the French internment camps to the “Jewish reservation in southern Poland” where they would have more space and freedom, they were being taken to Auschwitz. So many people so close to survival, unable to escape because of not having the right piece of paper or stamp on that paper. Heartbreaking.
It’s important to remember the individuals as well as the overall event and this books helps with this. I wish more people could read something like this and have the ability to put themselves on those shoes.
Well done, very much recommend.
September 29, 2020
A really hard book to rate, overall 4-5 stars.
Fascinating insights into the town of Kippenheim and three key Jewish families. A detailed account of the US government’s attitudes to immigration from Europe as Hitler rose to power.
Would have liked simplified family trees at the outset so we could see how people linked together rather than trying to piece it together from the narrative.
I usually read a lot of fiction in this genre so I had been looking for a non-fiction account of this period. This book came highly recommended from a historian friend - and became even more poignant when I discovered that a family friend’s grandmother was actually mentioned in this book. (Thankfully she made it to the UK but that’s a whole ‘nother story)
An interesting and detailed read. At times I lost track of who was who but it was a compelling and engaging read that captured the horrors of the time without being too explicit.
A really interesting read - highly recommend
Fascinating insights into the town of Kippenheim and three key Jewish families. A detailed account of the US government’s attitudes to immigration from Europe as Hitler rose to power.
Would have liked simplified family trees at the outset so we could see how people linked together rather than trying to piece it together from the narrative.
I usually read a lot of fiction in this genre so I had been looking for a non-fiction account of this period. This book came highly recommended from a historian friend - and became even more poignant when I discovered that a family friend’s grandmother was actually mentioned in this book. (Thankfully she made it to the UK but that’s a whole ‘nother story)
An interesting and detailed read. At times I lost track of who was who but it was a compelling and engaging read that captured the horrors of the time without being too explicit.
A really interesting read - highly recommend
March 19, 2024
This book was most interesting. It uncovered facts about the difficulty pf those seeking asylum in the US in the days following the restrictions imposed on Jewish people in Germany. The book was a page tuner as I attempted to learn the fate of these people who made an honest attempt to leave Germany. The book goes into detail about the St Louis affair and the events that ensue as these people continue to make every attempt to leave Germany and the terrible camps they had been sent to in France. This is a must read book for a better understanding of the anti-immigration policies in effect in the US at that time in our history.
October 7, 2021
The author used an effective method in the book by telling the story of how the Holocaust unfolded in a German village (Kippenheim). The lives of some of the Jewish families are followed throughout WWII. Events already known seem more real and emotional when Mr. Dobbs describes how history affected individual families from this town. It made me think about what it might have been like had some of these people been a part of my family. An extremely well written story! Many kudos to the author!!!
January 21, 2020
I'm a Holocaust reading junkie so consider this review a bit biased. But most of the books I read are historical fiction. This one, the true history of the residents of a small town, Kippenheim, Germany, juxtaposed with what was going on in the US during the same time period was eye-opening and riveting. Meticulous research and relatively easy reading/writing style kept me continually engrossed. And its relevance to today's immigrant situation will be lost on no one. Bravo to the author
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