Some people are just amazing. Put their own life and limb at risk and get stuff done. Very impressive. Especially with their own 2 young kids at home. Really which there was a million more stories like this one. Love the notes the woman took to chronicle this journey. Glad the story was unearthed. And the "No Jews" stuff just always amazes me. Really? OMG. And the polls of Americans that were listed about how AMERICANS were wary of Jews. So sad. We are all people dumb asses. ( )

it was an ok read. the two people who saved seemed kind of snobbish about clothes and where they should stay while doing this work. kind of weird to me. ( )

Apologies to those who have been waiting for my review of this book. I’m not up for writing a thorough review, but I hope my impressions are useful to you, especially regarding deciding whether or not this book is for you.

I found the account gripping and suspenseful, even though the reader knows from the very start pretty much what is going to happen.

From previous reading, I knew most of what was going on during the period and yet the details told still managed to shock me at times – great examples including excerpts from the NY Times, State Dept. memos, and the memories of those involved with this rescue.

I get more and more angry at the U.S. the more I learn. I get so exasperated with human beings. Luckily, this story is mostly about the bravery, heroism, and empathy expressed by some very good people.

I was particularly grateful for the details given of what happened with everyone, and surprised that there were so many children that couldn’t be currently tracked re what happened to them. I hope they or their significant others see the plea at the end of the book, and come forward with information. I had to smile because so many of the personalities/behaviors of certain children left me not at all surprised by the adults they became. I was very touched to read about some of their post rescue lives and accomplishments.

There is an exceptionally fine and informative Afterword by Paul A. Shapiro of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

There is no gorgeous language but it is a well written straightforward account.

The photos of the children, others involved, documents, the times & places of the era were so important to me, especially the family portraits of the children and their families.

The last year I’ve had a reading dry spell, but this book was easy for me to read, and very enjoyable.

SPOILER:

I was very surprised that so many of the parents and siblings got out and how so many of them also got out before the worst of the Holocaust, in 1939 and 1940. The relatively few exceptions were so heartbreaking, more so because of how many were able to escape the worst of the Holocaust. ( )

An amazing story of a heroic couple who helped to save 50 children from the Holocaust, and the brave parents who allowed them to go. There are photos of the children and their parents before and during the trip as well as the memoirs kept by Mrs Kraus during the journey.

I learned so much from this book. I think it is the first book I have read that clearly and succinctly explained America's view on the fate of the Jews at the beginning and during the Holocaust. What was known and when. Quite frankly I was appalled, so much more could have been done. So little actually was, and I had no idea of the stigma and prejudice that the Jews faced here in America.

Of course there are as always a few good people that made a difference, not all Jewish, and these few attempted to do as much good within the law as they could. Gilbert and Eleanor Krauss were a well to do Jewish couple that managed with some help to bring 50 children from Austria, to America. Wonderful people that risked much to travel to Berlin and Austria during Hitler's rise to power.

There is humor, as when the children arrived in America and are confronted with food they had never seen before, such as jello. Their are poignant and heartfelt moments, sadness of course.

The Kraus's were amazing people, and I am glad that the author updated their lives afterward, although they had to deal with a tragedy of their own. He also updates the reader with the lives of the other good people who were involved and lastly the lives of the children that could find, now elderly themselves.

All in all an amazing book showing, at least for me, another side of the Holocaust. At the end of the boo, Paul Shapiro who is the Director of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies writes,

"What each person does can make a world of difference,"

If only more people had felt that way. ( )