Scenes from Hitler's "1000-Year Reich"

twelve years of Nazi terror and the aftermath

Plot

In a long, tumultuous life that spanned most of the 20th century Kerry Weinberg experienced the brutal disruption of her youth in Nazi-controlled Germany, the fearful wanderings of a persecuted Jew who was forced to run for her life, the disintegration of her family during the Holocaust, the turbulent and violent years of 1940s' Israel, and periods of relative tranquility as a teacher in Germany, Israel, and the United States. In this extraordinary memoir she documents what happened to her and many others like her during one of the most horrific periods of European history. As the events of the Holocaust recede more and more into the past, we have seen the unfortunate rise in recent decades of anti-Semitic revisionist propaganda questioning the historicity of the Nazi-sponsored genocide. In this context, documents such as Weinberg's, which testify to firsthand experiences of eyewitnesses, are especially valuable to set the record straight.Weinberg begins with childhood memories of peaceful coexistence between German Jews and Christians before the Nazi takeover. This section makes one realize how easy it was for well-assimilated German Jews to misjudge the magnitude of the disaster that so quickly descended upon them. But events soon turned ugly. She vividly recounts the jolting experience of the infamous Kristallnacht, the burning of synagogues, the destruction of her parents' home, desperate attempts to secure exit visas, and finally her escape to England and then Israel, where she encountered more persecution from British police and hostile Arab neighbors.Symbolic of her life is the chapter entitled "Six National Anthems!" Forced by circumstances to live in many nations under many regimes, she became a citizen of the world and a survivor compelled to tell her story and those of others who could not escape.