Never Forget: My Family's Flight from Nazi Terror

Anti-Semitism was a rising menace when Tom Singer's parents met and were married in 1930 in Germany. But Elsbeth and Rudolph Singer had deep German roots and stayed during the Nazis' rise to power even as Hitler imposed ever-harsher restrictions on Jews. The Singers considered emigrating when Rudolph lost his livelihood because Hitler banned Jews from practicing law. But a relative talked them into staying. He assured them the political climate would change and hired Rudolph to be an accountant in his factory. The climate instead turned uglier. The Singers finally fled Germany in 1938 on the morning after Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass." They escaped with their son, Tom, age two-and-a-half.In "Never Forget: My Family's Flight From Nazi Terror," Tom Singer recounts his parents' frantic efforts to arrange a journey that landed the family in America. Preparations required months of correspondence with distant relatives in the U.S., a bribe to get visas and the occasional kindness of non-Jewish friends. On their last day in Germany, the family narrowly avoided arrest by the Gestapo. The book reproduces many letters and documents related to the family's flight, thanks to Elsbeth Singer's careful preservation of the material. Dozens of family photographs illustrate the text. The book concludes with a transcription of a journal Elsbeth Singer had kept in her later years, containing her recollections of the family's early years, escape from Germany and life in America.