No Life Without You: Refugee Love Letters from the 1930s

Becky Taylor, and Franklin Felsenstein
Open Book Publishers
2024-03-25

The letters and journals of Ernst Moritz and Vera Hirsch Felsenstein, two German Jewish refugees caught in the tumultuous years leading to the Second World War, form the core of this book. Abridged in English from the original German, the correspondence and diaries have been expertly compiled and annotated by their only son who preserves his parents’ love story in their own words. Their letters, written from Germany, England, Russia, and Palestine capture their desperate efforts to save themselves and their family, friends and businesses from the fascist tyranny. The book begins by contextualizing the early lives of Moritz and Vera.

Because the letters are written to each other almost daily, they are incredibly immediate. Most centrally, the letters recount an astonishing love story, sensual in its intimate detail, and full of dramatic pathos in revealing the anxieties of being apart as the Nazi threat unfolds and broadens. It is told through the voices of two exceptionally articulate letter writers.

This volume offers insights into the moral and psychological dilemmas faced by German Jews as a targeted community. It affords a unique appreciation of the impact of historical and socio-political upheavals on the lives of a persecuted minority.

A scholarly introduction by Rachel Pistol draws out the main themes raised by this correspondence, observing its relevance to contemporary debates about migration and political authority.

Metadata Formats

Publisher Links

Included in Packages

Keywords

  • Political structures: totalitarianism and dictatorship
  • Social and cultural history
  • Second World War
  • DS134.4
  • Personal correspondence
  • Refugees
  • World War 2
  • Political structures: totalitarianism and dictatorship
  • Biography
  • History
  • Diaries, letters and journals
  • Biography: historical, political & military
  • Diaries, letters & journals
  • Refugees & political asylum
  • Jewish studies
  • Fascism & Nazism
  • Memoirs
  • Refugees and political asylum
  • Memoirs
  • Diaries, letters and journals
  • Biography: general
  • Social and cultural history
  • Second World War
  • European Studies: German Studies
  • 1930s Germany
  • England
  • Jewish persecution

No Life Without You: Refugee Love Letters from the 1930s

Becky Taylor, and Franklin Felsenstein

Open Book Publishers

2024-03-25

CC BY-NC

The letters and journals of Ernst Moritz and Vera Hirsch Felsenstein, two German Jewish refugees caught in the tumultuous years leading to the Second World War, form the core of this book. Abridged in English from the original German, the correspondence and diaries have been expertly compiled and annotated by their only son who preserves his parents’ love story in their own words. Their letters, written from Germany, England, Russia, and Palestine capture their desperate efforts to save themselves and their family, friends and businesses from the fascist tyranny. The book begins by contextualizing the early lives of Moritz and Vera.

Because the letters are written to each other almost daily, they are incredibly immediate. Most centrally, the letters recount an astonishing love story, sensual in its intimate detail, and full of dramatic pathos in revealing the anxieties of being apart as the Nazi threat unfolds and broadens. It is told through the voices of two exceptionally articulate letter writers.

This volume offers insights into the moral and psychological dilemmas faced by German Jews as a targeted community. It affords a unique appreciation of the impact of historical and socio-political upheavals on the lives of a persecuted minority.

A scholarly introduction by Rachel Pistol draws out the main themes raised by this correspondence, observing its relevance to contemporary debates about migration and political authority.

Download Formats

Included in Packages

Topics

  • Political structures: totalitarianism and dictatorship
  • Social and cultural history
  • Second World War
  • DS134.4
  • Personal correspondence
  • Refugees
  • World War 2
  • Political structures: totalitarianism and dictatorship
  • Biography
  • History
  • Diaries, letters and journals
  • Biography: historical, political & military
  • Diaries, letters & journals
  • Refugees & political asylum
  • Jewish studies
  • Fascism & Nazism
  • Memoirs
  • Refugees and political asylum
  • Memoirs
  • Diaries, letters and journals
  • Biography: general
  • Social and cultural history
  • Second World War
  • European Studies: German Studies
  • 1930s Germany
  • England
  • Jewish persecution