Years of Estrangement (Jewish Lives)

This book contains two narratives, each of which offers a clear and moving portrait of how German Jews came to terms with the changes in their lives brought on by the Nazis. Under the Nazi Regime is a powerful study of the destruction of culture and humanity, morality and justice, and the morale of the general population in Hitler's Germany. Erich Leyens, a decorated World War I hero who openly protested the arrival of the Nazis in his hometown, reflects here on his five years of direct experience with the Nazis. Among the questions he explores in his narrative are: How did the pressures of an authoritarian system destroy human relationships and compromise values? How could friends and neighbors, fellow citizens and public officials, undergo such a complete transformation? How could the masses of Germans become disposed to submit unconditionally to the Hitler cult? . In contrast, Lotte Andor's Memoirs of an Unknown Actress focuses on the comical, even absurd side of her experiences as an exile. For Andor, whose promising career as a stage actress was abruptly ended by the Nazis, her emigration from Germany in 1934 brought not only apprehension, pain, and uncertainty, but sometimes unusual joy. Because her commitment to life and humor, Andor was able to make the many very difficult adjustments demanded by emigration, seemingly with ease.