Irma's Passport - by Catherine Ehrlich (Paperback)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>After two European cataclysms disrupt the life of Irma--the wife of Vienna's Jewish city representative--she escapes to London and New York, where she restores her life by saving child refugees. This true story, told in Irma's words and narrated by her granddaughter, reveals an inspiring woman who used languages as her passport to a safer, more hopeful world.<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br>In this gripping family tale, Catherine Ehrlich explores her Austrian grandparents' influential lives at the crossroads of German and Jewish national movements. Weaving her grandmother Irma's spellbinding memoirs into her narrative, she profiles a charismatic woman who confronts history with courage and rebuilds lives--for herself and Europe's dispossessed. <p/> Starting out in Bohemia's picturesque countryside, Irma studies languages in Prague alongside Kafka and Einstein--and so joins Europe's intelligentsia. Tension builds as World War I destroys that world, and Irma marries prominent Zionist, Jakob Ehrlich, bold advocate for Vienna's 180,000 Jews. Irma's direct words detail the weeks after Hitler's arrival when Adolf Eichmann himself appears to liberate Irma and her son from Vienna. <p/> Irma's stunning turnaround in London unfolds amidst a dazzling cohort of luminaries--Chaim and Vera Weizmann, and Viscountess Beatrice Samuel among them. Irma finds her voice as an activist, saving lives and resettling refugees, and ultimately moves on to New York where her work resumes among high-profile friends like Catskills hostess Jennie Grossinger. <p/> Along the way, Ehrlich queries her family's fate: what was behind Eichmann's twisted role in her grandparents' lives? How was Irma able to focus outwardly when her own life was in crisis? Part intimate memoir, part historical thriller, <i>Irma's Passport</i> is an inspiring true story about remarkable women whose unsung courage restored the world we know.<p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>"Working from her grandma's journals but providing insights and context throughout, the author chronicles the indomitable Irma's war-years journey from a small town in Bohemia through Prague, Vienna, London, and New York. This is far more than a Holocaust story. Irma's granddaughter has given us historically significant testimony wrapped in a family tale, and an inspiring and satisfying story of a life of service." <p/>--Scott D. Seligman, author of <i>The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902: Immigrant Housewives and the Riots that Shook New York City</i> <p/> <p/>"Using her grandmother's personal memoir as a starting point, Catherine Ehrlich gives us a beautifully composed and deeply researched story of a matriarch and a family caught up in the dark web of Nazi Europe. It is nothing short of miraculous that her family history and mine unfolded in the same apartment building in Vienna in a way that encapsulates the fate of Jewish culture trapped in the vise of fascism. In addition to a gripping narrative, what emerges in these pages is a profile of strength and resilience that will inspire today's readers, young and old, and stand proudly in the literature of the Holocaust." <p/>--Julie Metz, author of <i>Eva and Eve: A Search for My Mother's Lost Childhood and What a War Left Behind</i> <p/> <p/>"A very sensitive, well-written and -researched book about the fate of a prominent Jewish family in Vienna in 1938 and beyond." <p/>--Evelyn Adunka, historian, Vienna <p/> <p/>"Gripping, poignant, and inspiring, this true tale illustrates how pride can help to power through suffering and create meaning. Author Catherine Ehrlich, drawing heavily on vivid memoirs written by her grandmother, has added depth of research, beauty of language, and a haunting present-day perspective to the life of an extraordinary woman of Vienna during wartime and beyond." <p/>--Dori Jones Yang, author of <i>When the Red Gates Opened: A Memoir of China's Reawakening</i> <p/> <p/>"This beautifully written combination of a Holocaust survivor's memoir with the recollections and research of her granddaughter captures the charms of fin-de-siècle Bohemia and the devastation that followed. Imaginative, compelling, clear, and touching, the narrative of an emancipated and educated woman's heartbreak during the First World War, new love and hope in 1920s Vienna, despair again as the Nazis closed in, and escape with her only son to America illustrates the human cost of intolerant and violent politics in Central Europe. <i>Irma's Passport</i>, a new addition to the vast literature on fascism and anti-Semitism, deserves attention from readers of all ages." <p/>--Jeremy King, Professor of History, Mt. Holyoke College <p/> <p/>"A gripping and well-written story about a courageous woman living between the world wars. Irma is a spitfire of a woman who attended university when only 4 percent of students were women, and who shared an English literature class with Franz Kafka--historical figures pop out like gifts in the story. The book also provides a window into the assimilated life of the Jews of Bohemia, early Zionism, anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust. Your foreknowledge prepares you for what is coming but, inspired by Irma, you hold your breath and read on." <p/>--Leora Krygier, author of <i>Do Not Disclose: A Memoir of Family Secrets Lost and Found</i> <p/> <p/>"What an absolutely amazing and fascinating memoir." <p/>--Story Circle<br><br>
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