Alex's wake : a voyage of betrayal and a journey of remembrance
(Book)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Published
Boston, MA : Da CapoPress, a member of the Perseus Books Group, ©2014.
Status
Shirlington - Adult Nonfiction
940.5318 GOLDS
1 available

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LocationCall NumberStatus
Shirlington - Adult Nonfiction940.5318 GOLDSAvailable

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Published
Boston, MA : Da CapoPress, a member of the Perseus Books Group, ©2014.
Format
Book
Physical Desc
vii, 344 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Language
English

Notes

General Note
Reprint. Originally published: Hoboken, New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, 2013.
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 331-332) and index.
Description
On May 13, 1939, the luxury liner SS St. Louis sailed away from Hamburg, Germany, bound for Havana, Cuba. On board were more than 900 Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany. But an indifferent world conspired against them. After being denied landing rights in Havana, the refugees were turned away by the United States and Canada and forced to sail back to Europe, where the gathering storm of the Holocaust awaited them. Two of those refugees were Alex Goldschmidt, a sixty-year-old veteran of World War I, and his seventeen-year-old son Klaus Helmut Goldschmidt. After their trans-Atlantic voyage, they landed in France. They would spend the next three years in one French camp after another before being shipped to Auschwitz in 1942. Sixty-nine years later, Martin Goldsmith, Alex's grandson and Helmut's nephew, retraced their sad journey. Beginning in lower Saxony where Alex was born, Martin spent six weeks on the road and covered more than 5,700 miles, setting foot on the earth Alex and Helmut trod during their final days. Alex's Wake is Martin's eyewitness report. The book offers a compelling history of the voyage of the St. Louis, including testimony from those on board, a tale of espionage, and the brave resolve of Captain Gustav Schroeder. It also offers a harrowing chronicle of the vast network of camps in France, many of which were organized by the French themselves with little or no encouragement from the Germans. But Alex's Wake is also a contemporary travelogue and a heartfelt memoir of a second-generation American Jew trying to make sense of his heritage and to escape the burden of guilt and fear he long thought was his sole inheritance. Setting forth with the irrational, impossible desire to save two members of his family who were murdered ten years before he was born, Goldsmith concludes his journey by coming home to a moving symbol of remembrance at one of the scenes of the crime.--Book jacket.

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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Goldsmith, M. (2014). Alex's wake: a voyage of betrayal and a journey of remembrance . Da CapoPress, a member of the Perseus Books Group.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Goldsmith, Martin, 1952-. 2014. Alex's Wake: A Voyage of Betrayal and a Journey of Remembrance. Da CapoPress, a member of the Perseus Books Group.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Goldsmith, Martin, 1952-. Alex's Wake: A Voyage of Betrayal and a Journey of Remembrance Da CapoPress, a member of the Perseus Books Group, 2014.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Goldsmith, Martin. Alex's Wake: A Voyage of Betrayal and a Journey of Remembrance Da CapoPress, a member of the Perseus Books Group, 2014.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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