... a moving Book. It's the story of one man who lost his homeland twice.

Unsentimental and wise, with a keen eye, [Rosen] tells of the fates of emigrants, of homeland and identity, and of the strength of the women who survived, his mother and grandmother.

I find the act of reentering one’s fraught family history with the commitment and honesty that [...] Rosen display[s] to be an extraordinary feat.

How one brave woman held Germany accountable for her father’s suicide in Tel Aviv.

This is a must read for anyone interested in the German Jewish plight before, during and post Holocaust! I am a child of Holocaust survivors and I felt I learned at least a few things I never knew about which for me is impossible to find. The writer gives you such a happy feeling at the same time about his relationship with his very special Grandmother. For me it’s a real eye opener since I never had a Grandparent. So much love is felt throughout the book and of course the familiar silence of pain as expected creates a different view of Jekkes that might have escaped Hitler but in reality it gave perspective of what my family might have gone through if they managed to go to Palestine. This is a must read of a different perspective of German Jewry!

How I love this book! A David and Goliath story where David is a young widowed Israeli mother of two, and Goliath is the German government still perpetuating its Nazi past. Against seemingly insurmountable odds, she perseveres, her lawsuit forcing the German government to take responsibility for her father’s suicide years after his escape from certain ruin and death in Nazi Germany. It’s also a tragic immigrant story of a man unable to overcome dramatic professional and linguistic obstacles in a young struggling country. Best of all, this is an engaging story about determined women told by a loving, persistent man who pursues the truth via the treasure of almost-forgotten letters, his grandmother’s warmth, and his mother’s feisty acerbic wit. Rewarding on so many levels!

I know Emanuel Rosen as a colleague in social media marketing so imagine my surprise when he offered a preview of his new book - a detective story about his mother and grandparents and Nazi Germany and his boyhood in Israel. I started reading and couldn’t put it down! (I’ve since purchased the paperback so I can see the photos better!) What a lovely and compelling story on so many levels: the unbearable pain of being displaced from your home and your identity, the sensory contrast of lush Germany vs. the dust and heat of Tel Aviv, the resilience of a little boy growing up in a family of women. The book is gracefully written, with just the right touch of humor, and with skillful flashbacks and forwards to explain the story. what interests me most is the urge that Emanuel felt to publish this story in his mid-60s, about the same age as his German Jewish grandfather who committed suicide at age 66 (if I recall correctly). What a gift and a legacy he has created for his own children.

Manu Rosen has a way of injecting a degree of black humor in chronicling the search into the death of his grandfather. Born in Israel into a German-Jewish immigrant family, Rosen tells us that "Opa" Hugo was once prominent attorney who lost his livelihood and reluctantly saved himself, his wife and two children by emigrating and settling in British Mandate Palestine. Rosen uses the device of short vignettes to introduce us to his widowed mother and grandmother, stereotypical "Jekke" women who tend to utter German phrases that no one other than other Jews with a German heritage would understand. While he digresses to many ancillary characters, the author's main objective is to paint the women in his family as strong-willed and resilient (notably more so than men like Opa.) It is only after both his widowed mother and grandmother have died that he delves into the mystery of his maternal grandfather's death, starting with a torrent of correspondence between his mother from Israel and her parents while they were visiting Europe during 1956. While the book is lighthearted at the outset, the author turns serious when he unravels the mystery of his grandfather's death. Details of legal proceedings his mother had undertaken culminate in a German court's declaration that Hugo's death the direct result of the trauma he suffered at the hands of the Nazi regime, declaring that his by then elderly grandmother qualifies for compensation. This post-Holocaust is part of the emerging genre of literature by the children and grandchildren of the survivors and witnesses, whose ranks are being depleted by the passage of time.

This is a gripping and engaging exploration of a family whose lives were indelibly changed by Nazi restrictions, by immigrant life in Israel, and by a grandson’s search for missing parts of the stories.

From generation to generation, it becomes more difficult to write about the persecution of Jews before and during WWII as one’s personal past. Too much has been lost, and precisely because of that one wants to write about what can still be found. I respect what Emanuel Rosen did in this book, patiently and carefully exploring the past and guiding us through his findings about the story of his family.

I thought I’d take a quick look at this book, but then I kept reading all of it in a day and a half.

With sensitivity, love, and humor, Emanuel Rosen tells the story of his Yekke grandparents, their immigration and difficulties in the homeland of the Jewish people, and their journey in search of their roots and identity in Germany. An important and fascinating book that awakened in me deep feelings and a longing for a generation that is no more.