Exit Berlin

"Millions perished in the Holocaust, and for those few who managed to find refuge in a world of closed doors, it took relentless effort and persistence in the face of great peril and untold frustrations. Charlotte Bonelli's collection of correspondence, Exit Berlin, tells a moving story and is an important historical record of one family's struggles to escape. I recommend it highly as a unique account of dedication and steadfastness against big odds in a trying time."-W. Michael Blumenthal, Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin


"Exit Berlin is a powerful and important work that sheds significant light on what one person with determination and imagination could-and could not do-to save those she loved during the critical period of 1933-42."-Michael Berenbaum, Professor of Jewish Studies, American Jewish University


"For a generation steeped in email, this heartrending collection of letters takes us to a more intimately communicative era-in which Jews, trapped in the nightmare of Hitler's persecution, pleaded for help to escape to their cousins in America; and in which the latter tried desperately, generously, to respond. These letters, personalizing one family's ordeal, eloquently relay a tale of both horrendous abuse and life-threatening bureaucratic barriers."-Michael R. Marrus, Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies, University of Toronto and the author of The Holocaust in History.


"Always illuminating, full of moral tension and high drama, the letters that Luzie Hatch exchanged with her relations amount to an eyewitness account that allows us to penetrate the myths and statistics that sometimes obscure the hard facts of the Holocaust. Charlotte Bonelli, who assembled, selected and annotated the correspondence, has made an important contribution to both history and literature."-Jonathan Kirsch, author of The Short, Strange Life of Herschel Grynszpan