Secrets of a Suitcase

The Countess, the Nazis, and Middle Europe's Lost Nobility

By: Pauline Terreehorst, Brent Annable (Translator)

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Hardcover | 1 February 2025

At a Glance

Hardcover
304 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.6 x 13.8 x 2.54

Hardcover

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When Pauline Terreehorst bid for a vintage Gucci suitcase at Sotheby's Amsterdam, she had no idea what was inside. After picking up her prize, she found that the case was filled with dresses, fur collars and lace voiles, and accompanied by two brown boxes of postcard albums showing churches and castles in Austria, France, England and Scotland. This curious correspondence was addressed to an Austrian countess, businesswoman and philanthropist called Margarethe Szapa?ry, and her daughter.

These unexpected family treasures open a window onto a lost world. The Szapa?rys' social, cultural and political landscape disappeared in the upheavals that seized Europe during the first half of the twentieth century-a time when borders were redrawn, old cities received new names, communities changed loyalties, and the transnational, monarchist aristocrats of Middle Europe had to decide whether to become Germans under Nazi rule.

What did Margarethe choose, when her neighbour Hermann Go?ring came knocking? What were the consequences for her and her children? And how did her family's suitcase cross war-torn Europe and survive decades of rupture to end up in Terreehorst's hands?Wh

Industry Reviews

'An impressive, multi-faceted historical narrative.'

-- NRC Handelsblad 4-star review
'A fascinating account of Margarethe Szapary's life and chronicle of Central Europe.'
-- De Volkskrant 4-star review
'Fascinating, accessible, and worth the read.' -- De Standaard 4-star review
'From one suitcase, Terreehorst unpacks the lost world of Central Europe's old aristocracy in all its brittle splendour. Her lens is never still, focussing on individual lives, then panning out to the fall of empires, the rise of Nazism, and the aftermath. Microhistory at its most vivid and instructive.' -- Martyn Rady, author of The Middle Kingdoms: A New History of Central Europe

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction History Regional & National History European History Military History Second World War General & World History Specific Events & Topics in History Geonocide & Ethnic Cleansing The Holocaust

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