Book

Ich erlebte USA im krieg [I witnessed the US at War), an anti-American, anti-Semitic book published in Nazi Germany that belonged to Mara Vishniac. Mara lived in Berlin with her parents, Roman and Luta, and brother, Wolf. After Hitler's appointment as Chancellor in 1933, life became very precarious for Jews in Germany. Following the Kristallnacht pogrom on November 9-10, 1938, Mara, age 12, and her 16 year old brother Wolf were sent to Riga, Latvia. Soon after, Mara was sent to a home for refugee children in Sweden. In 1940, Mara, her mother, and brother moved to Stockholm and obtained visas to travel to the United States. Her father was arrested as an enemy alien in German occupied Paris and imprisoned. He escaped after three months and, with the aid of the JDC, which had sponsored his photography, he obtained a visa to the US. The family reunited in Lisbon, Portugal, and left on the SS Siboney, arriving in New York on December 31, 1940.