Someday You Will Understand
My Father's Private World War II
Nonfiction, History, Jewish, Holocaust, Military, World War II
| Author: | Nina Wolff Feld | ISBN: | 9781628723991 |
| Publisher: | Skyhorse Publishing | Publication: | August 5, 2014 |
| Imprint: | Arcade Publishing | Language: | English |
| Author: | Nina Wolff Feld |
| ISBN: | 9781628723991 |
| Publisher: | Skyhorse Publishing |
| Publication: | August 5, 2014 |
| Imprint: | Arcade Publishing |
| Language: | English |
A daughter’s account of her father’s escape from the Nazis—and his journey back to Europe with the US Army to bring them to justice.
The scion of a Jewish merchant family, Walter Wolff fled Germany for Brussels, Belgium, when the Nazis came to power. But his new home was no refuge. On the eve of the German invasion of the Low Countries in May 1940, the Wolffs were forced to make a second escape. The ensuing sixteen-month odyssey took them through occupied France—where they were compelled to keep their identity secret—and onto the notorious freighter SS Navemar, where they were among the last Jewish refugees admitted to the United States before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
But within two years, Walter was back in Europe—first in Italy, and then in Germany and Austria—taking the fight to the Nazis as a soldier in the US Army. Trained for the Intelligence Corps, he interrogated POWs for potential prosecution as war criminals at Nuremberg. In his off hours, he returned to the properties confiscated from his extended family to throw out the occupiers and reclaim rightful ownership.
In this rousing tale of heroism and sacrifice, Walter Wolff’s daughter tells the story of the proud Jewish boy who successfully escaped persecution and returned to prosecute his oppressors. Reconstructed from family lore and her father’s own cache of more than seven hundred wartime letters and two hundred photographs, which he revealed to her shortly before he died, Someday You Will Understand shines a light on the exploits of an ordinary man who fought back and won against the greatest tyranny the world has ever seen.
A daughter’s account of her father’s escape from the Nazis—and his journey back to Europe with the US Army to bring them to justice.
The scion of a Jewish merchant family, Walter Wolff fled Germany for Brussels, Belgium, when the Nazis came to power. But his new home was no refuge. On the eve of the German invasion of the Low Countries in May 1940, the Wolffs were forced to make a second escape. The ensuing sixteen-month odyssey took them through occupied France—where they were compelled to keep their identity secret—and onto the notorious freighter SS Navemar, where they were among the last Jewish refugees admitted to the United States before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
But within two years, Walter was back in Europe—first in Italy, and then in Germany and Austria—taking the fight to the Nazis as a soldier in the US Army. Trained for the Intelligence Corps, he interrogated POWs for potential prosecution as war criminals at Nuremberg. In his off hours, he returned to the properties confiscated from his extended family to throw out the occupiers and reclaim rightful ownership.
In this rousing tale of heroism and sacrifice, Walter Wolff’s daughter tells the story of the proud Jewish boy who successfully escaped persecution and returned to prosecute his oppressors. Reconstructed from family lore and her father’s own cache of more than seven hundred wartime letters and two hundred photographs, which he revealed to her shortly before he died, Someday You Will Understand shines a light on the exploits of an ordinary man who fought back and won against the greatest tyranny the world has ever seen.
