Basis for the CBS Mini-series Starring Natasha Richardson.
"The words leaped at me from "The Washington Post." 'I have decided, ' President Fra... read full description
"The words leaped at me from "The Washington Post." 'I have decided, ' President Fra... read full description
reviews
Oct 17, 2011
rameau
rated it: 
I thought I'd be reading the tales of a select few of a thousand stories, instead, I only read one.
This isn't as much a story of the 982 Jews fleeing from Europe and Nazi terror to be President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's guests in the United States as it's a story of a young woman making the trip with them and acting as their guide to their new life and home.
Haven and its thousand refugees are only the frame that holds the picture of Ruth Gruber facing her life-altering mome More...
This isn't as much a story of the 982 Jews fleeing from Europe and Nazi terror to be President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's guests in the United States as it's a story of a young woman making the trip with them and acting as their guide to their new life and home.
Haven and its thousand refugees are only the frame that holds the picture of Ruth Gruber facing her life-altering mome More...
Nov 17, 2011
Agnes
rated it: 
Another unbelievable episode in our country's untold/forgotten history.
I didn't realize the quota system was so strong during the war (WWII) as this brings to life. To think that millions of people - Jew, Catholic, gypsy, etc - were in harm's way but couldn't get to safety in US or Palestine blows my mind. Yet boats full of POWs were brought here! How many of them were returned to Europe. I wonder? Ruth Gruber writes an excellent story , easy to read without pathos, but with spirit, o More...
I didn't realize the quota system was so strong during the war (WWII) as this brings to life. To think that millions of people - Jew, Catholic, gypsy, etc - were in harm's way but couldn't get to safety in US or Palestine blows my mind. Yet boats full of POWs were brought here! How many of them were returned to Europe. I wonder? Ruth Gruber writes an excellent story , easy to read without pathos, but with spirit, o More...
Aug 22, 2009
Barbara
rated it:
This book documents the trials and the lives of refugees from the Holocaust in Europe.When no one else would help, they were given sanctuary at the Fort Ontario Emergency Refuge Center in Oswego, New York. This was the only shelter of its kind in the U.S. I have visited this site, which is now a museum and education center. It is small, but impressive, located in the beautiful countryside in N.Y. state. The story of their passage in the dangerous Atlantic and the efforts by Ruth Gruber are descr
More...
Jan 31, 2012
Hailey
rated it:
“One thousand refugees.” America was shocked when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced that 1,000 refugees would be brought from Italy to the US. The story takes place in the spring of 1944, in the middle of World War II. For years European refugees have been told that they were unable to enter America and that the quotas were completely filled, which lead to millions of people suffering until death. There was suddenly a hint of hope in saving the refugees, and finally the actions of A
More...
Dec 17, 2010
Trebledb
rated it:
A wonderful book of a critical time in history both in the United States and Europe.
Ruth Gruber emerges as a dogged heroine in her role as advocate for the refugees from
the Nazi holocast. A realistic and disturbing view of the isolationist attitudes within the US government at the highest level, even when faced with indisputable evidence of mass exterminations
throughout Europe.
Ruth Gruber emerges as a dogged heroine in her role as advocate for the refugees from
the Nazi holocast. A realistic and disturbing view of the isolationist attitudes within the US government at the highest level, even when faced with indisputable evidence of mass exterminations
throughout Europe.
Feb 05, 2012
Diane
rated it:
Heroic and heartbreaking true story of FDR's program to allow 1,000 refugees to escape Europe and Nazi persecution during WWII. They are brought to the US and set up in a camp which had been a military base. Their stories of death camps, hardship, loss, and in the midst of that the courage and humor, all captured by Ruth Gruber, who had been sent to accompany them to the US and help them assimilate. Wonderful.
Apr 28, 2011
Sue
rated it: 
Ruth Gruber was chosen, as a young 33 yr. old, to secretly bring 1,000 Jewish and Christian refugess across dangerous Atlantic Ocean to sanctuary in the U.S. in 1944. It is a story that once you start reading, you will stay up all night to finish it.
Dec 01, 2011
Sara
rated it:
I was born in Oswego and spent my entire childhood in Oswego County. I was shocked when I learned (just this year) of the refugee camp housed at Fort Ontario during WWII. How is it possible that such a HUGE event could have occurred not ten miles from my hometown without my ever being told about it? It was my understanding that the US closed its doors to refugees, especially Jewish refugees during the war.
That being said, this was a phenomenal book, one that I am thrilled to have discove More...
That being said, this was a phenomenal book, one that I am thrilled to have discove More...
Mar 18, 2009
Jeremy
rated it:
Amazing how one person could have so much influence on so many people, and how people that had gone through hell could be so optomistic. I think everyone should read this exspceially in times like these
Dec 09, 2011
Karen
rated it:
Although the book was filled with more names and details than I would have liked--I'm so into the stories--still it is what one would have to expect out of a non-fiction book. It was so interesting because I had never heard of the refugee camp in New York state. Ruth Gruber made the plight of even these "saved" refugees so real. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the times of the WWII era.
Apr 30, 2011
Therese
rated it:
I picked this book because it is a non-fiction account of an historical event that took place in America during WWII that I didn't know anything about. It's and easy and interesting read.
Apr 23, 2009
Karen
rated it:
Saw this author on "c-span books" and thought she was very interesting... Have since heard almost all of her books as they are just fascinating pieces of history.
Dec 01, 2011
Janice
rated it:
Ruth Gruber did an outstanding job sharing the history of the near 1000 European refugees invited to the US to wait out the end of World War II in Oswego, New York. Their sagas of survival are heroic and heart wrenching. World history that must be shared.
Sep 10, 2011
Sharon
rated it:
I learned so much history in this book. I do not read a lot of non fiction. This book was so well written that I plan to read more from this author.
Sep 14, 2011
Jodi
rated it:
The story of Ruth Gruber escorting 1000 refugees from Europe to America in the last throes of WWII. The personal stories of survival of man of the refugees are compelling and devastating, but the book drags on with the slow grinding wheels of government as the State dept, Interior, Justice, and Congress all argue of the legal status of the people who have no home or family to return to.
Jul 06, 2008
Jacqueline115
rated it:
this book had my interest from page one til the end. i visited the museum a few years ago and have a personal interest in this story. my uncle was a business teacher and remembers having several of the refugees in his class.
Oct 04, 2011
A.
rated it:
So far so good, even if the author does name-drop a little too much for my taste. Will review once completely finished.
Jul 20, 2011
Non fiction abt. refugees from Nazis traveling to US in 1944 LFP Library rec. --
Feb 10, 2012
Feb 02, 2012
Jan 25, 2012
Jan 21, 2012
Jan 14, 2012
Jan 13, 2012
