Four Girls From Berlin

Lotte Meyerhoff thought she had lost everything when she came to the United States after escaping from an internment camp: her beloved Berlin home, and her past. But when a mysterious package arrived from Germany, she was astonished to find it filled with precious family objects, documents, and photos that her three best friends--none of them Jewish--had risked their lives under the Nazis to save and return to her. Four Girls From Berlin tells the unique story of Lotte and her three courageous friends, Ilonka, Erica, and Ursula, vividly describing what life was like in Hitler's Germany and examining the Holocaust's complex and painful legacy for it's survivors. Written by Lotte's daughter, Marianne, this moving memoir is richly illustrated with the rescued photos, mementos, and letters that now preserve her prominent Jewish family's history. With the help of these objects and the recollections of Lotte, Erica, Ursula, and others, Marianne pieces together stirring images of the people and the way of life that Hitler was determined to destroy. She describes the fearlessness and defiance of the four friends as they tried to focus on music studies in a city rife with spies, anti-Semitism, and Nazi fervor. Piece by piece, the details of Ilonka, Erica, and Ursula's unwavering devotion to Lotte's family emerge. Marianne also offers glimpses of earlier, happier times in her mother's family home, where Lotte's stepmother, Paula, cooked incredible meals, and her science professor father, affectionately called "Der Alte Fritz" (Old Man Fritz), hosted a lively succession of students, prominent Berliners, and international visitors. In seeking to come to terms with the Holocaust's looming shadow over her own life, Marianne shares her struggle to discover her identity, honor her lost German family, and find her own future. Poignant and beautifully written, Four Girls from Berlin offers a unique perspective on the Holocaust and the desire to understand what led some people to risk their lives to stand up for what was right when so many others did not