my dear good rosi: letters from nazi-occupied holland

by Judy Vasos

Overview

When Judy Vasos and her husband Tony, discovered an entire collection of his grandparents' letters in a desk drawer, they promised his mother, Rosi, they would have the over two hundred letters written from Amsterdam between 1940 and 1943 translated and published. This book is the result of that promise.

Tony never knew his grandparents who had fled to Holland from their long-time home in Nuremberg, Germany, a hot bed of Nazi anti-Semitism since Hitler's rise to power. His mother, Rosi was twent-four years old the last time she saw her parents and when she began receiving their letters filled with wisdom, humor and anguish.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780999742525
Publisher:	Pen Stroke Press
Publication date:	05/04/2018
Pages:	332
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.74(d)

About the Author

Judy Vasos is a historical detective who lives in Oakland, California, with her husband, Tony Baczewski, and Ruby, their fifteen-year old Norwich Terrier. Judy's years of experience with social work, freelance writing and creating family history books led her to the belief that most people are waiting to hear the words tell me to reveal their personal story. Her passion is to listen and record those stories. She grew up in the Midwest surrounded by a large extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents full of love and stories.They brought family history alive, played a crucial role in helping her through rocky times, and gave Judy and her five siblings an appreciation of unconditional love.

Editorial Reviews

2019-01-19

In this debut book, a writer compiles letters from two Jewish parents—desperately trying to flee the Nazis in Europe—to their daughter.

Rosi Baczewski (nee Mosbacher) was born in Nuremberg, Germany, but left for England in 1939 as Nazi rule became increasingly intolerable for Jews, eventually making her way to the United States. Her parents—Hugo and Clemy Mosbacher—intended to reunite with her in New York after fleeing Germany for the Netherlands but were confronted with an entangled skein of bureaucratic challenges trying to secure the necessary documents. They never obtained a visa to enter the Netherlands but decided the deteriorating conditions in Germany made crossing the border illegally unavoidable. They were arrested in early 1940 in the Netherlands and spent two months in detention in Amsterdam, the first time they were separated since they married in 1911. They were released, but a few months later the Nazis invaded the country. Hugo and Clemy sent hundreds of letters to Rosi from 1940 to 1943, right up until they were seized by the Nazis in Amsterdam and ultimately sent to Auschwitz to die. Vasos, Baczewski's daughter-in-law, assembled those letters in this moving collection, translated by various experts and coupled with a running historical commentary. The volume clearly chronicles not only the efforts of the Mosbachers to escape the Netherlands, but also the general plight of the Jews in Europe. Baczewski held onto those letters for 70 years before she gave them to the author. The correspondence covers a broad spectrum of issues, including the Mosbachers' attempts to hack their way through a thicket of logistical issues that kept them stranded in the Netherlands and their heroic work to remain optimistic. The epistles are both historically edifying and profoundly moving—Hugo writes of the "immeasurable joy" he experienced each time he received a communication from his daughter. Still, both Hugo and Clemy were entirely aware of the precariousness of their situation and often expressed disconsolateness in response to their troubles. One letter ends with a sober aphorism: "What cannot be cured must be endured." Vasos astutely situates the letters historically, ultimately producing a loving tribute to Hugo and Clemy as well as a treasure trove of historical insights and moral testimony.

A historically valuable and emotionally affecting collection of wartime letters.

Kirkus Reviews