US/EN
Irma's Passport: One Woman, Two World Wars, and a Legacy of Courage
Catherine Ehrlich
(Author)
Description
In this gripping family tale, Catherine Ehrlich explores her Austrian grandparents' influential lives at the crossroads of German and Jewish national movements. Weaving her grandmother Irma's spellbinding memoirs into her narrative, she profiles a charismatic woman who confronts history with courage and rebuilds lives--for herself and Europe's dispossessed. Starting out in Bohemia's picturesque countryside, Irma studies languages in Prague alongside Kafka and Einstein--and so joins Europe's intelligentsia. Tension builds as World War I destroys that world, and Irma marries prominent Zionist, Jakob Ehrlich, bold advocate for Vienna's 180,000 Jews. Irma's direct words detail the weeks after Hitler's arrival when Adolf Eichmann himself appears to liberate Irma and her son from Vienna.Irma's stunning turnaround in London unfolds amidst a dazzling cohort of luminaries--Chaim and Vera Weizmann, and Viscountess Beatrice Samuel among them. Irma finds her voice as an activist, saving lives and resettling refugees, and ultimately moves on to New York where her work resumes among high-profile friends like Catskills hostess Jennie Grossinger. Along the way, Ehrlich queries her family's fate: what was behind Eichmann's twisted role in her grandparents' lives? How was Irma able to focus outwardly when her own life was in crisis? Part intimate memoir, part historical thriller, Irma's Passport is an inspiring true story about remarkable women whose unsung courage restored the world we know. This is a book for fans of Edmund de Waal, Erik Larson, and Alexander Wolff.
Product Details
Price
$16.95
$15.76
Publisher
She Writes Press
Publish Date
October 12, 2021
Pages
248
Dimensions
5.5 X 8.4 X 0.8 inches | 0.65 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781647423056
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About the Author
Catherine Ehrlich is a nonfiction writer. Trained as an Asian linguist (University of Michigan) and diplomat (Johns Hopkins SAIS), she has been a trade representative, interpreter, public relations executive, and marketing consultant in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan as well as New York, Washington DC, and Seattle. She served as a fundraiser for the Audubon Society of Portland and is a director of the Arts Mandalay Foundation. She and her husband, John, take inspiration from nature out of home bases in Oregon and California. Irma's Passport is the culmination of six years of research and writing focused on the true story behind her grandmother's testimonial memoirs. She splits her time between Portland, OR and Mill Valley, CA.
Reviews
"Gripping, poignant, and inspiring, this true tale illustrates how pride can help to power through suffering and create meaning. Author Catherine Ehrlich, drawing heavily on vivid memoirs written by her grandmother, has added depth of research, beauty of language, and a haunting present-day perspective to the life of an extraordinary woman of Vienna during wartime and beyond."
--Dori Jones Yang, author of When the Red Gates Opened "Working with her grandmother's journals, Catherine Ehrlich chronicles the indomitable Irma Ehrlich's war years journey from a small town in Bohemia through Prague, Vienna, London and, finally, New York. But this is far more than a Holocaust story. Her granddaughter has given us historically significant testimony wrapped in a family tale, and an inspiring and satisfying story of a life of service."
--Scott D. Seligman, author of The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902 "Irma's Passport is at once a multi-layered personal journey, chronicle of a momentous time, and story of human triumph over state-sponsored evil. The book is both historical and immediate, as the author uses her grandmother's journal entries as the fulcrum on which to rest the book. At one point Vera Weizmann, wife of diplomat Chaim Weizmann, says, 'You have a gift to make one feel what you say.' Irma also has a gift to make us feel what she has written, and we are the richer for it."
--Barry J. Schumacher, international affairs strategist
--Dori Jones Yang, author of When the Red Gates Opened "Working with her grandmother's journals, Catherine Ehrlich chronicles the indomitable Irma Ehrlich's war years journey from a small town in Bohemia through Prague, Vienna, London and, finally, New York. But this is far more than a Holocaust story. Her granddaughter has given us historically significant testimony wrapped in a family tale, and an inspiring and satisfying story of a life of service."
--Scott D. Seligman, author of The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902 "Irma's Passport is at once a multi-layered personal journey, chronicle of a momentous time, and story of human triumph over state-sponsored evil. The book is both historical and immediate, as the author uses her grandmother's journal entries as the fulcrum on which to rest the book. At one point Vera Weizmann, wife of diplomat Chaim Weizmann, says, 'You have a gift to make one feel what you say.' Irma also has a gift to make us feel what she has written, and we are the richer for it."
--Barry J. Schumacher, international affairs strategist
