The German Girl

LoveReading Says

October 2017 Debut of the Month

This ambitious and powerfully moving debut tells the true story of one of the lesser-known tragedies of WWII, when Jewish passengers aboard a transatlantic liner expecting to be given refuge in Cuba were refused entry.  

Hannah Rosenthal lived an enviable life in Berlin until the Nazis took hold, but a ray of light comes when her family are successful in their scramble to secure tickets and visas to board the St Louis liner. The sense of the passengers’ initial hopeful elation – the brilliant descriptions of lavish balls and fine dining – rapidly plummets when news filters through that that the governments of Cuba, America, and Canada are planning to deny them entry. After days anchored off-shore, a mere handful of passengers are permitted to step onto Cuban soil. The few who are allowed to remain will be all but alone in a strange land, separated from their loved ones, in the knowledge that they’ll most likely return to meet their deaths. Slip forward to New York seven decades later and Hannah’s great niece, twelve-year-old Anna Rosen, receives a parcel that will lead her to Havana to learn heart-wrenching truths about her family’s past. A poignant story that needed to be told, told with much heart and humanity.  ~ Joanne Owen

Joanne Owen

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