Margit's Story; An Autobiography
Rockville, Maryland: Schreiber Publishing, Inc., 2003. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. xv,[1], 319, [1] pages. Illustrations. Inscribed and dated by the author on the title page. Inscription reads: To Rene, With all good wishes, Margit Meissner, May 2011. Meissner was born in Austria in 1922. She spent most of her childhood in Prague, Czechoslovakia. But In 1938, when an expansionist Nazi Germany annexed western Czechoslovakia, Meissner’s mother sent her to live and study in Paris out of concern for her safety. When World War II broke out the next, her family spread out across the globe. Meissner’s mother was interned in France. In 1940, Meissner escaped Paris on a bicycle, riding for 20 miles, narrowly avoiding invading German troops. She reunited with her mother and, eventually, the two made it to America. After the war, they attended the Nuremberg trials. Meissner was a volunteer with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where she was a tour guide, translator and speaker. The author, a Holocaust Survivor, writes about her family, her privileged childhood, her years as a refugee, and her new life in America. Engrossing autobiography of a remarkable woman born into the assimilated Jewish upper-class in pre-World War II Austria. After a hair-raising escape from the Nazis, she came penniless to the United States. Beginning as a dress finisher, her varied career took her to Hollywood, the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, the American consulates in Budapest, Hungary and Alexandria, Egypt, and the United Nations in Argentina. She eventually settled in the Washington, DC suburbs where she worked for 20 years for the Montgomery County school system. When she retired she was saluted as an outstanding advocate for children with disabilities. This candidly told story describes the risk and daring of one woman's triumph over adversity. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Prague, Refugee, Beverly Hills, Foreign Service, Berkeley, Palo Alto, White Plains, Bethesda, David Tritsch, Heinrich Gruensfeld, Isaac Morawetz, Gottlieb Morawetz, Frank Meissner, Holocaust, Anti-Semitism
ISBN: 9781887563826
[Book #79110]
Price: $55.00