Deborah Strobin

An Uncommon Journey : from Shanghai to America, a Brother and Sister Escape to Freedom During World War II. By Deborah Strobin and Ilie Wacs with S. J. Hodges

This book, with its eight parts, begins with Dedications, Acknowledgments and a Preface. It also has 14 pages of pictures.

Reactions when reading this in 2012 will be quite different depending on the age of each reader. I am 89 years old and had in my 1938 class a refugee: in the 40’s a friend who, like this family had found refuge in Shanghai. Memories of these friends formed a background to my reading and my appreciation of this book.

Deborah Strobin and Ilie Wacs are now grandparents. It could not have been easy to recall their childhood in Vienna and the specifics of the life they and their parents lived during the horrors of war. That both have been successful in their adulthood perhaps explains why they have been willing to share this personal history with us.… (mais)