Departures and returns : A memoir /

The memoir is partially made up of excerpts from the author’s mother’s memoir, ‘A time of fear, a time of hope’ by Brigitte Steiner, which describes her and her family’s life in pre-war Germany, their immigration to and beginnings in the United States in the 1930s, and visits to Germany after the war. In addition, the author draws from his maternal grandmother’s diary during her years in wartime Germany, when she witnessed his paternal grandmother’s deportation to a concentration camp. Finally, the author describes various later events, like the laying of a “Stolperstein” in front of his grandparent’s former home in Germany. ; digitized