"I dove into the frigid river, the sudden shock leaving me gasping. By the time that I was two-thirds across the river, my strength was fading . . . Somehow, I managed to reach the shore—the unoccupied zone of France and my entry into freedom."
Told from the perspective of two Jewish children passengers on the ship St. Louis as they try to escape Nazi Germany but are refused at port after port.
"I had always liked to play make-believe, but somehow they made me understand that this game was real. I never gave away my secret."
"The more we felt the Germans' heavy boots in our lives, the more I knew I had to leave . . . but I was scared. Where was I going to go? What would I live on?"
"The mountains were almost 3,000 metres high . . . We had to climb to the peaks, where it was frozen and slippery. One single misstep could mean certain death."
"I asked myself, Am I a criminal doomed for execution? I was determined to run away . . . that thought never left my mind."
"n Germany I was 'Jewboy'; in Brussels I was 'boche'; in France I was 'undesirable'; in Portugal I was a 'refugee'; and in Jamaica I was simply a non-entity . . . I was a pariah in an exploding world."
"I am the daughter of nobody. I have no sisters. I am nobody's granddaughter or daughter-in-law, aunt or cousin. Who am I? My past is all gone. It disappeared . . . "
"I feel my brother's hand, trembling but strong, grab onto mine. I hear his words, urging me to run, take hold of my body and move my legs. We run, his hand holding mine . . . to me it feels like freedom."
"'Don't move. Don't open the door.' My knees had turned to jelly and I was trembling uncontrollably. Sina grabbed her raincoat and declared, 'I'm leaving. They'll be back and I don't want to end up in a camp.'"
Rachel Milbauer, a vivacious and outgoing music lover, lay hidden and silent with her family and a family friend in an underground bunker in Nazi-occupied Poland for nearly two years.
A young boy who loved soccer as much as he loved to write, Spring's End tells how John Freund's joyful childhood is shattered by the German invasion of his homeland, Czechoslovakia.
