Haven - The Dramatic Story of 1,000 World War II Refugees and How They Came to America (Paperback)

The powerful story of a top-secret mission to rescue one thousand European refugees in the midst of the Second World War In 1943, nearly one thousand European refugees from eighteen different countries set out on a journey for asylum in the United States. Accompanying them was Ruth Gruber, who with the backing of the United States government, was made a simulated General to escort the refugees on their secret mission across the Atlantic from a port in Italy to a camp in Oswego, New York-a dangerous endeavor that carried the threat of Nazi capture with each passing day. While on board the ship that was to transport them to America, Gruber recorded the stories of the refugees, and she presents them in vivid detail here. The result is a poignant and engrossing story of suffering under Nazi persecution and bravery in the face of the most overwhelming of circumstances. "A visceral jolt." -The New York Times "Everyone concerned about courage in a grievous time will want to read Haven . . . An enduring and inspiring gift." -Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt Ruth Gruber is an award-winning Jewish American journalist, photographer, and humanitarian. Born in Brooklyn in 1911, she became the youngest person to receive a PhD and went on to author nineteen books, including the National Jewish Book Award-winning biography Raquela (1978). She also wrote several memoirs documenting her astonishing experiences, among them Ahead of Time (1991), Inside of Time (2002), and Haven (1983), which documents her role in the rescue of one thousand refugees from Europe and their safe transport to America. Gruber lives in New York City.