"A fascinating insight into a virtually unknown chapter of Nazi rule in Germany, made all the more engaging through a son's discovery of his own remarkable parents." - Ted Koppel, ABC News. "An immensely moving and powerful description of those evil times. I couldn't put the book down." - James Galway. "Martin Goldsmith has written a moving and personal account of a search for identity. His is a Story that will touch all readers with its integrity. This is not about exorcising ghosts, but rather awakening passions that no one ever knew existed. This is a journey everyone should take." - Leonard Slatkin, Music Director, National Symphony Orchestra. "For years I've been familiar with Martin Goldsmith's musical expertise. This book explains the source of his knowledge and his passion for the subject. In tracking the extraordinary story of his parents and the Jewish Kulturbund, Martin unfolds a little known piece of holocaust history, and finds depths in his own heart that warms the hearts of readers." - Susan Stamberg, Special Correspondent, National Public Radio. "Strong and painful book, well-written, well-researched, moving, and very instructive." - Ned Rorem, Pulitzer Prize Winning Composer.

Table of Contents

Prelude. Alex and Gunther. Julian and Rosemarie. 1933. The Kubu. The Mask. Pathetique. La Vie Boheme. Kurt Singer. A Protest in Paris. Chocolate and Canaries. Two Newspapers. The March. Vaterland und Vaterhaus. "One Slap after the Other". Prinzenstrasse. Sempre Libera. New World--and Old. Appointment in Quito. Eine Kleine Curfew Music. The Resurrection Symphony. The Inextinguishable Symphony. "Crying Like Dogs." "It Will Be on Your Conscience". Coda. Acknowledgments. Bibliography. Index.

About the Author

MARTIN GOLDSMITH is director of classical music programming at XM Satellite Radio in Washington, D.C. From 1989 to 1999, he was the host of National Public Radio's Performance Today. Prior to that he served for a dozen years at WETA-fm, the NPR affiliate in Washington, D.C., as producer, announcer, and music director. He lives in Maryland with his wife, Amy Roach.

Reviews

Goldsmith, a senior commentator on NPR, tells the story of his parents, musicians who played in the orchestra of the Jewish Kulturbund, which was established by the Nazis as a propaganda tool. By dint of good fortune, in the summer of 1941 they managed to leave Germany and immigrate to the United States, where the author's mother became a prominent concert musician. Goldsmith weaves together the exploration of his family history (his father's experience was featured on NPR) with the Nazi persecution of the Jews in general. The author checks his father's reminiscences with newspaper accounts, family letters, and documents, as well as secondary sources, so that the reader does not lose sight of the bigger picture. Unfortunately, Goldsmith often encumbers the reader with excessive details, such as the look in individuals' eyes as they parted and other such statements that cannot be verified from the documentary record. Recommended for public libraries.DFrederic Krome, Jacob Rader Marcus Ctr. of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

As much a tribute to the power of music as it is a Holocaust memoir, this bookÄwritten by Goldsmith, the former host of NPR's Performance TodayÄtells a deeply affecting story of a love that survived the terrors of WWII. The lovers in question are Goldsmith's parents: G�nther, a flutist, and Rosalie, a violist, were German Jews who met in 1936 when they were both playing in the Kulturbund's orchestra in Frankfurt. An organization that performed at the pleasure of Joseph Goebbels's Ministry of Information and Propaganda, the Kulturbund hired Jewish artists (forbidden to play in German orchestras) to present concerts, plays and lectures for solely Jewish audiences from 1933 to 1941. Drawing creatively from historical documents and family memories, Goldsmith's story suggests that the Kulturbund was both a lifesaver and a cultural refuge for JewsÄbut it was also a Nazi smokescreen that gave German Jews a false sense of security. In engagingly reflective prose, Goldsmith tells the story of this institution and recounts how his father jeopardized his life by returning from Sweden, where he had fled, to be with Rosalie in Germany. The two married and finally migrated together to the U.S. in 1941. But other family members did not fare as well. Goldsmith's paternal grandfather and uncle were passengers on the St. Louis, the ship that sailed from Germany to Cuba only to be turned away; both died in concentration camps. Dealing perceptively with the complex emotions aroused in him by his parents' lifelong refusal to discuss their past and with their passion for each other and for the music that may have saved their lives, Goldsmith's account offers an excellent contribution to Holocaust studies. B&w photos. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.