Odyssey of Exile: Jewish Women Flee the Nazis for Brazil

Odyssey of Exile paints a sensitive a compelling portrait of German-Jewish women who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. Arriving in South America, they faced haunting memories of the terror they had escaped and the challenge of adjusting to Brazil's patriarchal culture, unstable economy, and tropical climate.

Nine educated women from the German middle class are the focus of this volume. Katherine Morris places their memoirs in historical context, offering rare glimpses into personal histories. While the narratives differ in tone, subject, and approach, they share common themes: how Jewish women reacted to Nazi persecution, the pragmatic way they adapted to a new life in Brazil, and their desire to record their stories to keep the history of their families alive.

Odyssey of Exile paints a sensitive and compelling portrait of German-Jewish women who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. The frank and moving stories offer a rare glimpse into personal histories.

Booknews

This group of nine autobiographical portraits written by German-Jewish women who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s to arrive in Brazil's tropical climate and culture shares a frank and frightening personal history that transcends editor Morris's careful contextualization. These well educated, middle class women write movingly of their journeys, sometimes from the voices of mature women and sometimes from the hopes and fears of themselves as young girls. The memoirs describe the horror of the death camps, the uprooting of family and friends, and the heady sights and sounds of a strange Rio de Janeiro in the early 1940s while underscoring the common themes of how Jewish women reacted to Nazi persecution, how they adapted, and how important these stories are to keeping the history of their families alive. Paper edition (unseen), $18.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Katherine Morris is the author of Sorceress or Witch?: The Image of Gender in Medieval Iceland and Northern Europe. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.