We Were So Beloved

The massive terror of November 9, 1938, Kristallnacht, forced the German Jews to finally abandon their unrealistic hope that the Nazi persecution would cease. Those who were able to fled their country, the land where they "were so beloved", and proud of their German heritage. More than 20,000 of these German Jews came together in Washington Heights in New York City and created a German Jewish enclave nicknamed the "Fourth Reich" by their American neighbours. This book takes Manfred Kirchheimer on a personal quest for answers from his family and friends in Washington Heights. In a series of interviews, they recount their stories; stories of bewilderment at betrayal by friends and neighbours, of terror and grief as relatives disappear and families are uprooted, of amazement that this could happen in the highly civilized culture of Germany.