US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Counting on America: A Holocaust Memoir of Terror, Chutzpah, Romance and Escape
Gary Reiner, son of Holocaust survivors Kurt and Hennie, signs his newly published book Counting on America. The book illustrates the escalation of antisemitism following Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938 (the Anschluss) and the obstacles Jewish refugees faced trying to reach the shores of America.
In response to the Nazi invasion, newlyweds Kurt and Hennie Reiner flee Vienna. Their urgency to find safe haven accelerates when Kurt is imprisoned in Dachau. He is released but threatened with certain arrest unless he can find a legal way out of Germany. As the couple scramble to obtain visas, they are conscripted for work at Fischamend, an SS monitored farm labor camp. Next, their arduous escape path leads them to Marseille. After France declares war on Germany, Kurt is arrested as a “foreign enemy” and interned in a French prison. When their plan to emigrate to the United States is again thwarted, chutzpah, divine intervention, and their romantic commitment deliver salvation.
1–4 p.m.