I have studied World War II for years, especially emphasizing the Holocaust. This is by far the best description I have ever read detailing the progression of Nazism and its effect on urbanized people who considered themselves more German than Jewish.The writing is superb, chronicling not only facts but human responses to those facts. The writer is skilled in descriptions of events, displaying not just knowledge but wisdom and even a subtle compassionate understanding of human reaction to those events. It's an amazing book.Starting with a short narrative of the Great War, the Versailles Treaty and the resulting conditions in Prussia, it winds its way through life in Berlin at the start of the National Socialist Workers Party and the Nazi takeover of the German government after the collapse of the Weimar Republic. We follow the author's father through a childhood that descends into the enveloping darkness of Nazism, with his family from 'normal' to oppression to fear-filled, hungry, poverty stricken existence. Escaping from Germany one month before the implementation of the Wannsee conference policy that ended the emigration lifeline for European Jews, it details their struggle to adjust to American life. It ends with his experience in the US Army and subsequent return to New York and the family he begins. It is written using the journal the author's father kept, with some interpretation and understanding from the author's discussions and knowledge of her father.I understand much better now the progression of Nazism and why so many lived in denial, why so many were afraid to leave, how difficult escape was even using the legal channels. And how difficult is was to start over in an alien environment.The depth of the writing can't be overstated. I am enriched for having read it.