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Once They Had a Country: Two Teenage Refugees in the Second World War
Once They Had a Country Two Teenage Refugees in the Second World War Author:Muriel R. Gillick Once They Had A Country is the coming-of-age story of two teenage Jewish refugees, Hans and Ilse, searching for safety during World War II. After leaving Nazi Germany aboard a children's transport in 1939, their journey takes them from an orphanage in Belgium, to a Red Cross children's colony in France, to the frigid neutr... more »al outpost of Switzerland, and finally, having been refused residency in Switzerland after the war, to New York City.
Gillick captures her parents' story with enormous warmth and scrupulous attention to historical detail. It is a heartrending tale of chance that illuminates the experience of refugees and illustrates the origins of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the basis of contemporary international law affecting refugees in many countries today.« less