A Jewish Family Couldnt Flee Nazi Germany. So They Wrote Letters to Strangers in America Asking For Help

Published: Sept. 1, 2020, 6:35 a.m.

b'In 1939, as the Nazis closed in, Alfred Berger mailed a desperate letter to an American stranger who happened to share his last name. He and his wife, Viennese Jews, had found escape routes for their daughters. But now their money, connections, and emotional energy were nearly exhausted. Alfred begged the American recipient of the letter, \\u201cYou are surely informed about the situation of all Jews in Central Europe\\u2026.By pure chance I got your address\\u2026.My daughter and her husband will go\\u2026to America\\u2026.help us to follow our children\\u2026.It is our last and only hope\\u2026.\\u201d

After languishing in a California attic for over sixty years, Alfred\\u2019s letter came by chance into Faris Cassell\\u2019s possession. Questions flew off the page at her. Did the Bergers\\u2019 desperate letter get a response? Did they escape the Nazis? Were there any living descendants?

Today\\u2019s guest, Faris Cassell, author of the book The Unanswered Letter, discusses many things, including a previously unknown opportunity to assassinate Hitler\\u2014to which the Bergers were connected.'