THE BOOK FAIR

AN UNCOMMON

      JOURNEY

Review:

“An Uncommon Journey” depicts the lives of the Wacs family.  The Wacs, a Jewish family residing in Vienna, in order to survive, were forced to flee Austria during WW II.  The story is told through the alternating perspectives of Deborah Strobin and her brother, and co-author, Ilie Wacs.

 

Moritz, a tailor and Henia, a beauty queen and housewife, raise their two children in Vienna during the rise of Hitler.   Only with the help of a non-Jewish Austrian did the family manage to escape the Nazis and board a ship for Shanghai, the only city willing to accept and harbor Jews and refugees without restrictions.  The book depicts the lifestyle of the Wacs family before the war, the escape from Austria, the culture shock and difficulties of living in Shanghai, and their eventual travel to and subsequent life in America.

 

Comments:

Terse in style, the book focuses a short portion on pre war Vienna, a short, detailed segment in Shanghai, and largely on the individual family members acclimating to New York, and subsequently, their varied lives, marriages, careers, and families.