Frenchy

On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Jeannette Marx was just twelve years old at the time but still recalls being "frightened" at the news. Her Uncle Benno, a prominent Social Democrat in the Reichstag, had already fled to England. Before leaving, and well aware that Hitler posed an ominous threat to German Jews, he practically begged Jeannette's father, Salomon, to take the family and "get out!" But for Salomon, a decorated World War I veteran, to leave the Fatherland, his livelihood, and his extended family behind, was unthinkable; certainly Hitler "would not last."

Nazi propaganda, book burnings, physical attacks, and Kristallnacht-Night of Broken Glass-Jeannette would witness them all, then barely escape herself. Forced to leave her family behind, this Jewish teenager would intentionally put herself in harm's way to help save the lives of others to "get back at Hitler." Jeannette joined the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service and asked to be placed at the East End of the docks, "where it was the worst." There, she would perform heroic acts of courage and valor as bombs fell all around.

The sweet victory and celebration of Hitler's defeat would prove to be short-lived as Jeannette discovers the shocking truth about his "Final solution." Had her parents and the rest of her family somehow escaped?

Jeannette's own words, personal letters, and photographs, plus rare journal entries, illuminate and personalize this most difficult time in history.