Escape to Virginia

February 1, 2016
Grades 9-12 Gillette tells the story of two German Jewish teens who escaped Nazi persecution in part thanks to Gross Breesen, an agricultural project begun early in Hitler's rise to power, which was designed to train future farmers. Werner Topper Angress and Eva Jacobsohn both had to leave the program early, since their families were fleeing Germany, but both found their way to the farm, in Virginia. The farm was purchased and set up by department-store owner Robert Thalhimer as a haven for the Gross Breesen refugees. Gillette calls his narrative creative history though his account is not fictionalized, he nonetheless strives to make it read like a novel. Mostly, he succeeds: Gillette is an excellent storyteller, and the details he uses so illustratively are from primary sources, such as letters, diaries, photos, and other personal narratives. Although Eva sometimes seems too good to be true, overall, this is an engrossing and informative study of a less familiar corner of a much-covered period. Ample source notes make this a solid choice for student research.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)