Escaping Hitler: A Jewish Haven in Chile - Paperback

by Eva Goldschmidt Wyman (Author)

A family's flight from Nazi terror to an unexpected refuge in Chile.

Escaping Hitler is the personal story of Eva Wyman and her family's escape from Nazi Germany to Chile in the sociohistorical context of 1930s and 1940s, a time when the Chilean Nazi party had an active presence in the country's major institutions.

Based primarily on interviews with German Jewish refugees and family correspondence, Eva Goldschmidt Wyman provides an intimate account of Jews in Germany in the 1930s as Nazi controls tightened and family members were taken to Riga concentration camp. Wyman recounts Kristallnacht in Stuttgart, where her father was principal of the Jewish school, his imprisonment in Dachau, and his release and immigration to Great Britain. Escaping Hitler details the family's escape from Germany and subsequent life in Chile, providing an intimate look at daily life on the steam ship Conte Grande during the voyage from Italy to Chile in 1939, Nazi espionage and anti-Semitic activity in Chile, and the Nazi influence in South America in general.

Recounted in an intimate and personal style, Escaping Hitler immerses the reader in an extraordinary chapter of contemporary Jewish history both inside Germany and South America.

Author Biography

Eva Goldschmidt Wyman was born in 1934 in Stuttgart, Germany, and emigrated to Chile in 1939 and to the United States in 1965. She earned a BA in English as a Second Language from the Universidad de Chile and an MA in Latin American and Spanish Literature from the University of Washington, Seattle. Her publications include Los Poetas y El General: Voces de oposición en Chile bajo Augusto Pinochet, 1973-1989 / The Poets and the General: Chile's Voices of Dissent under Augusto Pinochet, 1973-1989 and Huyendo del Infierno Nazi: La inmigración judio-alemana hacia Chile en los años treinta.