Author Michael Dobbs Reflects On How A Small Town In Germany Was Affected By The Holocaust

In Michael Dobbs’ book, “The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught In Between,” the author reveals the moral failure that was American policy toward Jewish refugees in the 1930s.

The night when Nazis attacked the Jewish families of Kippenheim, the event is also known as Kristallnacht, was a turning point for these communities. The next four years brought dispossession, unlawful arrests and sentencing to concentration camps. In telling the specific stories of a few Jewish families from a village in Germany’s Black Forest, Dobbs provides a personal perspective on the otherwise enormous tragedy of the Holocaust.

“In order to understand what happened (during the Holocaust), I think, as a former journalist, you can capture people’s imagination more clearly if you focus on the individuals,” said Dobbs.