All for You

A World War II Family Memoir of Love, Separation, and Loss

Dena Rueb Romero

• Publisher: She Writes Press
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN:
  9781647426552
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religious Biographies

Emil, a Jewish man in 1930s Germany, loves Deta, a Lutheran, but Nazi racial purity laws forbid their marriage. Desperate to find a place where their love can survive, they must separate to get away. Deta leaves for England, but Emil has to overcome red tape, resistance from his aging parents, and his own ambivalence before he can embark for America. With only telegrams and letters from Deta to sustain him, he does all he can to bring her and his family to America. But the clock is ticking as the war breaks out and the Nazis tighten their stranglehold.

From the heartbreaking news of November 10, 1938 (Kristallnacht) to the horrific revelations after the German surrender in 1945, Emil’s story runs the course of the war. Can he make his way in this new world? Will he be reunited with his beloved Deta? And will he ever see his family again?

Told by Emil’s daughter with the help of letters and historical documents, All for You is a true story about love overcoming despair and the impact the Holocaust continues to have on the rising generation.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Author’s Note
• Prelude: Two Departures
• 1. Emil’s Early Years
• 2. How Deta Got Her Name
• 3. A House with All the Trimmings
• 4. Sunshine
• 5. Upheaval (1933)
• 6. Deta Responds to Hitler
• 7. Postcards across the Channel (1937–1938)
• 8. Entr’acte (1938)
• 9. Transatlantic Conversations (1938)
• 10. Blurry Photos: Bad Days
• 11. Aftermath: The House Is Cold
• 12. State of Affairs (December 1938)
• 13. A New Year (1939)
• 14. Another Departure (March 12, 1939)
• 15. A Passover—of Sorts (1939)
• 16. Tensions and Hopes (Summer 1939)
• 17. In England (Fall 1939)
• 18. In Germany (Fall 1939)
• 19. Everyone Is Waiting (January–June 1940)
• 20. Island Internment, Part 1 (1940)
• 21. Island Internment, Part 2 (1940)
• 22. The Clock Is Ticking (1940)
• 23. Under Pressure (1941)
• 24. Standing Alone (March–September 1941)
• 25. “Evacuation” (November 1941)
• 26. Darkening Days (September 1941–January 1942)
• 27. War Preparations in Hanover (1942)
• 28. Into the Fall (1942)
• 29. Washington Answers (1943)
• 30. A Year of Unfinished Business (1944)
• 31. Endings and Beginnings (January–June 1945)
• 32. News from Guntersblum (July 1945)
• 33. All for Each Other (1945)
• 34. Finale—Part One (1946)
• 35. 1946—Part Two
• Epilogue—from Emil and Deta’s Daughter
• Hanover, New Hampshire
• Notes
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Selected Titles from She Writes Press