Over the Green Hill: A German Jewish Memoir, 1913-1943. - Hardcover

by Lotte Strauss (Author)

Originally published in Germany in 1997, Lotte Strauss's Over the Green Hill: Personal Memoir, Germany 1913-43, was begun in 1975 as a letter to her daughter. It took twenty years to write the complete story, and by then, was no longer a letter, but a book.

Lotte Strauss was born one year before the beginning of World War I. She spent her formative years observing how the mood of Post War Germany turned anti-Semitic. The Gestapo came for Strauss during October of 1942, stating that she was to join her parents on a 'resettlement' to the east. Realizing that to comply, that to take such orders would have dire consequences, Strauss managed to slip out the door of her apartment while the Gestapo's attention was momentarily diverted, and make it to her husband, Herbert in Berlin. The Strausses, together, spent the next six months hiding in Germany, planning for their escape, and continuing to evade the Gestapo by just seconds. In May, 1943, they managed to slip across the Swiss border.

Front Jacket

Originally published in Germany in 1997, Lotte Strauss's Over the Green Hill: A Personal Memoir, Germany 1913-43 was begun in 1975 as a letter to her daughter. It took twenty years to write the complete story, and by then it was no longer a letter, but a book.

Lotte Schloss (her maiden name) was born one year before the outbreak of World War I. She spent her formative years in a postwar Germany that grew more and more openly antisemitic.

The Gestapo came for Lotte Schloss in October 1942 in Berlin; she was to join her parents in a "resettlement" to the "East". Realizing that to comply would likely prove fatal, she escaped with the help of her future husband, Herbert Strauss. After months in hiding, she reached Switzerland in May of 1943 and was reunited with Herbert.

The title, Over the Green Hill, is explained by the author in her opening chapter: "Often I see a picture in my mind of hundreds of people marching up a green hill; they come in groups, singly or in pairs, talking to each other, holding each other's hands. After they reach the top of the hill, they walk right down the other side without turning their heads: first their bodies disappear, then their heads. They are gone! I know that I will never see them again".

Author Biography

Lotte Strauss lives in New York City with her husband, Herbert.