Faris Cassell - The Unanswered Letter: One Holocaust Familys Desperate Plea for Help

Praise for The Unanswered Letter

The Unanswered Letter combines journalistic precision, compelling narrative, and deeply personal reflection in a profound human storyone with no easy answers, but many crucial questions and important insights. Its a story which we need now, perhaps more than ever. This is twenty-first-century Holocaust literature at its haunting best, inviting us all to consider the unanswered letters that call to each of us, in our lives and in todays world.

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership

I began reading Faris Cassells The Unanswered Letter as a courtesy, but I soon became absorbed in a fascinating story of her uncovering multiple stories behind a desperate plea for help, reuniting a family in search of its roots, and the grandparents they never knew, and soon discovering the essence of the Holocaust; it is not the story of six million anonymous victims but of one person, six million times. Her writing is powerful, her research prodigious, her human instinct for uniting people admirable, and her encounter with the Bergers and their descendants on three continents memorable. The result is a work of power and passion, depth and determination.

Michael Berenbaum, former project director at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and professor of Jewish Studies at American Jewish University

Farris Cassells The Unanswered Letter is a wonderful book about a terrible subject. I found it hard to put down. Its tender human moments of both desperation and loving care illuminate dark pages of the worlds history.

Larry McMurtry, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of Lonesome Dove

Like Daniel Mendelsohns magisterial The Lost, Faris Cassells The Unanswered Letter beautifully answers the question that plagues the study of the Holocaust: How can we possibly begin to comprehend the loss of six million European Jews? Beginning with a seventy-year-old plea for help, Cassell is able to reconstruct an entire world, centered on a family that loved, lost, and persevered bravely in the face of unimaginable terror. Through her painstaking research and engaging writing, Cassells readers will feel as if they know the Berger family, will comprehend the near-impossibility of escape, and will keep Alfred and Hedwig Berger, just two of six million, in their hearts. A dramatic, heartbreaking, and poignant book, a study in the power of remembrance.

Rebecca Erbelding, historian and author of Rescue Board

A journalists quest, a familys struggle against all odds, a unique perspective on the Holocaust. Faris Cassells The Unanswered Letter weaves history and memory together in her beautifully written and well-researched book. She also tells the story of the living members of the diasporic Berger clan, who through her work came to a greater understanding of their own past, a past marked not only by tragedy, but also by courage, determination, and survival.

Barbara Corrado Pope, author of The Blood of Lorraine, a novel of the Dreyfus era

Faris Cassell has done a masterful piece of research and writing; tracking a story as a journalist, she finds people and places with important stories to tell that will shed light on an evil past that can only make us better as we navigate the future. A MUST-READ!

Steven Ungerleider, psychologist, writer, and coproducer of HBO documentary At the Heart of Gold

This inspiring book, based on an entreaty for aid written by a Viennese Jewish couple in 1939, shares a moving personal foray into the complexities and horrors of twentieth-century Jewish life and the ongoing intricacies of JewishChristian relations. Cassells enthralling account of her search for the fates of Alfred and Hedwig Berger and their families during the Shoah details a remarkable journey that transformed everyone who took part in it.

Judith R. Baskin, Philip H. Knight Professor of Humanities Emerita, University of Oregon

As a book editor of thirty years, I can count on one hand the books I knew would be important, not just because they were well written, but because they could transform the reader and change the world. The Unanswered Letter: One Holocaust Familys Desperate Plea for Help, written by a Gentile journalist married to a Jewish doctor, traces an extended familys life, love, and attempted escapes based on the authors research after reading one Austrian couples desperate plea for sponsorship, and wondering what happened. The books message could not be more relevant to todays readers. It asks us to consider, Am I my brothers keeper? How can I help?

Elizabeth Lyon, independent book editor and bestselling author

In a master stroke of painstaking research, Cassell reveals in harrowing detail the history of the Anschluss and its devastating effects on a Viennese family desperate to survivea poignant and unforgettable journey of determination and discovery.

Georgia Hunter, bestselling author of We Were the Lucky Ones

Whats most striking about Faris Cassells The Unanswered Letter is this writers unwavering perseverance. Its as if shes set herself down to untangle a knot of precious gold chains, determined not to break a single one. We are in the hands of a dedicated researcher who comes at her subject with exquisite care and compassion, excavating one familys complex Holocaust legacy and allowing them, at last, to heal.

Debra Gwartney, author of Live Through This and professor of writing at Pacific University

Copyright 2020 by Faris Cassell

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, website, or broadcast.

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ISBN: 978-1-68451-017-7

eISBN: 978-1-68451-024-5

Cover design by Joshua Taggert

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020006043

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To Sidney, wing to wing

And to Sarah, Daniel, Jonathan, Mark, and Sam, who made lots of noise, asked questions like whats for dinner? made me laugh when I was working, and never lost faith