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Reviewed by Raanan Geberer for Readers' Favorite
There are probably hundreds of books about the fate of Eastern European Jews during the Holocaust, but relatively few about the fate of German Jews during the same period. Even fewer focus on German families who escaped not to America or British-ruled Palestine, but to England. Such a book is From Time to Time by Helen Joyce. It details the history of her family: the wealthy Werner family from Eschwege in Hesse, Germany. The book focuses on four people: World War I veteran Moritz, his wife Jenny, their son Max, and Max’s unhappy Viennese wife Klari. We follow the family to London, where they make a reasonably good adjustment. After the war, Moritz travels back to Germany and reclaims the family business. In the background, but coming closer and closer, is the then-new state of Israel, where other relatives have settled.
Helen Joyce is an excellent writer. She doesn’t need to tell her readers, in page after page, how wealthy the Werner family is. Instead, she shows us how, for example, they casually drive their Mercedes-Benz the way other people might drive their Chevrolet or their Ford. She doesn’t describe the rise of Nazism with lengthy historical and political prose; instead, she shows how Max is terrorized at school by members of the Hitler Youth. When Joyce does bring in well-known historical events, for example, Hitler’s invasion of Austria or the bombing of London, it’s always to show their effect on the family and, by implication, other members of their community. If you’re interested in the history of pre-World War II German Jews and how they fared later on in other countries, From Time to Time is a very good place to start.
