While 6 million Jews perished in the Holocaust, what happened to the thousands who managed to escape before the "Final Solution?" Until now, their story has not been fully told. The Uprooted: A Hitler Legacy describes their lives before and under Hitler, their various legal and illegal escapes from the Third Reich, how they reconstituted their lives, and the profound emotional impact that has lasted to the present day. Based on the compelling recollections of 190 Jewish escapees now living in ten countries, The Uprooted conveys the terror under Hitler, the unremitting hunt for documents, visas, passports, and escape routes - with luck often deciding between life and death.

A postcard written by a Jewish girl orphan while traveling to safety in Holland after leaving her parents in Germany -- never to see them again. "We must tidy up now because now comes passport control. Greetings and kisses. Don't be sad, Mommy. I am not either."

Many of the escapees wandered for years before finding a final place of settlement. The Uprooted describes their enduring fortitude and the various paths taken by different escapees- to Shanghai, where they lived in utter poverty and under the malevolent eye of the Japanese; onto the infamous ship, the "Dunera," used by the British to ship them as "enemy aliens" to live behind barbed wire in the dry, dusty interior of Australia; to remote mountains in Ecuador where they attempted to scratch a living from the rocky soil. One heart-rending account tells of 10,000 Jewish children who, just before World War II, were separated from their parents and brought to Britain on "Kindertransports." From babes-in-arms to adolescents, they were loaded on trains so crowded that the younger ones were placed in luggage racks above the older ones. 

Nazis posting signs on a Jewish store: "GERMANS! DEFEND YOURSELVES! Don't buy from Jews!"