The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught in Between (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

For the Jewish villagers of Kippenheim, no challenge was as urgent or formidable as escaping Nazi Germany, often by acquiring American visas. In his book, The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught in Between, Michael Dobbs painstakingly documents how several members of this small community struggled to find refuge and what obstacles stood in their way.

Deported to unoccupied France in October 1940, the refugees continued their visa quest, even as the Nazis planned further deportations to the East. Interned in grim concentration camps, they became entangled in bureaucratic red tape. Some perished in the camps; others were deported to Auschwitz. Those who survived by reaching the U.S. understood all too well that an American immigration visa often meant the difference between life and death.

Read more here. This event is in Chicago, IL. Find other USHMM events around the country here.