Award-winning journalist Ruth Gruber’s powerful account of a top-secret mission to rescue one thousand European refugees in the midst of World War II
In 1943, nearly one thousand European Jewish refugees from eighteen different countries were chosen by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration to receive asylum in the United States. All they had to do was get there.
Ruth Gruber, with the support of Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, volunteered to escort them on their secret route across the Atlantic from a port in Italy to a “safe haven” camp in Oswego, New York. The dangerous endeavor carried the threat of Nazi capture with each passing day.
While on the ship, Gruber recorded the refugees’ emotional stories and recounts them here in vivid detail, along with the aftermath of their arrival in the US, which involved a fight for their right to stay after the war ended.
The result is a poignant and engrossing true story of suffering under Nazi persecution and incredible courage in the face of overwhelming circumstances.
Ruth Gruber, special assistant to Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, tells about her experiences carrying out a mission to bring one thousand Jewish and Christian refugees from Italy in 1944, and discusses her efforts on their behalf once they arrived in America.
“A visceral jolt.” —The New York Times
“Everyone concerned about courage in a grievous time will want to read Haven . . . An enduring and inspiring gift.” —Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt
