Overview

Louis and Jenni Böhm were a middle-class Jewish couple who established a thriving business and raised a family in a small country town in Upper Silesia in 1885. The book follows the fortunes of the family over a period of 70 years, during which their peaceful and prosperous existence is gradually eroded as they are forced to suffer increasing humiliation and ostracisation under the Nazi regime imposed on pre-war Germany by Adolf Hitler. The more fortunate members of the family manage to escape to freedom in the UK, USA, Shanghai, Palestine, Peru and Australia, but a horrific fate awaits those left behind as they suffer the indignity of being arrested as pariahs and sent to their deaths in Auschwitz and Theresienstadt during the Holocaust. The end of WWII sees the destruction of their homeland, the total obliteration of every trace of their former life and the expulsion of all remaining Germans as this part of Germany is handed over to Poland in 1945. But, for the surviving members of the Böhm family, this is not the end but the beginning of an era of renewal hope as the second and third generations of this remarkable family build a new life founded firmly on those values and aspirations first instilled in them by Louis and Jenni.

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9789493231306

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Reviews

"""Unlike many books focussed on the atrocities of the camps, this is a hugely informative and interesting book telling the history of an extended Jewish family through the eyes and words of a descendant. A slice of history told by Ron Vincent from a unique perspective."" - Steve Obrien ""Powerful personal account of a family torn apart by the Holocaust and scattered across four continents. Well-researched and written by Mr Vincent and with a strong emotional angle as he begins to understand about what made him and where hecame from."" - Graham Nockels"

Author Information

Ron Vincent was born and brought up in South Wales by a German mother and English father. After completing his secondary school education in Wales, he went on to study at the University of Nottingham and, in 1977, graduated with honours in German and Philosophy and embarked on a career in sales and business consulting that was to last for almost 30 years. From an early age, Ron was fascinated with his German/Jewish background and gradually became more and more curious about what his mother and her family had experienced during the Holocaust and in the years following the Second World War. In 2007, he settled permanently in Germany and, having decided to move out of the commercial sector, returned to his first love of teaching and is still actively working in this area, although he is now semi-retired. In 2019, he became a German citizen. Always passionate about writing and the English language, he succeeded in getting some of his poetry published whilst still a teenager. In addition to poetry, he has also written a number of short stories and, over the years, has contributed numerous articles to both local and national newspapers. In addition to completing ‘The House on Thrömerstrasse’, he has also been working on his autobiography which is now nearing completion and has begun conducting the research for a second Holocaust memoir which he expects to complete during 2022. In addition to his passion for writing, Ron is an accomplished pianist who has enjoyed a lifelong love-affair with all kinds of music and, for many years, played publicly in restaurants and at social and business functions. He has never lost interest in philosophy, still reads extensively and is particularly interested in the themes of personal identity, ethics and the connection between social behaviour and spirituality. He is married and has a grown-up son and daughter, both of whom live in the UK.

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