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Haven: The Dramatic Story of 1,000 World War II Refugees and How They Came to America | 
 enlarge | Author: Ruth Gruber
Creator: Dava Sobel
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $2.00
You Save: $12.00 (86%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 330601
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 3 x 0.9
ISBN: 081293301X
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5308691
EAN: 9780812933017
ASIN: 081293301X
Publication Date: June 13, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: 100% Satisfaction..
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Product Description
Basis for the CBS Mini-series Starring Natasha Richardson.
"The words leaped at me from The Washington Post. 'I have decided,' President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced, 'that approximately 1,000 refugees should be immediately brought from Italy to this country.' One thousand refugees....For years, refugees knocking on the doors of American consulates abroad had been told, 'You cannot enter America. The quotas are filled.' And, while the quotas remained untouchable ... millions died."
With this mixture of desperation and hope, Ruth Gruber begins Haven, the inspiring story of one thousand Jewish and Christian refugees brought to sanctuary in America in 1944. As special assistant to Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, Gruber was selected to carry out this top-secret mission despite the objections of military brass who doubted the thirty-three-year-old woman's qualifications. When Gruber met the gaunt survivors, they told her about hiding in sewers and forests, of risking their lives to save others. As she wrote down their stories, tears often wiped out the words in her notebook.
Gruber became the refugees' guardian angel during the dangerous crossing of the U-boat-haunted Atlantic, and during their eighteen-month internment at a former army camp in Oswego, New York. Lobbying Congress at the end of the war, she also helped the refugees become American citizens. This edition concludes with a new chapter featuring Gruber's look back on her many decades as a crusading journalist, and a special Appendix from the 1946 Congressional Record listing the names of all the camp's residents.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Interesting, Moving, Well Written October 27, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Ruth Gruber describes her journey accompanying 1,000 Jewish and Christian refugees who are brought from Italy to American and saved from the Nazis during the Holocaust. She recounts many of their amazing and moving stories of survival as well as the difficulties during their journey.
I thought her account was very interesting, what an exciting life Ms. Gruber has led. Though this book centers around the journey involving the 1,000 was refugees I thought it was really about Ruth Gruber and her experiences during WWII and after.
I was moved by the refugee's stories of survival and frustrated by the bureaucratic politicians and the excruciating amount of time it took for them to make important decisions. But I was happy to learn of the many varied service organizations who offered their help to the refugees and how most of the people of Oswego, NY welcomed them, offering food, clothing, shoes and even a bicycle.
I was surprised where Anti-Semitism lived, even in the heart of soldiers who fought in the war.
I thought this was a very well organized account of an important part of history. And I would recommend it to anyone interested in this time in our history.
 A story of rescue September 13, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is the story of the rescue of one- thousand Jewish refugees from the death they would have suffered at the hands of the Nazis. It is written by an American- born woman Ruth Gruber who was appointed by the Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes to accompany the refugees and help them wherever possible. Gruber who already was a known writer and photojournalist proved to be a lion- hearted defender of the refugees. In part it was her work which made it possible for them to stay in the United States and resettle there after the war.
Gruber shows great courage and determination, and human sympathy in her relation to the refugees. She interviews and speaks with them and tells their often heartbreaking stories.
Behind the difficulty of their entering the U.S. and being allowed to stay is another story. That of the hundreds of thousands of Jews who might have lived had the doors been open.
 Best way to get negative feedback? February 25, 2006
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
Be critical of something that is politically, rather than artistically, correct. This is not a bad book. But it is not as wonderful is described. Though she tries to build a sense of uncertainty, we know they get to stay. So the suspense is phony. The endless name-dropping and self-congratulation are wearying and add little. (When I was having lunch with Golda...OK, enough!)
But the interesting aspect of this story is the battle between law and guts. When the law says one thing, but the heart another, every "reasonable person" believes law should be cast aside when it is inconvenient. We had laws about immigration during this time, and the author and her fawning readers know that their worthy needs should trump those laws. But then what is the point of law? If it is just a guideline, something that applies to others, but in my case, where the need is great, it should be ignored, then what does law mean. I really need my two pair to beat your full house? Those who said "We have existing law, and it means something" are treated as cold-hearted fools and naive thugs. Even Truman, when announcing the refugees could stay (all of whom signed an agreement saying they would be repatriated after the war) allowed them to stay at the expense of others. The were applied to the existing quotas.
Now I'm not saying they should not have been allowed to stay, nor that we were amiss in not saving more. I wish we had rescued millions; the world and the US would be a better place if we had. I am saying that if the law is treated as an inconvenience and an impediment, we get...well, we get what we have now, where we all feel free to make it up for ourselves as needed.
Excellent book! May 11, 2005
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Gripping retelling by Ms. Gruber, who shepharded nearly 1000 refugees from Italy on the Liberty ship, the Henry Gibbons. Afterward, the refugees set up at a camp called Camp Oswego, near Lake Ontario in New York.
At the war's end, the refugees are supposed to go home to their native lands, but Ms. Gruber lobbies everyone in the US government that will listen to her to let them stay. At long last, they are free.
Their stories of persecution and heartbreak will bring tears to your eyes. The refugees learn much about America, but they had, and still have, much to teach us as well.
A great, hard-to-put-down book.
Incredible author writing about difficult topic! March 6, 2003
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Ruth Gruber writes with the same poise with which she speaks, from the heart! The simplicity of her text somehow magically draws one into the times about which she writes. She writes about difficult subjects yet it is impossible to put down her books. I've been devouring them all.
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