Golden America

Book excerpt: “I was born in a small town in Germany at the wrong time in history, the beginning of the Nazi era.” Altura recalls how one early November evening, about forty Schutztaffel men break down the door of their home, destroy all their belongings, and drag her father out onto the street where they proceed to beat him nearly to death. He is then placed in a prison cell before being shipped off to Dachau concentration camp. That traumatic experience, the first of several Altura would soon endure, marked the end of her childhood, just two weeks after her seventh birthday; and signified the beginning of ten agonizing years of surviving the Holocaust. More fortunate than most, however, her family is ultimately reunited and immigrate to “golden America.” Shortly after settling in the United States, her mother—the family’s saving grace—succumbs to brain cancer, leaving Altura in profound sadness. After a painful past, she finally finds a sense of purpose and fulfillment working in a lab where she meets her future husband, Burt, who introduces her to the joys of living.