World War II fiction is prevalent these days. However, in We Were Strangers Once, author Betsy Carter takes a somewhat different approach. Drawing on personal events, she tells the tale of several German Jews who managed to escape to the US in the 1930s as refugees of impending war. The focus of her novel is on their individual experiences as newly arrived immigrants in New York City. Primarily the story of Dr. Egon Schneider and the Irish woman he meets, Catrina Hartry, Carter skillfully includes the varied events of their friends as each tries to fit in to their new country, or in some cases doesn't. A very satisfying read.

Amazing wording and detail used throughout. The descriptions of the characters were authentic and believable. It grabbed me, drew me in, and didn’t let go until the end. Would definitely recommend this to history lovers as a tale of endurance and strength.

'We Were Strangers Once' a poignant story about immigrants
By SANDY MAHAFFEY FOR THE FREE LANCE–STAR Oct 14, 2017
The release of Betsy Carter’s “We Were Strangers Once” seems to be perfectly timed. Although it takes place in the years leading up to World War II, many of the issues we face even today. It is a poignant story about immigrants to America trying to assimilate into its culture and make a good life for themselves.

The book is dedicated “To everyone from somewhere else,” followed by a quote from President Obama: “My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.”

Egon Schneider led a privileged life in Germany, the only child of Rudolph and Elizabeth, who spent their careers studying the birds of Europe. He wrote the text and she drew the illustrations for what would become a world-renowned book. Egon chose a different path in life, becoming a skilled and respected ophthalmologist.

But on the eve of World War II, his college friend Meyer convinces him that it is time that they, as Jews, escape Germany, so he makes his way to New York City, where he meets up with Meyer and a small group of other Jewish immigrants struggling to make their way. The only job Egan can find is work in a deli. Meyer, a respected writer, walks the sidewalks wearing a sandwich board promoting a local business. Egon befriends the daughter of Irish immigrants, so their plight is also seen.

Work is not the only obstacle, as they all struggle to learn English and speak clearly enough to be understood. They face prejudice and ridicule. I found the characters very believable, if not all likable. Their persistence, strength and courage shine through and they manage to keep each others’ spirits up. Their personalities are very diverse, and the road is definitely a bit bumpy with betrayals, disappointment and some problems with the law.

Carter has provided a very readable, compassionate, realistic look at the perseverance, hope and challenge facing immigrants trying to transition in a new home.


Meyer, who eventually gets a job writing for a newspaper, expresses it very well.

“Right now ours are small lives. We are mired in our work and survival, and it is on these things we must focus. But let us never lose sight of the fact that someday, we will have children, and our legacy and duty to them is to break out of our mental and physical ghettos, let in fresh air, and once again become citizens of the world.”

Sandy Mahaffey is a former Books editor for The Free Lance-Star.
WE WERE STRANGERS ONCE

By Betsy Carter

(Grand Central, $26, 336 pp.)

Publication: Sept. 12

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for my review. I have read a lot of WWII novels, but I haven't read many about Germans who were able to get out of Germany and safely make it to the US to start over again. That is what makes this story of Egon Schneider and his friend Meyer Leavitt so unique. Egon was a respected ophthalmologist and a ladies man when he was in Germany, but now he is simply known as The Cheese Man, because he hands out slices of cheese in his new job. I always marvel at the courage of immigrants who leave behind family and highly respected jobs behind to come to this country, learn a new language and take low paying jobs to get established in their new country. Betsy Carter does a sensitive job of showing the balance between not letting go of your past while trying to embrace a new life in a new country. It was well written, just got a bit long at times.

Aware of how the times are changing, a group of German Jews are fortunate enough to be able to leave their country before Hitler can implement his final Solution. They settle in Manhattan, take whatever jobs they can get, and though the jobs they take are far from the positions they held in their home country, they try to stay hopeful.

New relationships, periods of adjustment we follow a core group of characters. A slightly different type of WWII book, because these were the lucky ones but they still have family and friends in Germany who are at risk. I'm not sure why I didn't connect with this more, but I really neither liked nor disliked the characters, and the narrative seemed rather flat. This has a timely and good message about the trials and tribulations of immigrants, in fact the Irish immigrant experience is also included in the plot. Should have liked it more, many other readers did, so let's just say a worthy read, but expected more.

ARC from Netgalley.

It took me a little while to get into this book. Even though Egon's parents are rich and famous, they are very strange. They don't really like people other than each other and that was fine by me. I felt really sorry for Egon. His mother included him in things, but after she died, he was pretty much on his own.

This story takes place before and during the round up of the Jews. Egon and his friends saw it happening but could not believe that it could happen to them. They finally left Europe, Egon an ophthalmologist, and his friend, Meyer, was an author. When they got to America, both were neither of those. They were not citizens and their fame in Europe stayed there.

I really enjoyed the story especially the articles that Meyer would write about his group of friends. I found it very interesting how long it took people to figure out what exactly was going on with the Jews. I guess because it was too horrific to believe. And, each character had their own feelings and thoughts about what was happening or not happening.

I was kind of sad when the book ended, as I had to leave them.

Thanks to Grand Central Publishing and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

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A fabulous family saga

Loved it.

Highly recommend

Beautiful story of German Jews coming to America during Hitler's reign. Beautiful, heart wrenching and heart warming story.

Egon Schneider is the son of naturalists; his father wrote about birds, wildflowers, his mother was the illustrator of those books. They were well known as a couple, and were referred to as the Audubons of Europe. They loved their work and each other, almost to the exclusion of everything and everyone else. When Egon was a boy, they observed him in much the same manner that they observed the birds that provided the means of their livelihood. To him, to his mother, the birds were their family, as well.

One day, as Egon is heading to the bakery for some challah, he is approached by a one-legged man leaning on his crutch, offering a shoelace for a “few pennies.” His old science teacher.

People, his parents included, don’t want to believe what is happening in their beloved country. They close their eyes and ears to the possibilities of what may come.

Egon wants nothing more than to leave the old world behind, his parents’ world. He sets his sights on studying anatomy, and it is at the university in Berlin that he meets Meyer Leavitt, who shares his room in the dormitory. They will remain lifelong friends. By 1934, Egon is a highly respected ophthalmologist in Frankfurt, and Meyer is in Berlin working for Ullstein Verlag publishing company as a senior editor, and author of a children’s book.

A year later, the Nuremberg Laws were passed. Jews were no longer citizens of Germany. Life changed. Jobs were lost, no one wanted to hire Jews, no one wanted to work with them. New laws were passed every day, laws designed to make life impossible for any one who was Jewish. Little by little, it affected them all. Even those like Egan, a doctor. Little by little. That, of course, was the objective.

When Egon finally comes to realize that this “nonsense” won’t be passing anytime soon, he relents, starts the sixteen month-long process of getting his paperwork in order to leave for America, where Meyer already awaits, having helped obtain an affidavit of support for Egon. And so, he leaves the only home he’s known, and taking with him what will fit into a single suitcase. Along with a ship filled with others who, too, have gone to look for their dreams in America.

While Egon finds employment with the aid of Meyer’s connections, it is a considerable step down from being a respected doctor, but he knows that he is lucky to find employment at a local deli as the “Cheese Man.” As more immigrants arrive, tensions rise and he finds that Americans aren’t always as welcoming as he had hoped or believed.

There is a girl, or two, perhaps, although he is shy Egon is a handsome man, and can be charming when he wants. And eventually maybe love or one kind or another, followed by jealousy. Families getting together, some accepting Egon, Egon’s friends from Germany guardedly accepting his friendship with another immigrant – a young Irish woman. Not wanting to trust one outside their inner circle at first, but as time passes, walls slowly fade away. Friendship. Love. Redemption.

The Dedication in this book reads: ”To everyone from somewhere else,” the epigraph is a quote from Barack Obama’s Address to the Nation on Immigration: “My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.” Even the fictional Meyer Leavitt is quoted in Aufbau, a journal created for German-speaking Jews which was founded in 1934, saying “America is a land of refugees and immigrants. Everyone was once a stranger here.” If we didn’t immigrate to America, chances are our ancestors did.

Many thanks to my goodreads friend, Angela, who read this recently, and it was through her wonderful review I found this book. Her review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...



Published: 12 Sep 2017


Many thanks, also, for the ARC provided by Grand Central Publishing

I was going to hold off on reading this, having read several books in the last year or so on the refugee experience. This one though, didn't take place in the current day, but before WWII and I thought about immigrants from our history even earlier than this time when my grandparents came to this country. It's probably something that many of us think about with the current focus on immigration and the title certainly resonated for me and then the dedication "To everyone from somewhere else". The epigraph sealed the deal. I couldn't hold off after reading : "My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too." - Barack Obama

I thought I'd be taken immediately to New York where this group of German Jews, are connected by knowing each in Germany. We come to know them at first when they are still in Germany in the 1930's. It's not a Holocaust survivor novel per se because none of these characters are taken to the camps but they do ultimately survive the camps, because they were fortunate enough to have escaped that by immigrating a decade before the war. Egon, an ophthalmologist who works in a deli, his college friend Meyer, a writer advertises with a sandwich board , a young woman from a well to do family who has never worked a day in her life has to work in a five and dime are among the people in this group that stay connected, meet weekly and remain in many ways separate from the world they now live in. That is until Egon brings Catrina, an American woman, daughter of Irish immigrants into the group.

I enjoyed the writing from the beginning and was able to connect with the characters from the beginning and when called on at a time when Egon is facing a tough challenge, their friendship and support is flawless. A few words on the book description - this is not in the least bit like The Nightingale and perhaps remotely like Brooklyn. I wasn't disappointed in the least with this story which wasn't without its sadness but yet was uplifting in the friendship, love, and hope that is depicted here while these characters try to keep some of their former selves in a new life. Meyer eventually writes a column for a German Jewish newspaper and says, "Right now ours are small lives. We are mired in our work and our survival, and it is on these things we must focus. But let us never lose sight of the fact that someday, we will have children, and our legacy and duty to them is to break out of our mental and physical ghettos, let in fresh air, and once again become citizens of the world."

I received an advanced copy of this book from Grand Central Publishing through NetGalley

I’ve never read any books by this author and I don’t know if this is her regular style of writing. But it sounds as the author is trying to tell the whole story in one breath. You can’t even get into the period time, especially of the war, with such rush-through style of writing. It is not the style of writing I like to read. Therefore, I’m not the right reviewer for this book. There are others who appreciate this style of writing and they will reveal veracious reviews.

We were Strangers Once by Betsey Carter is the story of immigrants in America. A story told in three parts. Part 1 opens in the Old Country, Germany 1890 with 21 year old Elisabeth Arnstein meeting with Professor Rudolph Schneider about an illustration job for his books. The two eventually marry and have their son, Egon. Egon grows to love animals as his parents do but when it’s time to head to university, he decides to study medicine. At university, he meets his roommate, Meyer Leavitt, who is there to be a writer. As Egon graduates and establishes his practice, the outside world starts to intrude. It soon becomes apparent that it is no longer safe for Egon to be in Germany. He leaves in 1928. Part 2 opens in the New Country, New York City 1904 with Rose McFadden in Hell’s Kitchen when she meets Ryan Walsh. They are both Irish immigrants from County Mayo. They marry and have four children which only two survives. Ryan soon finds himself unable to care for his young family and he leaves for Chicago never to return. Rose now must raise her children, Catrina and Kiefer, on her own. Catrina grows up head strong and her path of failed love, she meets Egon. Part 3 opens as the war in Europe is raging but America has yet to join the fight. Catrina, who was born in America and Catholic, and Egon and his German friends, who are recent immigrants and Jewish, learn to interact and live in the land of the free. Some find it hard to assimilate and find the anti-German, anti-Semitic sentiment become too hard to endure. When Egon is threated to be deportation and returned to his certain death, friends of all races and religions band together to fight to keep Egon in the country. Will they be successful? Will Egon have his American Dream?
I thoroughly enjoyed We were Strangers Once. While reading it, I will guarantee you will be on a roller coaster of emotions. Sadness, fear, elation but the one I felt the most was anger. Anger at the horrible attitudes Egon and his friends experience as they try to rebuild a life in American after the horrors they left behind. However, I feel it is an accurate depiction of what immigrants experienced as they came to the land of the free with dreams and promises of opportunity. Their fight is real and the tensions are high. But somehow the different cultures learn to come together when it matters. The story ends in June 1941. I would have liked to have seen the characters’ reactions in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack. I highly recommend We were Strangers Once

We were Strangers Once
will be available September 12, 2017
in hardcover and eBook

This is a poignant re-telling of the story of German Jews immigrating to New York. However, the characters are unique as are their situations, trying to fit in. They and their surroundings are wonderfully described. The prose draws the reader in to discover how they cope and survive..

We Were Strangers Once by Betsy Carter is a poignant story about relationships and survival. Set in New York City just prior to the beginning of WWII. The nation is struggling through the depression and for those who have lost everything, family, jobs and country, it is particularly hard.
The story revolves around Egon Schneider, a Jewish ophthalmologist and recent immigrant, who fled Germany to avoid persecution by the Nazi regime. Upon arriving in America he discovers that the land of opportunity does not have much to offer the flood of refugees exiting Europe. Where he was once a respected doctor, he is reduced to being the “Cheese Man” in a NY deli. He and his small group of German friends, including his best friend from Meyer Leavitt, a once respected author, struggle with everyday life and assimilating into the culture of America. They struggle finding jobs, with the language and the prejudices and each, in their own way, attempt to bolster each other as best they can.
While this is not a ground breaking novel, it does pull at the heart strings of the reader. The story is full of vivid characters and settings. The struggles each character has to endure are indicative of the time and they are thoughtfully portrayed. Ms. Carter has a real talent for delving into the minuscule details of the everyday life of the characters she creates. She deftly shows the true nature of the human spirit and the unwavering loyalty of friendship.
We Were Once Strangers is the kind of novel that percolates slowly with the reader. I found it uncommon and unexpected and recommend it to anyone who enjoys Historical fiction and tightly woven stories of love, loss, and tenacity of the human spirit.
I received an ARC from the publisher, via Net Galley, in exchange for my honest opinion.

3.5 stars

The title of this novel is deceiving. Only one character in the book is a stranger to the others; in fact, their existing friendship is the reason they gather together in New York after managing to escape Nazi Germany just in time. Their struggles to reestablish themselves in a new country are what makes the story draw you in. Yes, they are working at a deli counter, a dry cleaners and one character carries a sandwich board advertising men's suits up and down the street. The question is how will they adapt, how will they grow in their new environment?

The one outsider to their group is Irish-American Catherine. Through her we see just how foreign she is to them and vice versa, and wonder what the future will bring for all of them.

What I liked about "We Were Strangers Once:" I looked forward to picking it up again, always a good sign. The novel also covers an aspect of the WW2 Jewish experience that doesn't get a lot of exposure--recently, anyway.
What disappointed me was that everything seemed rushed, and although a lot of time is spent on background, I never felt the depth of the characters.

I recommend "We Were Strangers Once." It's a story worth telling, even if it is not completely satisfying.

In the great body of Holocaust literature, the stories of survivors are usually people who were in the Nazi concentration camps. This book imagines the lives of other "survivors," the people who got out of Europe in time, but lost their fortunes, professions, families, and identity in transitioning to America.

Egon Schneider was a son of education and privilege. His parents, "The Audubons of Europe", devoted their lives to studying birds in the German forests around Frankfurt.. Their son takes a different path as a well regarded opthalmologist. HIs best friend, his physical opposite, is Meyer Leavitt, chubby, erudite, and annoying. Two married couples are also in their close group. One by one, they see the danger coming and leave as quickly as they can. However, in the US, they find themselves ghettoized in fifty blocks on New York's East Side, and reduced to menial labor since they do not have command of English or credentials. Georg, a lawyer, presses clothes. Egon slices deli meat. To add insult to injury, Egon's boss' directive to give customers' samples of cheese lead him to being called "The Cheese Man" rather than Heir Doktor. Meyer starts out as a sandwich board man but eventually finds his way into journalism in a German language paper. Liesl, a late comer to the group, is a shop girl who shoplifts small items which she feels are "orphaned".

A world away though only blocks away lives Catrina Harty and her family. The pull between Egon and Catrina is a common love of animals. It seems a weak link to bridge the large differences between the couple. It also leads to Egon's near downfall when he begins to practice veterinary medicine, illegally.

The tragic characters are Kaethe and Georg, an older couple who are loyal Germans to the bone and await Hitler's downfall so they can go back home. Too old to reeducate and unwilling to assimilate, they are refugees who live in limbo until it becomes too painful to live at all.

This is a good book and a different viewpoint of the Shoah, but it only touches on the guilt and pain of those who learn that their families have been "relocated" by the Nazis. There is none of the panic stricken attempts to free those left behind. This particular group of people seem to be too into their own difficulties and not concerned enough with the events in their homeland. As for the romance between Egon and Catrina, it seems so unlikely to me in that timeframe, that it caused me to regard the whole book as suspect.

Those who immerse themselves in the Holocaust and the loves of World War II immigrants will be drawn to the book's description. The book's weaknesses may make good book group discussion topics. It's a good book, just not the best that I've read.

I had a hard time getting into this book. The writing felt detached, and it was hard to get into the characters. Since I did not finish the book, I do not intend to publish a review.

A lovely book about love, loss, redemption, friendship and the capacity for human beings to start over and reinvent themselves.

I only have one critique of this compelling novel, it ended too soon! I am a fan of Betsy Carter and have enjoyed her previous work, but I fell in love with the characters in WE WERE STRANGERS ONCE. This is the story of German Jews forced to leave their good lives in Germany and start all over. The element that makes this so special is the interweaving of the story of Catrina, an Irish-American young woman who becomes part of the process of assimilation.

The central character is Dr. Egon Schneider, a successful opthamologist in Germany forced to sell cheese in Washington Heights. It is there he meets Catrina and she becomes involved in his life. He transferred his medical knowledge into the treatment of local animals, and becomes known as "the Good Samaritan " but is almost deported for his efforts.

By a fluke, President Roosevelt himself, intervened and saved Egon. I breathed a sigh of relief and hoped this would mean the start of a new life for Egon, perhaps as a veteranarian.

A solid group of German emigrees help establish the horrors of relocation to a new country, a new world. We hope for their good fortune, especially the brilliant journalist, Meyer. The author skillfully relates each story, but never overwhelming the reader.

This book is an excellent choice for book clubs and seminars about the effects of WW II on life in NYC. It might even provoke a tours of the areas where these new immigrants came to live.

Oh, if I just knew Egon and Catrina wound up happy, maybe with a baby, I would be completely happy.