Serenade is a heartfelt autobiography/memoir that follows the true lives of Franz Jung and Franziska Perger, as told by their daughter, Carol Jean Delmar. This atypical Holocaust love story illustrates how music can save the human spirit. From Vienna and Prague to Switzerland, Italy, Venezuela, Panama, the Triscornia detention camp in Cuba, to America — Franz and Franziska flee from their homeland. The book meshes operatic scenes with historical events and a true life love story. Franziska escapes from Vienna at the time of the Anschluss. Franz sings for Konrad Henlein, the Nazi leader in the Sudetenland, and performs in Aussig when troop movement is suspected near the Czech Maginot Line. The two are married during a troop mobilization in Prague. Eighty-five illustrations document their journey and include their passports, which display big red “J’s” and “Sara” and “Israel” above their names, and a letter from the author’s great-aunt, which was the last letter she sent to her son before perishing in Theresienstadt. Serenade is a moving tribute from a daughter to her parents, from 1927 to 2012.
Nonfiction
Serenade: A Memoir of Music and Love from Vienna and Prague to Los Angeles, 1927 to World War II to 2012
- From the Publisher
May 13, 2013
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