After the Germans have invaded Poland the wealthy Jewish Stolowitzky family is separated, with father, Jacob, in Paris trying to finish up an important business deal, while mother, Lydia, Michael, and nanny, Gertruda are robbed of all they have by the family chauffeur on the way from Warsaw to Vilna. Lydia’s health is poor and made worse by her depression, and she asks Gertruda, on her deathbed, to care for Michael and be his mother. The book follows the struggles of Gertruda to survive and pass Michael off as her son.
Intertwined with this story is that of Karl Rink, a naive SS officer who is married to a Jewish woman. One day Karl’s wife disappears, and he decides to send his young daughter to a kibbutz in Israel, managing to get her out of the country before it is too late. Karl’s conscience troubles him the higher up he gets into the SS organization, and he does what he can in small ways to make life easier for the Jews he comes into contact with, one of whom turns out to be Michael.
The end of the war does not mean the end of Michael and Gertruda’s troubles. They live in a DP camp in Germany, hoping to get on a ship to Palestine. Because Gertruda isn’t Jewish, camp officials insist she can’t accompany the child she sees as her son, and for whom she has forsaken her elderly parents. It is not until she threatens to tell the press that the officials relent. She and Michael then board the ill-fated SS Exodus, a ramshackle ship being patched together for the voyage. Nearing Palestine, the ship is attacked by the British, and turned back to Europe. It is almost a year before Gertruda and Michael actually arrive in Palestine and are able to begin a new life.
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