- Joined
- May 14, 2005
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- A Small Town in Germany
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I've just started a WW2 novel and am quite excited about it! This is a whole new area for me.
One thread of the story involves an older half-Jewish woman fleeing Austria (Salzburg). She has a daughter living in England who is going to take her in. She has grandsons helping her; I'm thinking one of the grandson could be working with a Jewish organisation to help her get to England. I'm trying to work out her route and found this map, according to which Austria was pretty much surrounded with Nazi-friendly states. I can get her into Switzerland, but from there, where? And how? Would she be able to get a train through France to Spain? Or to the Italian coast and from there a ship? I might have her travelling with a child.
I have found out that she could get a visa to travel from Vienna; but how safe would she be? I originally thought of having a route organised be the Jewish organisation for refugees, with families all along her overland route willing to take her in.
This is only one thread of the story, and it would be about the dangers and threats she faced en route; it's the story of her flight until she arrives in England. Another quirk is that those grandchildren are mixed race so they too are facing danger; though one of them is very light skinned and can pass as white. I do want to have one of them actually visit her in Salzburg but I'm not sure how feasible this is.
I'm afraid I'm not much of a history buff; I do love history but I espcially love historical novels and learning about what happened through fiction based on fact, so this is not so much writing what I know but writing what I'd like to know; I lived 40 years in Germany and have a granddaughter living in Salzburg so this is all part of my "would like to know" journey!
If you can point me in the direction of who can help with the more detailed research, someone who could answer specific questions, I'd be eternally grateful.
One thread of the story involves an older half-Jewish woman fleeing Austria (Salzburg). She has a daughter living in England who is going to take her in. She has grandsons helping her; I'm thinking one of the grandson could be working with a Jewish organisation to help her get to England. I'm trying to work out her route and found this map, according to which Austria was pretty much surrounded with Nazi-friendly states. I can get her into Switzerland, but from there, where? And how? Would she be able to get a train through France to Spain? Or to the Italian coast and from there a ship? I might have her travelling with a child.
I have found out that she could get a visa to travel from Vienna; but how safe would she be? I originally thought of having a route organised be the Jewish organisation for refugees, with families all along her overland route willing to take her in.
This is only one thread of the story, and it would be about the dangers and threats she faced en route; it's the story of her flight until she arrives in England. Another quirk is that those grandchildren are mixed race so they too are facing danger; though one of them is very light skinned and can pass as white. I do want to have one of them actually visit her in Salzburg but I'm not sure how feasible this is.
I'm afraid I'm not much of a history buff; I do love history but I espcially love historical novels and learning about what happened through fiction based on fact, so this is not so much writing what I know but writing what I'd like to know; I lived 40 years in Germany and have a granddaughter living in Salzburg so this is all part of my "would like to know" journey!
If you can point me in the direction of who can help with the more detailed research, someone who could answer specific questions, I'd be eternally grateful.