Against All Odds: Holocaust Survivors and the Successful Lives They Made in America

The special refugee community of 140,000 Holocaust survivors who by 1953 had immigrated to the U.S. is the subject of this admirably comprehensive study by Helmreich, chairman of the sociology department of City College of New York and a child of survivors who himself shares their acute concern that the Holocaust not be forgotten. The author reviews the national origins of survivors, and where and under what conditions they settled, worked and adapted to their new homes. While he notes that some never recovered from their ordeals, the moving, psychologically revealing first-person accounts Helmreich cites contribute to this impressive analysis of the surprising number who did. In addition to good health, luck and help from relatives or agencies, he identifies traits which they shared to a varying extent--flexibility, assertiveness, tenacity, intelligence, optimism and a pride that spurred them to engage in purposeful lives. (Sept.)