If Only I Could Have News from You

Hans Behrendt and Klara Noack married in 1935 Berlin, weeks before the Nazi ban on mixed marriages, creating
scandal in the Nazi press. They fled to Britain three days before the outbreak of World War II, bringing with them 100 Jewish boys from the Berlin ORT School of which Hans was the headmaster.

Irene Black, their daughter, has translated, ordered and placed into context the many documents left by her parents. Included are accounts of their early years, of the persecution of her father under the Nazis, and many letters and diaries recounting the lives of her family as refugees during the war in England, as well as letters attesting to the courage and struggle for survival of relatives marooned in wartime Berlin. The account includes the brave but ultimately futile struggle for survival of the author’s lost grandmother and aunt, who perished at Theresienstadt and Auschwitz.

The exceptional first-hand testaments from the refugees and victims of Nazi persecution include letters, diaries, red-cross messages and other documents.

The book contains 82 photographs of people, places and rare original documents

Irene Black, a former psychologist and teacher, is a specialist in Asian Arts and has three published novels.