Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler: A True Love Story Rediscovered (Hardcover)

Description

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The astonishing true journey of Trudi Kanter, an Austrian Jew, whose courage, resourcefulness, and perseverance kept both her and her beloved safe during the Nazi invasion is a rediscovered masterpiece.

" FOR EVEN IN NAZI VIENNA, Trudi realized, women still looked in the mirror. . . . She knows that even in the bleak darkness, we feel, love, desire. She left no child (she and Walter tried, with no success); her hats are long lost, but her book is her legacy, discovered once again." --From the introduction by Linda Grant, a uthor of The Clothes on Their Backs, The Thoughtful Dresser and We Had It So Good

In 1938 Trudi Kanter, stunningly beautiful, chic and charismatic, was a hat designer for the best-dressed women in Vienna. She frequented the most elegant caf's. She had suitors. She flew to Paris to see the latest fashions. And she fell deeply in love with Walter Ehrlich, a charming and romantic businessman. But as Hitler's tanks rolled into Austria, the world this young Jewish couple knew collapsed, leaving them desperate to escape.

In prose that cuts straight to the bone, Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler tells the true story of Trudi's astonishing journey from Vienna to Prague to blitzed London seeking safety for her and Walter amid the horror engulfing Europe. It was her courage, resourcefulness and perseverance that kept both her and her beloved safe during the Nazi invasion and that make this an indelible memoir of love and survival.

Sifting through a secondhand bookshop in London, an English editor stumbled upon this extraordinary book, and now, though she died in 1992, the world has a second chance to discover Trudi Kanter's enchanting story. In these pages she is alive--vivid, tenacious and absolutely unforgettable.

Praise For…

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“This one memoir is a generous- spirited book. Its many delightful moments, as well as its almost matter-of-fact description of menace and impending danger, stay long in the mind.”



“What makes the book so instantly mesmerizingis Trudi Kanter herself, who fashioned sentences just the way she fashionedhats as a milliner in late 1930s Vienna—each a dazzling, delicate object ofdelight.”



“TrudiKanter's memoir is blessed with a wonderful title and an even better backstory…her spirited charm will win you over.”



“In a rediscovered memoir, the charmed life of designer Trudi Kanter is split open as the Nazis claim Vienna and terror reigns. Every Holocaust story is worth remembering, and Trudi's is unique—she refuses to lose her vision of what the world should be at its very best: a place of red roses, Paris avenues, and above all else, true love.”

-Alice Hoffman, author of The Dovekeepers


“There have been many books by and about refugees from the Third Reich…but there can be few if any that manage to combine terror and death with such sheer frivolity as this engaging memoir….Ms. Kanter’s attraction to the light rather than the storm clouds that bedeviled so much of her existence makes her book a happy read.”



“With a natural writing style, a talent for re-creating the details of daily life (especially the fashions), Trudi, who died in 1992, comes alive for the reader, creating what becomes a valuable piece of social history. But more than all this, her memoir is a poem of love to her husband, to the cities of Vienna and Paris, and to a way of life that, in the twinkling of an eye, completely disappeared.”



“Some Girls,Some Hats and Hitler does not minimize the horrors of war or the Holocaust, but through Kanter's delightful hopefulness and spare,riveting writing, it presents an unusual memoir of an era that must not be forgotten.”



“This Holocaust memoir is more a tale of love than a horror story of Nazi-occupied Europe...the words

and imagery flow beautifully.”



“From Paris to Vienna to London, Kantercreates a vibrant tapestry of her incredible odyssey through one of the darkestperiods in contemporary history. Romance, passion, and peril create anauthentically vivid backdrop for this intimate chronicle.”



“This book is a remarkable, first-hand account of life during the time, and the importance that fashion played in the survival of Kanter and her loved ones.”