The Unwanted

America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught In Between

By: Michael Dobbs

Narrated by: Mark Deakins

Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, a riveting story of Jewish families seeking to escape Nazi Germany.

In 1938, on the eve of World War II, the American journalist Dorothy Thompson wrote that "a piece of paper with a stamp on it" was "the difference between life and death." The Unwanted is the intimate account of a small village on the edge of the Black Forest whose Jewish families desperately pursued American visas to flee the Nazis. Battling formidable bureaucratic obstacles, some make it to the United States while others are unable to obtain the necessary documents. Some are murdered in Auschwitz, their applications for American visas still "pending."
Drawing on previously unpublished letters, diaries, interviews, and visa records, Michael Dobbs provides an illuminating account of America's response to the refugee crisis of the 1930s and 1940s. He describes the deportation of German Jews to France in October 1940, along with their continuing quest for American visas. And he re-creates the heated debates among U.S. officials over whether or not to admit refugees amid growing concerns about "fifth columnists," at a time when the American public was deeply isolationist, xenophobic, and antisemitic.
A Holocaust story that is both German and American, The Unwanted vividly captures the experiences of a small community struggling to survive amid tumultuous world events.

Critic reviews

Winner of the 2019 Holo­caust Award in Mem­o­ry of Ernest W. Miche

”A captivating, remarkably well-documented book that tells the little-known story of German Jews deported by the Nazis to unoccupied France in October 1940. Shuttled from one terrible camp to another, they desperately sought American visas to avoid an even more awful fate, deportation to the East. The author keeps the reader breathless as he relates, with great precision, the history of U.S. diplomacy toward the Jews of the Third Reich. I know this subject intimately, yet I read this book in one sitting, without skipping a line. A great achievement!” —Serge Klarsfeld, Historian and Nazi Hunter

"A heartbreaking and timely read.... [Dobbs has] a reporter's eye for narrative and a historian's attention to detail and context... He follows these Jewish families through harrowing cycles of deportation and desperation as they attempt to flee to safety." —The Washington Post

"[W]eaves a devastating tapestry of too many hopes wrecked and too few lives saved....[Dobbs] chronicles in meticulous, suspenseful detail the desperate perseverance of one Kippenheim family after another to find an escape from Nazi Europe." —The Wall Street Journal

"Too often when we speak of atrocities, mass murder, crimes against humanity, or genocide we think in terms of hundreds of thousands, if not millions. The Unwanted reminds us that the victims of each atrocity are individuals with their own story and their own particular tragedy. Michael Dobbs has written a compelling history of the Jewish community of one town. We come to know these individuals in a deeply personal way. He brings us into their lives and we experience their desperate struggle to survive at a time when they were abandoned by the world." —Deborah E. Lipstadt, Ph.D., author of Antisemitism Here and Now

"Michael Dobbs has written a moving and powerful book that delves into detailed historical records of a single German town to offer a vivid portrait of the human costs of Nazi antisemitism and the tragic consequences of an unresponsive refugee policy. A compelling read for anyone concerned about the effects of refugee policy in the face of contemporary episodes of persecution and ethnic violence." —Michael Chertoff, U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security, 2005-2009

informative and eye-opening

There were many disturbing aspects to this book due to the subject matter. However the new information I learned made it worth listening to the depressing history of that time. The narration was excellent and I'm glad I stuck with it.

Painful but factual reminder

This book is a painful reminder of how history repeats itself. Senseless loss of lives and lives eternally broken. At the same time, prove that survivors are such by chance and miraculously go on to have productive lives, especially when their offspring re-populate world Jewry. This book is packed with facts-perusal and historical, ensuring that victims’ lives will be a blessed memory.

Must read

This book is well researched and well written. The performance is engaging, it’s hard to stop listening even for a few days. Everyone should read it regardless of their prior knowledge of this subject because it reminds us of our priorities regarding immigration in today’s day and age with our restrictive government and politics.

A valuable contribution to Holocaust literature

Michael Dobbs’ book gives us a personal look at the individual lives of Jews and their persecution in the German village of Kippenheim during the 1930s-40s, set against American isolationist and anti-immigrant sentiment and the policies that blocked many from finding refuge in the US. Compellingly written, emotionally powerful - requires the reader to fully consider what America’s role was in responding to the Holocaust.