By Jack White
To buy the book, click here.
Dr. Kurt Glaser escaped the Nazis and ended up at Springfield. He also lived at Fairhaven. Many other Jewish doctors also escaped from Hitler and made their way to Springfield.
Here’s an interview with his amazing story.
The Rescue at Sea
— Excerpt —
“This was 1939. America was not at war yet. The Atlantic was full of German submarines. The boat I was supposed to get on was a French boat that left New York and went back to France, but turned off all the lights, signals, radio, everything, so as not to be caught by the German submarines. No one knew where it was or when it would arrive.
“I got on the President Harding instead. America being a neutral country, we had the American flag painted on the sides, painted on the back, flags on top. Then we got the notification message, that a British boat was torpedoed. So, the captain of our ship made the decision to go after these people and save them, even though he knew that we were going into a hurricane. It was a right decision because we survived and saved the sailors in their lifeboats. And then of course, the hurricane almost took our ship down, but didn’t.
“After the storm, we had about 98 injured people on board, because the boat tilted so rapidly, people sailed down the corridors, ended up with broken backs. One of the stewards knew I was a doctor (just out of medical school). So, he said, ‘Come with me.’
“And we went, and we worked with injured crew and passengers and there was one official ship doctor on board and four or five others who were passengers. We all worked.”
— End of Excerpt —