Between Two Worlds

Robin Judd is associate professor of history at The Ohio State University, where she directs the Hoffman Leaders and Leadership in History Fellowship program.
For more information about Robin Judd, visit the Author Page.

"A fresh perspective on the aftermath of trauma . . . . Drawing on rich archival sources, historian Judd makes her book debut with a sensitive, well-researched history of marriages between survivors of the Holocaust and American, British, and Canadian military personnel . . . . Judd’s stories of “loss, recovery, power, and unbelonging” stand as testimony to the triumph of survival."—Kirkus Reviews

“A new piece of the Holocaust story that will be of interest to readers of Jewish studies, women's history, and Holocaust studies.”—Library Journal

"An engrossing discussion of a little-considered subject . . . . Reading the complete narrative of Judd’s grandparents in the conclusion brings to life the trauma, as well as the historical agency, of these men and women who sought to reconstruct their lives in the face of unbearable destruction. It is unsurprising that Judd felt compelled to write this book in the face of her incredible family story; it is impressive that she has written a book that so thoughtfully explains the significance of that story for our understanding of Holocaust survivors and their experiences after the war."—H-Diplo

"Terrific history. Drilling down on the unspooling lives of Jewish war brides and their servicemen fiancés/husbands, Between Two Worlds breaks entirely new ground. In clean, muscular prose, Judd addresses the messiness of liberation, grieving, and—at the same time—falling in love. "

—Debórah Dwork, director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes against Humanity at the CUNY Graduate Center

"Tells a history—and a dramatic story—never told before. The Holocaust survivor war brides and their American Jewish soldier husbands who come to life in this book reveal the intertwined histories of military red tape, immigration policy, the Nazi terror, and the opportunities of postwar America."

—Hasia R. Diner, author of We Remember with Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence after the Holocaust, 1945–1962

"The definitive study of Jewish war brides in World War II. Written by a master historian-storyteller whose own grandmother was a war bride, the volume illuminates the extraordinary complexities confronting soldiers and Holocaust survivors who fell in love and married."

—Jonathan D. Sarna, Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University