Margit's Story

By Margit Meissner

This engrossing autobiography is of a remarkable woman born into the assimilated Jewish upper-class in pre-World War 2 Austria. After a hair-raising escape from the Nazis she came penniless to the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1887563822
• ISBN13: 9781887563826
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: Schreiber Publishing
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

An Important, Inspiring Story

It's a wonderful book. I am impressed and inspired by, and envious of, Margit's courage and intrepidity. She pushed forward against huge losses and challenges with a cheerful heart, without demoralization and discouragement -- an attitude we all should have. She teaches us to relish life despite everything. You will be enthralled reading of the miracles, backed by Margit's brilliance, quick thinking, courage and amazing mastery of many languages, by which Margit and her mother survived the early days of World War II. Her later productive life, and that of her three brothers who also survived, brings home the enormity of the holocaust in a freshly vivid way - all those millions of wonderful people who didn't survive who would have lived constructive lives and produced productive descendants as Margit's family, by daring and perseverance, was able to do. What American borne down by his country's degraded culture and the desperate troubles of the world, and what person anywhere who has an iota of zest in his mind or soul, will not be intrigued and inspired and engaged and fascinated by Margit's amazing story? Raised in privilege, Margit was never proud and never whined about losing all her wealth to the Nazis and having to learn a trade and earn a living. It was the hand she was dealt and she never thought it was unfair that she had to play it; she played it with brio. She never thought anything that had to be done was impossible, always kept soldiering, never hesitated to take new roads, to try new things. She was rightly proud of herself for coping and learning to do useful work in the world well. This book is the stuff of great literature. It is great literature. It is well written, fast paced, surprising, utterly honest, always gripping, a real page turner, full of absorbing well told detail, a great read. Margit has lived a grand and noble life and it is a gift and a blessing that she has applied her well honed qualities of grit, determination and discipline to do the enormous work required to bring it to us in so enriching and satisfying a form.

Not Like Other Holocaust Memoirs

Margit begins life as the only daughter in an unspeakably wealthy and cultured family of assimilated Austrian Jews living in Prague. The mother senses the coming troubles with Hitler and prepares her four children by making them physically and mentally tough. Alone in Paris at 17, while she is learning the seamstress trade, France is overrun by the Nazis. Joined by her mother, who gets out of Prague in the nick of time, Margit manages their hair-raising escape from France, to a Spanish jail, to Portugal, and eventually to the U.S. Throughout her desperate flight and unsteady immigrant beginnings in New York, Margit lived through the ethical dilemmas faced by desperate people in desperate situations--betraying and being betrayed, abandoning and being abandoned. Margit's Story is a portrait of a richly developed person, a highly accomplished and versatile professional, whose character has been burnished by hard experience. There is not a hint of victimhood in the entire book.

Remarkable and riveting

Margit's story is a testament to the possibility of effecting change in one's own life--starting and restarting over and over again--and to not acquiescing to an unacceptable status quo, in things big and small. Most people just don't have the confidence to do this and tend to get stuck. Because the book is emotionally honest (i.e. Margit didn't make it seem easy), the reader can recognize enough of themselves in you to realize that they also can change. I would highly recommend this book to the parent of grown child starting out on their own, or to anyone looking for the confidence to launch their life in a new direction.

Very Enjoyable Memoirs

A highly eventful story of the daughter of a wealthy Jewish banking family in Austria. You will hold your breath as she relates the twists and turns of her perilous escape from the Nazis during World War II. Then suddenly needing to earn a living as a penniless refugee in New York, a teenager whose skills are adaptability, speaking six languages and sewing a fine seam, she starts out by finding work as a dress finisher. Over the years Margit moves back and forth to places as remote from each other as Hollywood from Nuremberg, Germany or Alexandria, Egypt from Beunos Aires. Gradually she begins working to solve problems ranging from clothing manufacture to international relations to the assimilation of foreign residents. Building on what she learns from helping her own daughter overcome physical adversity, Margit eventually becomes a ground-breaking and accomplished advocate for children with disabilities within the Washington, D.C.-area school system of Montgomery County, Maryland. Spanning 80 active years, these lively and often poignant recollections will appeal to all interested in human drama. Readers will applaud the ways she employs luck and ingenuity to survive war; they will be intrigued by her dealings with the loves of her life and will feel involved with the evolution of her career.