The Hours After: Letters of Love and Longing in War's Aftermath

The Hours After: Letters of Love and Longing in War's Aftermath
by Gerda Weissmann Klein, Kurt Klein

The Hours After: Letters of Love and Longing in War's Aftermath
List Price: $23.95
Our Price: $7.05
You Save: $16.90 (71%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.54 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Gerda Weissmann Klein, Kurt Klein
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2000-02-19
ISBN: 0312242581
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Book Reviews of The Hours After: Letters of Love and Longing in War's Aftermath

Book Review: What genuinely wonderful people
Summary: 4 Stars

Ever since discovering Anne Frank back in Junior High School, I've always been interested in books about the Holocaust. I recently finished The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy. It's a very well written and important story about the Holocaust. And when I finished it I wanted to know what happened after the end of the book. What happened after the Jews were liberated? Everything from their previous lives was gone, their homes destroyed their families dead, murdered. What would they do? I hadn't read anything about after liberation.

The Hours After tells the wonderful and uplifting story of what happened to Gerda Weissmann after liberation. The story is revealed to us through letters between Gerda and her fianc?, Kurt Klein, one of the American soldiers who liberated her from a slave-labor camp in Czechoslovakia in May 1945.

At first I didn't care for the format of the book. I felt it had a sometimes awkward rhythm, going back and forth from Gerda's voice to Kurt's but at some point that feeling disappeared and all I could focus on was what would happened next.

I thought their letters to each other were beautiful, especially Kurt's. What a wonderful gift they have in these letters. I also thought that the way the letters were written was interesting, maybe it was the way they translated from German to English but they seemed very old fashioned even for 1945.

I thought it interesting that Gerda said her gushing (about her love and affection for Kurt) and sharing her deepest feelings was impolite. Later she asked to be forgiven for the burden she imposes on him by discussing the loss of her parents and the disappointment she's caused her uncle by not asking his permission to marry. I wonder the origins of such formality? And sometimes I wish there was just an iota of it left in our culture today.

I was moved by the story of Gerda's Grandfather who was exiled to Siberia and how she drew strength from his experience. Gerda is an amazing person, very smart, she never seems to get frustrated by the bureaucrats who make her emigration to the United States so difficult. And when she had the opportunity to exact some justice or revenge (in the case of her landlady and her son) she could only feel empathy for them. What an amazing and compassionate soul!

The process of preparing all of their papers for their marriage and Gerda's emigration to the US was excruciatingly prolonged! Gerda and Kurt communicated primarily by sloooow snail mail that was delivered via go-betweens until April 1946 (with the exception of a few telegrams). How different from our lightning fast communications and overnight deliveries of today.

A wonderful and uplifting story!

Summary of The Hours After: Letters of Love and Longing in War's Aftermath

The love letters of Gerda and Kurt Klein, revealing one of the greatest love stories ever told.

Over fifty years ago, Gerda Weissmann was barely alive at the end of a 350-mile death march that took her from a slave labor camp in Germany to the Czech border. On May 7, 1945, the American military stormed the area, and the first soldier to approach Gerda was Kurt Klein. She guided him to her fellow prisoners who lay sick and dying on the ground, and quoted Goethe: "Noble be man, merciful and good." Perhaps it was her irony, her composure, her evident compassion in the face of tragedy, that struck Kurt Klein. A great love had begun. Forced to separate just weeks after liberation and hours after their engagement, Gerda and Kurt began a correspondence that lasted until their reunion and wedding in Paris a year later. Their poignant letters reflect upon the horrors of war and genocide, but above all, upon the rapture and salvation of true love.

Jewish Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Jewish Books
The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World (P.S.) ImageThe Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World (P.S.)
by Lucette Lagnado
Harper Perennial; Published: 2008-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.46
Price in other shops: $14.99
The Night Trilogy: Night, Dawn, Day ImageThe Night Trilogy: Night, Dawn, Day
by Elie Wiesel
Hill and Wang; Published: 2008-04-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.63
Price in other shops: $17.00
Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife ImageAnne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife
by Francine Prose
Harper; Published: 2009-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.29
Price in other shops: $24.99
Rashi (Jewish Encounters) ImageRashi (Jewish Encounters)
by Elie Wiesel
Schocken; Published: 2009-08-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.90
Price in other shops: $22.00
My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Family's Past ImageMy Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Family's Past
by Ariel Sabar
Algonquin Books; Published: 2009-10-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.10
Price in other shops: $14.95
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl ImageAnne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank
Bantam; Published: 1993-06-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops: $5.99
Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began ImageMaus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
by Art Spiegelman
Pantheon; Published: 1992-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.84
Price in other shops: $14.95
Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History ImageMaus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
by Art Spiegelman
Pantheon; Published: 1986-08-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.89
Price in other shops: $14.95
Night (Oprah's Book Club) ImageNight (Oprah's Book Club)
by Elie Wiesel
Hill and Wang; Published: 2006-01-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.47
Price in other shops: $9.95
Man's Search for Meaning ImageMan's Search for Meaning
by Viktor E. Frankl
Beacon Press; Published: 2006-06-14; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.15
Price in other shops: $6.99
Similar Books and other products
One Survivor Remembers (World War 2 Survivor Documentary) [VHS] ImageOne Survivor Remembers (World War 2 Survivor Documentary) [VHS]
HBO & Teaching Tolerance; Release date: 1999-03-23; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.50
Price in other shops: $24.95
My Bridges of Hope ImageMy Bridges of Hope
by Livia Bitton-Jackson
Simon Pulse; Published: 2002-03-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.24
Price in other shops: $6.99
Dry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood (Gb772) ImageDry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood (Gb772)
by Nechama Tec
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1984-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.90
Price in other shops: $16.95
Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz ImageFive Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz
by Olga Lengyel
Academy Chicago Publishers; Published: 1995-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.38
Price in other shops: $13.95
Promise of a New Spring: The Holocaust and Renewal ImagePromise of a New Spring: The Holocaust and Renewal
by Gerda Weissmann Klein
Rossel Books; Published: 1982-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $49.95
Into The Arms Of Strangers - Stories Of The Kindertransport ImageInto The Arms Of Strangers - Stories Of The Kindertransport
DENCH,JUDI; Release date: 2001-08-28; DVD
Best price: $10.55
Price in other shops: $19.98
I Have Lived A Thousand Years: Growing Up In The Holocaust ImageI Have Lived A Thousand Years: Growing Up In The Holocaust
by Livia Bitton-Jackson
Simon Pulse; Published: 1999-03-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.48
Price in other shops: $5.99
One Survivor Remembers ImageOne Survivor Remembers
Release date: 2005-10-29; DVD
Best price: $19.95
Price in other shops: $29.95
A Boring Evening At Home ImageA Boring Evening At Home
by Gerda Weissmann Klein
Leading Authorities Press; Published: 2004-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $29.89
All But My Life ImageAll But My Life
by Gerda Weissmann Klein
Hill and Wang; Published: 1995-03-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops: $15.00
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories