Survival and Conscience

From the Shadows of Nazi Germany to the Jewish Boat for Gaza
by Lillian Rosengarten

a cry from the heart, a call for the centrality of human rights for all….her life-long search for justice and spiritual peace is both moving and inspiring.Alice Rothchild, author, activist, filmmaker

Survival and Conscience

In 1936, Lillian Rosengarten and her family fled Nazi Germany for New York. But even there, the legacy of the Nazis’ brutality continued to cast a shadow over her family for many decades. In Survival and Conscience: From the Shadows of Nazi Germany to the Jewish Boat for Gaza, Rosengarten describes how she faced those challenges within her own life while gaining empathy for the struggles of others, realizing that all forms of extreme nationalism and hatred must be vigorously resisted.

penned with the poise of an intellectual, but with the heart of a poet—unpretentious, refined and profound. I strongly recommend this book.Ramzy Baroud, Editor, Palestine Chronicle

Like many other refugees from Nazism and survivors of the Holocaust, Rosengarten became a strong advocate of Palestinian rights. In 2010, she joined the “Jewish Boat to Gaza,” designed to break Israel’s punishing blockade of the Strip. Though the Israeli Navy obstructed their humanitarian mission, nothing can stop Lillian Rosengarten’s inspiring story of love, self-discovery, and activism.

Endorsement from Dr. Ramzy Baroud

Lillian’s Survival and Conscience: From the Shadows of Nazi Germany to the Jewish Boat to Gaza is a powerful narrative that is written with boundless humanity and dignity. Her life’s journey is that of discovery, in which morality and human rights played a central role in her thinking, but more importantly in her actions. Survival and Conscience is a testament to the triumph of the human spirit over the confines of the narrow definitions of group identity and politics, where collective traumas are manipulated to exploit and subjugate others. Lillian’s book is penned with the poise of an intellectual, but with the heart of a poet—unpretentious, refined and profound. I strongly recommend this book.
–Dr. Ramzy Baroud, Editor of Palestine Chronicle and author, My Father Was A Freedom Fighter

Endorsement from Annette Groth

I truly admire Lillian Rosengarten for her activism, steadfastness and especially for writing this very important and touching book. I got to know Lillian as an extraordinary and very educated person, deeply influenced by her own and her family´s awful experiences in Nazi Germany. Facing the challenges of fleeing Nazi Germany as a young girl made her understand that all forms of extreme nationalism and racism are dangerous and must be combated.

Because this attitude is reflected in every line of her book, it is a must-read for everyone concerned with the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict!
–Left Party Member of the Bundestag from Baden-Württemberg

Endorsement from Dr. Alice Rothchild

A committed human rights activist, poet, writer, psychoanalyst, world traveler, Jew, and pacifist, Lillian writes with passion and detailed honesty. Her memoir is a cry from the heart, a call for the centrality of human rights for all. Her experience with near annihilation as a child, her personal struggles with grief and guilt, and her life long search for justice and spiritual peace is both moving and inspiring. Her willingness to bear witness to the “squalid hell” in Gaza and to get on that boat is a rousing shout to action. Lillian is unafraid to state that for her, the Palestinians are the final victims of the Nazi Holocaust; holding Israel accountable is both an act of desperation and love.
–Alice Rothchild, Author, Condition Critical: Life and Death in Israel/Palestine

Endorsement from Philip Weiss

Lillian Rosengarten has done something incredible in Survival and Conscience. By ruthlessly examining her family’s “exodus from Germany” during the Holocaust, she comes to understand the ways that Nazi persecution helped produce mental illness inside her family. But then she breaks down the personal wall of that experience, and by venturing on the Jewish boat to Gaza, explains its connection to Israel’s persecution of the Palestinians. She has produced a brave and wrenching account that is also deeply necessary, as Americans seek to understand how we joined our country’s interests with Israel’s.
–Philip Weiss, Founder and managing editor, Mondoweiss

Survival and Conscience is available in Paperback ($20.99) and Ebook ($9.99)

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192 pages, 6″ X 9″
Published October 2015
ISBN 9781935982609

Survival and Conscience

Survival and Conscience

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