Anne Schenderlein's engaging book examines closely how Jews displaced from Nazi Germany established a new life in the United States, and how it was informed by their German Jewish identity. Following a brief overview of German Jewish displacement in chapter 1, chapter 2 focuses on the years 1938–1941. Schenderlein argues that during this period German Jews performed a “gradual and selective Americanization” (32), signaling to the American state and public their commitment to the nation. These attitudes revealed more than gratitude, however. Embedded in them was anxiety that any perceived slight against the United States might endanger the lives of Jews stranded in Europe, as well as those already in the country. With their loyalties dually questioned as both Jews and Germans, leaders in the refugee community found it necessary to manage their public image with great caution.

This concern became even more pronounced once the United States entered the war. In the third chapter, Schenderlein explores how the refugee population was affected by wartime measures, particularly enemy aliens classification. While German aliens were not targeted with the same vehemence as Japanese and Japanese Americans, Schenderlein shows that the existing literature on German Jewish refugees in the United States has downplayed the significance of enemy aliens policies. This is one area where Schenderlein's focus on the West Coast proves highly fruitful. Proliferating xenophobia in the area, the presence of military bases, and the proximity of the Pacific theater brought about greater scrutiny of refugees, culminating in curfews, travel restrictions, and an overall atmosphere of distrust. While these conditions were unique to the West Coast, attitudes toward so-called enemy aliens across the United States compelled refugees to highlight their Jewishness and minimize, if not repudiate, any German affinity.

The fourth chapter moves from the home front to the ranks of refugee soldiers in the US military. While expediting their integration into American society was an important factor for many enlistees, joining the battle against Nazi Germany was a common motivation. The majority of those whose service had brought them to Germany approached their former homeland with an American perspective, even adopting the habit of referring to the enemy population as “Krauts” (87). But their experiences serving in Germany differed markedly from those of their fellow American soldiers. Schenderlein highlights deep emotional responses that ranged from glee to sorrow, along with great frustration at German society's unwillingness to acknowledge its responsibility for the recent catastrophe.

The fifth chapter discusses German Jews’ participation in wartime public debates about Germany's future. As early as 1942, leading figures in the refugee community voiced their vision for postwar justice and demanded that the American government pay heed to their concerns. German Jews in the United States may have repeatedly emphasized that they had severed all ties to Germany, but the intensity of these debates indicates that they were very much engaged with the country and with German society. Many would have agreed that Germany was no longer in their hearts, in the words of one refugee, yet Schenderlein's treatment of this discussion shows that the former homeland was indeed very much on their minds.

Moving to the postwar era, chapter 6 studies the reemerging ties between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and German Jewish communities abroad in the 1950s and 1960s. Schenderlein is less concerned with the question of whether the FRG's approach reflected a genuine interest in reconciliation or merely a public relations campaign. Instead, she studies how the exchange between the German government and the German Jewish community in the United States unfolded. The book depicts both sides’ hopes and expectations and how the relationship evolved amid Cold War geopolitical developments and the establishment of the State of Israel. While both sides saw these links as advantageous (for different reasons), the contacts were “fraught with misunderstandings, missteps, and, mostly for the refugees, suspicion” (133).

The relationship between refugee communities and the West German state remained primarily strategic, if not downright transactional. Yet Schenderlein identifies a shift in the 1960s, introducing a measure of familiarity that many believed would be impossible to reestablish. It was then that the municipal visitors’ programs—the focus of the seventh chapter —began. Like the German reparations program, the visitors’ programs inviting German Jews to revisit their former hometowns was less the result of altruistic concerns than of efforts to boost Germany's image in the West. But such initiatives were taking shape alongside a decades-long process, known in German as Vergangenheitsbewältigung, in which confronting the Nazi past gradually became a central element in German national discourse. Though the visitors’ program was quite successful (within months of initiating a local program, West Berlin alone received more than 11,000 applications), it did not necessarily achieve its aim of presenting a rehabilitated and remorseful German society. Participants were thankful to the organizers and spoke positively about their interactions with German youth, but often such responses were mixed with skepticism toward the “New Germany,” as well as with grief and pain caused by the emotional burden of the visit.

Tracing the story of German Jewish refugees in the United States into the postwar decades is one of Schenderlein's key contributions. The final chapters show that the interplay between German, American, and Jewish spheres of influence in the refugees’ lives was not static, but was rather akin to a continuously shape-shifting triangle. Her claim that the ongoing engagement of German Jews helped shape the West German state is less compelling. While the book identifies several instances when the FRG was attentive to the concerns of the German Jewish community in America, it was an instrumental approach taken in pursuit of other ends, be it appeasing the Allies, achieving diplomatic standing in the West, or “mastering” the past. Nevertheless, Schenderlein is correct to reintegrate the history of postwar Germany and the history of Germany's former Jewish citizens. This aspect of the work, as well as her attention to the West Coast and astute weaving of the refugees’ own voices throughout the book, make this study a very welcome contribution to the field of German Jewish displacement.