This gut-wrenching little book was written in four weeks following Kristallnacht, the German pogrom against Jews in November 1938; the afterword indicates it is likely the first literary account of Jewish persecution in WWII. Ulrich Boschwitz drew from his own experiences to create a week in the life of Otto Silbermann, a German-Jewish businessman who flees his home one step ahead of the SA. The book traces his desperate attempts to make a plan for survival while coming to terms with the unthinkable: that in a civilized modern society, he suddenly has no business, no rights, and no way to leave the country. He spends much of his time on trains, riding from one city to another, trying to figure out what to do next. Along the way he meets sympathetic strangers, terrifying officials, and Jew-haters, and it is fascinating to watch these strangers as they also come to terms with a new reality. This book is never more relevant than right now; when authoritarians appeal to the worst parts of human nature to get and keep themselves in power, it is up to each of us to make humane choices.