Irma's Passport: One Woman, Two World Wars, and a Legacy of Courage

(Paperback)

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Golden-haired Irma grew up in Imperial Austria believing that wars and prejudice were fadingonly to have her life upended and her identity challenged to the core by two world wars.

History confronts Irma time and again. Arch-Nazi Adolf Eichmann plays a twisted role in the fate of her prominent Jewish politician husband, Jakob Ehrlich, and her own escape from Vienna. After arriving with her son first in London and then in New York, Irma encounters a dazzling world of power elites, including Chaim Weizmann (the first president of Israel), British parliamentarians, and other renowned figures, and ultimately gets a chance to bring relief to refugeesan effort to which she devotes herself wholeheartedly.

Narrated alternately by Irma's granddaughter, Catherine, and Irma herself, this account of Irma's journey from Czech country girl to grande dame in New York is a riveting, intimate tale of aspiration, activism, and world-changing national movements. Part personal memoir, part historical drama,Irma's Passportis ultimately a tribute to human dignity, a story in which one woman can restore the lives of many and courage is a victory in itself.

Reviews

2021 Foreword Indie Finalist in Biography & Memoir

An extraordinary story.
Seattle Book Review

Working from her grandmas journals but providing insights and context throughout, the author chronicles the indomitable Irmas war-years journey from a small town in Bohemia through Prague, Vienna, London, and New York. This is far more than a Holocaust story. Irmas granddaughter has given us historically significant testimony wrapped in a family tale, and an inspiring and satisfying story of a life of service.
Scott D. Seligman, author of The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902: Immigrant Housewives and the Riots that Shook New York City

Using her grandmothers personal memoir as a starting point, Catherine Ehrlich gives us a beautifully composed and deeply researched story of a matriarch and a family caught up in the dark web of Nazi Europe. It is nothing short of miraculous that her family history and mine unfolded in the same apartment building in Vienna in a way that encapsulates the fate of Jewish culture trapped in the vise of fascism. In addition to a gripping narrative, what emerges in these pages is a profile of strength and resilience that will inspire todays readers, young and old, and stand proudly in the literature of the Holocaust.
Julie Metz, author of Eva and Eve: A Search for My Mothers Lost Childhood and What a War Left Behind

A very sensitive, well-written and -researched book about the fate of a prominent Jewish family in Vienna in 1938 and beyond.
Evelyn Adunka, historian, Vienna

Gripping, poignant, and inspiring, this true tale illustrates how pride can help to power through suffering and create meaning. Author Catherine Ehrlich, drawing heavily on vivid memoirs written by her grandmother, has added depth of research, beauty of language, and a haunting present-day perspective to the life of an extraordinary woman of Vienna during wartime and beyond.
Dori Jones Yang, author of When the Red Gates Opened: A Memoir of Chinas Reawakening

This beautifully written combination of a Holocaust survivors memoir with the recollections and research of her granddaughter captures the charms of fin-de-sicle Bohemia and the devastation that followed. Imaginative, compelling, clear, and touching, the narrative of an emancipated and educated womans heartbreak during the First World War, new love and hope in 1920s Vienna, despair again as the Nazis closed in, and escape with her only son to America illustrates the human cost of intolerant and violent politics in Central Europe. Irmas Passport, a new addition to the vast literature on fascism and anti-Semitism, deserves attention from readers of all ages.
Jeremy King, Professor of History, Mt. Holyoke College

A gripping and well-written story about a courageous woman living between the world wars. Irma is a spitfire of a woman who attended university when only 4 percent of students were women, and who shared an English literature class with Franz Kafkahistorical figures pop out like gifts in the story. The book also provides a window into the assimilated life of the Jews of Bohemia, early Zionism, anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust. Your foreknowledge prepares you for what is coming but, inspired by Irma, you hold your breath and read on.
Leora Krygier, author of Do Not Disclose: A Memoir of Family Secrets Lost and Found

What an absolutely amazing and fascinating memoir.
Story Circle

Author Bio

Catherine Ehrlich is a nonfiction writer. Trained as an Asian linguist (University of Michigan) and diplomat (Johns Hopkins SAIS), she has been a trade representative, interpreter, public relations executive, and marketing consultant in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan as well as New York, Washington DC, and Seattle. She served as a fundraiser for the Audubon Society of Portland and is a director of the Arts Mandalay Foundation. She and her husband, John, take inspiration from nature out of home bases in Oregon and California. Irmas Passport is the culmination of six years of research and writing focused on the true story behind her grandmothers testimonial memoirs. She splits her time between Portland, OR and Mill Valley, CA.