"Out of Hitler's Reach: The Scattergood Hostel for European Refugees, 1939-43"

From 1939 to 1943, 185 refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe found safe haven at Scattergood Hostel, a refugee center run by Quaker farmers and college students in what had been an abandoned Friends boarding school in Iowa. This little-known "Schindler's List on the Prairie"--an amazing story of goodness and light in an era of evil and darkness--has been preserved in the book "Out of Hitler's Reach" and in a Public-Television-produced documentary.

The author of the book (who's featured in the PBS video), Michael Luick-Thrams will be bringing the Scattergood Hostel legacy to audiences in the United States from September 2000 through mid-February 2001. Depending on the needs of sponsoring institutions, the presentations will range in length from 45 minutes to a weekend workshop. The standard venue includes the showing of the PBS video and/or slides of black-and-white photos taken mostly by refugees at the hostel who had been professional photographers in Europe; in some cases surviving refugees and former SH staff will speak at select presentations. More in-depth engagements include relevant printed materials (e.g., articles about SH and biographies of specific refugees or staff) to be used before as well as during and after Michael's visit, plus possible contact with survivors or further reading, panel discussions, fieldtrips, etc.

If you or some institution you know (schools or universities, churches or meetings or synogogues, historical societies or archives, Holocaust centers, libraries, peace, civic or women's groups, etc.) might be interested in sponsoring this unique presentation, please contact Sally Campbell for more information at the address, phone, or email, listed below, or Monday PM through Wednesday AM at:

252 W. 91st St. #64
New York/NY 10024
tel. (212) 787-3903

Michael's postal and email addresses are:

Michael Luick-Thrams
Warthestrasse 13
12051 Berlin/Germany
(tel.--from the States) 011-49-30-62 84 32 39
AlizaMichael@hotmail.com

"Out of Hitler's Reach: The Scattergood Hostel for European Refugees, 1939-43" (1996/1997 Goodfellow Press, 321 pages, 41 black-and-white photographs and drawings) is now out of print and thus no longer distributed by Iowa State University Press. Copies are still available, however, from the author.

The related dissertation "Creating 'New Americans': WWII-Era European Refugees' Formation of American Identities" now can be read on-line. It examines 13 various refugee centers in Europe, North America and Cuba, and how they assisted refugees integrate or assimilate into host countries' cultures. It can be reached via:

http://dochost.rz.hu-berlin.de/dissertationen/history/Luick-Thrams-Michael-1997-07-02/HTML

Thank you for your interest. We look forward to a rich and worthwhile collaboration!