A Journey from the Chain Bridge to the Golden Gate

Born in Hungary just before Adolf Hitler came to power, Agnes Biro Rothblatt managed to survive the Nazi regime, the Arrow Cross (the national socialist pro-Nazi government in Hungary that murdered 15,000 Jews and sent 80,000 more to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps), and, following the war, the iron rule of the Hungarian Communist party under Stalinist henchman Matyas Rakosi. Together with her sister, Ann, she was smuggled out of Hungary as a teenager and traveled to the United States, where she began a new life. Agnes Rothblatt's tale is both unique in the perseverance and tenacity she drew upon to survive, and typical of a generation of immigrants who were torn from their roots, separated from their families, and who re-created themselves in the New World.