Today, it is not about design. This is about a man, one of the sweetest people I have ever met, whom I want to acknowledge today as he travels through southern California on a book tour. The new English translation of his memoir entitled: ‘Hitler, My Neighbor: Memories of a Jewish Childhood, 1929-1939,’ was published last week by Other Press. It is a story of a little boy, Edgar Freuchtwanger the son of Germany’s foremost publisher, and the nephew of one of Germany’s most respected and iconic authors, who lived in Munich across the street from Adolf Hitler’s flat on the prestigious Prinzregentenstrasse. It is about witnessing the rise of Hitler through his eyes and its impact on his family, the renowned Feuchtwanger family, who was as powerful as any Jewish family could be in Germany and who was forced to flee the homeland with the rise of Hitler. You will find that Feuchtwanger’s mother could not get milk as the famed neighbor monopolized the supply, and that he drew the Nazi cross in his notebook, that his father was ultimately sent to Dachau, the concentration camp northeast of the medieval town of Dachau, and that family finally emigrated to the UK, where he was accepted to the Winchester College, the 600-year old boys school, and where he has made his home. This is a fascinating story about fate and survival, about endurance, and love. It is the story of my own family because Edgar Feuchtwanger is my father’s cousin. The book is now available.
