Fall for the Book 2019

Peter Finn and Michael Dobbs explore World War II through unique and intimate perspectives, bringing unsung heroes and untold stories to life. Finn’s A Guest of the Reich: The Story of American Heiress Gertrude Legendre's Dramatic Captivity and Escape from Nazi Germany sheds light on the extraordinary life of an American society woman-turned-spy who was captured by the Germans and witnessed the Reich’s demise from the inside. In The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught in Between, Dobbs, historian and researcher at the United States Holocaust Museum, exposes the reality of America’s response to the 1930s and 1940s refugee crisis, and tells the story of one European village whose inhabitants desperately sought refuge, only for some to be turned away. Sponsored by the Friends of the Pohick Regional Library and Friends of the Richard Byrd Library.