Exiled In Palestine

In Peter R. Auer’s first book, Flight from Vienna, university student Rudi Auer and secretary Lili Gruen meet in pre-World War II Austria, where they fall in love.

Exiled in Palestine begins where the first book left off. Rudi and Lili are married now and increasingly concerned about the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, as Lili is Jewish. They immigrate to Palestine, where Rudi and Lili try to embrace and adjust to their new life in the city of Haifa. It’s not the same as the cosmopolitan metropolis of Vienna, but they find some like-minded friends and decide to begin a family.

Unfortunately, Palestine seems almost as volatile and dangerous as the country they fled. The Palestinians bristle at British rule. Arabs, Jews, and Germans are fighting among themselves. The couple has traveled thousands of miles but can’t escape prejudice and hate. Worse, first Rudi and then Lili are locked up in internment camps for possibly being Nazi sympathizers.

Auer’s novel is a fictionalized account of his parents’ experiences in the 1930s and ‘40s and is based on letters that Rudi sent his father. It offers a gripping-if sobering-look at a little-known chapter in World War II history.