Pollard Memorial Library (Lowell)

The last ships from Hamburg, business, rivalry, and the race to save Russia's Jews on the eve of World War I, Steven Ujifusa

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-350) and index

contains biographical information

platesillustrations

index present

non fiction

The last ships from Hamburg

bibliography

1391694653

Steven Ujifusa

business, rivalry, and the race to save Russia's Jews on the eve of World War I

"The story of the mass exodus of Jews out of Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century and the titans of industry who made it possible"--, Provided by publisherOver thirty years, from 1890 to 1921, 2.5 million Jews, fleeing discrimination and violence in their homelands of Eastern Europe, arrived in the United States. Many sailed on steamships from Hamburg. This mass exodus was facilitated by three businessmen whose involvement in the Jewish-American narrative has been largely forgotten: Jacob Schiff, the managing partner of the investment bank Kuhn, Loeb & Company, who used his immense wealth to help Jews to leave Europe; Albert Ballin, managing director of the Hamburg-American Line, who created a transportation network of trains and steamships to carry them across continents and an ocean; and J. P. Morgan, mastermind of the International Mercantile Marine (I.M.M.) trust, who tried to monopolize the lucrative steamship business. Though their goals were often contradictory, together they made possible a migration that spared millions from persecution. Descendants of these immigrants included Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Estée Lauder, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Fanny Brice, Lauren Bacall, the Marx Brothers, David Sarnoff, Al Jolson, Sam Goldwyn, Ben Shahn, Hank Greenberg, Moses Annenberg, and many more--including Ujifusa's great grandparents. That is their legacy

adult

Business, rivalry, and the race to save Russia's Jews on the eve of World War