Crossing the River

by Grossman, Victor; Solomon, Mark

• ISBN13: 9781558493858
• ISBN10: 1558493859
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-08-01
• Publisher: Univ of Massachusetts Pr

Summary

What could possibly impel a relatively privileged twenty-four-year-old American -- serving in the U.S. Army in Germany in 1952 -- to swim across the Danube River to what was then referred to as the Soviet Zone? How are we to understand his decision to forsake the land of his birth and build a new life in the still young German Democratic Republic? These are the questions at the core of this memoir by Victor Grossman, who was born Stephen Wechsler but changed his name after defecting to the GDR.

A child of the Depression, Grossman witnessed firsthand the dislocations wrought by the collapse of the U.S. economy during the 1930s. Widespread unemployment and poverty, CIO sit-down strikes, and the fight to save Republican Spain from fascism -- all made an indelible impression as he grew up in an environment that nurtured a commitment to left-wing causes. He continued his involvement with communist activities as a student at Harvard in the late 1940s and after graduation, when he took jobs in two factories in Buffalo, New York, and tried to organize their workers.<

Table of Contents

PART I: CROSSING THE BORDER
Flight (1)	3	(9)
Childhood	12	(19)
Flight (2)	28	(3)
Harvard Years	31	(27)
Flight (3)	55	(3)
Working	58	(23)
Flight (4)	79	(2)
Soldier	81	(22)
Arrival	92	(11)
PART II: LIFE IN EAST GERMANY
Starting in a New Land	103	(15)
The Clubhouse and the Lathe	118	(18)
A Student Again	136	(19)
Journalist in a Divided City	155	(18)
Radio, Robeson, and the Prague Spring	173	(16)
Freelancing in East Germany	189	(14)
Tremors	203	(20)
Death of a Nation	223	(29)
A New Life in United Germany	252	(21)
The Big Rock Candy Mountain?	273	(19)
Epilogue: Eau de Cologne	292	(3)
Afterword and Selected Bibliography	295
Mark Solomon