Fatal Decision

About the Book

An old-time friend from Berlin asked John Gersonde to write his remarkable life story, and John took over four years to complete Herbert Kucke’s biography. Spanning more than six decades, this remarkable story describes the dramatic and tragic social and political developments from before World War I until 1978. Herbert’s life included a rich family history involving events in Berlin, Russia, and the Americas. It brought him into all classes of society, from the rich merchant Jewish Berlin elite on his father’s side, to the nationalist Catholic circle of his mother’s family, to the early flowering and eventual suppression of homosexuality and political diversity in Berlin following the first world war. It vividly describes the exciting life in Berlin in the 1920s, through the political terrorism of the Nazi period in the 1930s, the forced exile and expatriation of his Jewish relations and friends in America before and after the Holocaust, as well as the devastation and reconstruction of the once imperial city and Herbert’s inhuman life as a prisoner of war in Siberia during the 1940s and 1950s.

Following John’s passing in 2003, his lifelong friend, Leo Snijder, decided to posthumously publish his manuscript so that others could be made aware of this true story of life, survival, and death. It is hoped that this historical biography will commemorate the madness of the Holocaust which changed and destroyed many human values.

About the Author

Born in Holland in 1931, John’s father was a Berlin Huguenot and his mother a Dutch Catholic. Because of his father’s German nationality, John attended a German school during World War II and the Hitler Youth. After the war, he studied Hotel Management in the Hague, followed by work for the Holland America Line, and then for several luxury hotels. Then he worked as a stage manager in Dutch television for 23 years, and also participated in an art gallery in Amsterdam. He moved to Los Angeles in 1976 with his longtime partner, Leo Snijder, dealing in high quality antiques.