Journey of Hope and Despair

About the Book

These two volumes chronicle the life of a liberal Jew who came of age in Germany during the relatively enlightened period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Rudolf Moos obtained his education in Ulm and, after working in his family’s leather business, went in hope to seek his fortune in Berlin. He founded Salamander, the largest shoe business in Germany, which is still active today. He was a German patriot, who served his country in World War I and received a War Merit Cross (Kriegsverdienstkreuz) for his endeavors. Rudolf Moos lived in Germany in growing despair through the political upheaval and hyperinflation in the aftermath of World War I. He was related to and enjoyed a friendship with Albert Einstein when they both lived in Berlin in the 1920s and early 1930s. Rudolf Moos then experienced the rise of the Nazis and the ever-growing restrictions placed on him and members of his extended family. Anti-Jewish sentiment in Germany rose sharply during 1933, which effectively ended his active life in business and community affairs and give him unsought free time to set out the story of his life. He and his wife were eventually permitted to leave Germany and immigrate to England, where he continued to work on his memoirs during the turmoil of World War II. Volume I of Rudolf Moos’ memoirs, “Rise and Fall”, describes the poisoned atmosphere existing for the Jews in the Germany of the late 1930s, sets out his experiences of humiliation and arrest, the breath of freedom on leaving his Homeland, and his arrival in England as a penniless alien. Chapter 1 focuses on Rudolf Moos’ origins and his father’s family and leather manufacturing company, which initiated trade with East India in the 1880s. It describes the background of Rudolf Moos’ mother, who was a member of the Einstein family, and provides details about the lives of Rafael and Rupert Einstein, her father and grandfather.

About the Author

Rudolf Hugo Moos was born in Berlin, Germany, spirited out to Belgium in 1938 and England in 1939, and, with an affidavit from Albert Einstein, immigrated to the United States in 1940. His curiosity about human nature and attempt at self-understanding led him to become a psychologist and to pursue an academic career as Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He has studied how social contexts shape individuals, but has not yet been able to fathom the depths of inhumanity or heights of resilience some people reach in the face of life crises.