When Leon Bass, a Black American, joined the Army to fight Nazis, he began to question racism back home. Horrified by the “walking dead” he saw at Buchenwald, he realized German Master Race theory was like U.S. white supremacy. Years later, now with a doctorate in history, Bass was appalled by students’ ignorance about the Holocaust. He traveled the country, warning that racism could drive a society to inhuman extremes. While the U.S. failed to end WW2 sooner or admit those fleeing Nazi persecution, history shows some courageous Americans spoke out and saved lives. Read about a German Jewish family who tries to escape to the U.S. in the novel One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
Leon Bass, liberator and educator
Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn before the Nazi slaughter begins
