Eva and Otto

"Their courage, resourcefulness, love, and unending optimism against all odds is thrilling. This is the American story of the mid-twentieth century." —Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation

"This riveting history of the anti-Nazi resistance paints an extraordinary portrait of two people—a Jewish woman and a German man—who fought Hitler and also fell in love. Using the memoirs, diaries, and letters of Eva Lewinski and Otto Pfister, their three children have written the account of their parents' efforts to undermine Nazism as they risked their lives in Germany, France, and Belgium. An intimate story about Germans and Jews opposing the same horrific enemy, this book adds a whole new dimension to Holocaust literature. This is a moving love story and an important history made human at the grassroots level." —Marion A. Kaplan, author of Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany

"This is a book for every student and every teacher. I had the privilege of being one of Eva's high school students from 1969–1971, and our friendship continued. As she wrote, she 'related to kids' because she liked and respected them. She inspired us to learn, and she responded to me and other teens from her deep well of experience. She nurtured every interest in the bigger things in life: purpose, service to others, and appreciation for the anchors of nature, spirit, music, poetry. At the time, I did not know much detail about her remarkable early life with Otto. But how we all benefited! I am grateful that this history has been told and will be preserved. I am deeply touched and inspired." —Carol Larson, President and CEO, David and Lucile Packard Foundation

"Eva and Otto is a moving story of resistance and love told largely through the correspondence of Eva Lewinski and Otto Pfister. It provides a rare view into what it can mean personally to dedicate oneself wholeheartedly to a struggle against tyranny. Eva and Otto's love for each other sustained them as they suffered long separations, danger, and imprisonment to fulfill their mission. Their longing to marry and create a family existed in tension with the rigorous ethic of the tightly knit resistance group of which they were a part and their commitment to carrying out anti-Nazi activities until Hitler was defeated. The extraordinary job that Eva and Otto's children have done in tracking down the documents needed to tell their parents' story also illuminates a little-known chapter in the history of the fight to rid the world of Nazism." —John F. Sears, PhD, author of Eleanor Roosevelt, Refugees, and the Founding of Israel and former Executive Director of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute

"The authors have done a superb job in supplementing their parents' letters and diaries using their own rigorous research, and the story progresses in a way that is historically interesting and emotionally satisfying." —Susan Elisabeth Subak, author of Rescue and Flight: American Relief Workers Who Defied the Nazis

"Eva Lewinski and Otto Pfister courageously devoted themselves, over a period of years, to combating Nazism, while carefully nurturing a deep, life-sustaining love for one another. Their intermingled life stories, ably contextualized by the authors of this book, provide readers with a moving, richly documented, real-life drama, lovingly presented and thoroughly researched." —Jack Jacobs, author of Jews and Leftist Politics: Judaism, Israel, Antisemitism, and Gender