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Camilla's Purse

An Ordinary Person, an Extraordinary Life

The story of America includes the history of those who have lived through extraordinary circumstances.

One such person was Camilla Gottlieb, whose ordinary life in Vienna suddenly became endangered when the Germans invaded and annexed Austria in 1938. As a Jew, she confronted devastating changes.

With their Jewish heritage reviled and their Austrian citizenship revoked, Camilla and her husband Hermann recognized their peril and attempted to come to the United States.


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