Ari Rath, born in Vienna in 1925 the son of Jewish immigrants from Galicia, was often witness to pivotal historical events, which he documents in this highly intimate book. He recounts his memories of the Anschluss and of his escape to Palestine in 1938 on the children's transport ship Galilee. He describes the hardships of kibbutz life, his years in the USA working for the Zionist youth movement, the part he played in the arduous task of setting up the state of lsrael, and the daring activities of the Haganah. From 1958 he was editor of the Jerusalem Post, and from 1975 he was the newspaper's editor-in-chief and publisher. As principal advocate of a politically liberal Israel until his time as editor-in--chief ended, the English-language newspaper was his life.
This is a major testament to the will to survive, as well as an emphatic appeal for understanding and conciliation.
Of the generation of Yitzhak Rabin, Teddy Kollek and Shimon Perez, Rath was poli-tical adviser to David Ben-Gurion. In 2005 he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and in 2011 he received the Grand Order of Merit for Services Rendered to the Republic of Austria.