Amos Fröhlich was born into a Jewish family in Tuttlingen, Swabia, in 1930. Along with his parents and siblings, he managed to escape to Mandatory Palestine shortly before the November Pogroms of 1938. In his autobiography, Fröhlich describes his life and family history, the establishment of the agricultural settlement Shavei Zion in Israel, and the growing exchange between Germany and Israel. The memoir was published in German in 2020. It is based on recollections, correspondence with other contemporary witnesses, and personal documents and photographs.

Fröhlich initially wrote his autobiography in Hebrew for his family and friends in 2012. He then translated it orally into German. Like many members of the German-Jewish diaspora who fled as children, he is fluent in German, which shaped the family’s everyday life for many years after their flight. The German translation was then transcribed by the bookseller Barbara Staudacher and the publisher Heinz Högerle, who have been involved for many years in the Träger- und Förderverein Ehemalige Synagoge Rexingen (Association for the Support and Promotion of the Former Synagogue in Rexingen) and in German-Israeli exchange. This background underscores the source’s character as a testament to growing German-Israeli relations.

The cover of the autobiography shows a photo of the Fröhlich family before their forced migration, echoing the Israeli national colors through its blue-white color scheme. The book includes several short autobiographical texts by other family members as well as 171 illustrations, mostly photographs from Fröhlich’s family collection and the archives of Shavei Zion. It is therefore an intergenerational document. Fröhlich himself is representative of the German Jews who escaped with their families as young children and spent most of their youth outside Germany. Their experiences often differed greatly from those of the adult members of the German-Jewish diaspora, which could lead to intergenerational tensions. While the adults of Shavei Zion’s founding generation left behind many primary sources about the development of the community, Fröhlich’s autobiography offers insights into the lives and memories of the youngest members of the German-Jewish diaspora.