THE EXIT VISA

Moving Holocaust memoir telling the story of a unique journey across wartime Europe.

6th September, 1942. A middle-aged Jewish refugee stands on the Swiss side of the Franco-Swiss border above Geneva. He has been living in Switzerland since he fled Vienna in November 1938, as the Nazi persecution of the city's Jewish population intensified. He is now waiting for the arrival of the wife he has not seen for nearly four years. Against all odds he has managed to get an entry permit for her to join him in Switzerland. She appears on the French side. They see each other. Call out. She begins to cross the few yards of no-mans-land that separate them. An official calls her back.

She hesitates, turns, goes back – and is lost forever. This book tells the story of the wartime journey of Toni Schiff, as she ventured across Europe to this fateful near-meeting at the Franco-Swiss border – and what happened next.

Sheila Rosenberg was a teacher of English Literature and published in the area of Victorian Studies. She then moved into teaching, developing and publishing in English as a second language and in 2011 received an OBE for her contribution to ESOL teaching. Country of residence: UK