In They Were Good Germans Once, author and biographer Evelyn Toynton speaks to a universal immigrant family experience -- some embrace a new life, some forge a compromise between their new home and old traditions, while others never fully find their way.

Through her series of essays, Toynton remembers her own relatives, some of whom left Germany as soon as Hitler came to power, others only escaping much later.

Her family lost not only their native homeland and their sense of identity but many of the people they loved. Yet each found ways to give meaning to their lives, whether in their own small circles or in the world at large.