Wherever the Word Leads
In “Wherever the Word Leads,” I share my thoughts on books (including mine), the process of writing, the experiences of an indie-publisher, WWII, the Holocaust, cooking, travel, and anything else I feel might be of interest to readers of my books.
Please let me know what you like and what you want to know more about. Everything in this blog reflects my personal ideas and feelings–a memoir of sorts, it is my perspective and any errors or omissions are mine.
Haiku, The Allure of Three Lines
IN COLLEGE, I DISCOVERED that short non-rhyming poetry suited me better than the long, metered, classical poems I struggled to understand. After earning a dreary grade in a sophomore poetry class, I concluded I would be happier as an art major than studying English literature as planned. In art, I found satisfaction in the physical…
Mother and Daughter Stories I have Loved
DESPITE THE INEVITABLE UPS AND DOWNS and tangles of emotion, a strong bond between a mother and her daughter can withstand the test of time. My novel, Ashes and Ruins, is dedicated to all mothers and daughters who face the world together. The story, inspired by the relationship between my grandmother and my aunt, tells of a…
Schlaraffia, A Beacon of Laughter in Nazi Germany
After I wrote my three-part article about Jewish life in Nazi Germany, I began to wonder if there was any way for an assimilated German-Jewish man in the 1930s, a man like my grandfather, Hugo Lang, to escape his worries and concerns for an evening. A way to inject some fun into his serious life.…
The Long Path to Auschwitz – Part 3
Racial Hate Laws One Step at a Time, with Family Notes Part III: 1939 to 1941: Kristallnacht to the Final Solution Kristallnacht: A Nazi Pogrom On the night of November 9–10, 1938, a nationwide anti-Jewish riot swept across Germany. Twenty-four hours of state-sponsored terror ensued. Synagogues were burned while firefighters watched, Jewish-owned shops were vandalized…
The Long Path to Auschwitz – Part 2
Racial Hate Laws One Step at a Time, with Family Notes: An Article in Three Parts Part II: Summer 1935 to 1938: The Nuremberg Laws, Aryanization, Emigration, and the Anschluss. The Nuremberg Laws: A biological solution to assimilation. Less than a month after the closing ceremonies of the Berlin Olympics, the eighth annual Nuremberg Rally…
The Long Path to Auschwitz: A Three-Part Article
Racial Hate Laws One Step at a Time, with Family Notes Prologue WHEN I WROTE ASHES AND RUINS, the historical novel based on the true experiences of my grandmother Clara, I knew some regular readers of Holocaust novels would be puzzled by the absence of terror and misery. The majority of books about the Jewish…
A Question of Suffering and Denial: Pre-war Germany
A FEW WEEKS AGO, I was having tea with a good friend when she said she had some questions about my new book, Ashes and Ruins. Always eager to talk about my work, I assured her that she could ask me anything. “How much of the book is true?” she said. Having been asked this…
Nazi Policy and the Intermarriage and Mischling Dilemma
THE NUREMBERG RACE LAWS OF 1935 (see post, “How German Jews Lost Their Citizenship,” May 16, 2026) continued to be amended and fine-tuned for the next four years. Ever stricter, these laws codified Hitler’s anti-Jewish policy and gave the Nazi regime deadly control over the Jews living in Germany and the occupied countries. One of…
Singing for our lives in Eugene, Oregon
THE CROWD IS GROWING. A small band of three musicians is setting up a microphone and speakers. Behind them looms the newly installed black iron fence that surrounds the Eugene Federal Building, where arrested immigrants are questioned in the offices of ICE. Two rows of color photos are tied to the black grating of the…
How German Jews Lost Their Birthright Citizenship
Originally published as Loss of Citizenship the Nuremberg Way on May 29, 2015 on my personal blog, this article has been slightly modified to make it more current. Also published on kathrynslattery.substack.com on 05/09/2026 * In the second chapter of Immigrant Soldier, Herman speeds toward home on his motorcycle, his mind a swirl of thoughts.…
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