5/16/24 – All for You – Dena Rueb Romero
Dena Rueb Romero grew up in Hanover, New Hampshire, the daughter of a Lutheran mother and a Jewish father, both refugees from Nazi Germany. After her father’s death, Romero accidentally discovered a box of letters at her parents’ home. The letters dated back to 1938. There were love letters between her parents, letters from her grandparents in Germany to her father, copies of his replies, and more, all of which illuminated for Dena her parents’ lives during the war and filled in gaps of information that had haunted her childhood. Romero uses both family documents and historical research to flesh out her parents’ moving story: their abiding love across years of separation, the growing hostilities toward the German Jewish population, her grandparents’ increasing desperation, and Emil’s hard work to help them all. All for You is a beautiful testament to love, a deeply moving tribute to lost family, and a compassionate recounting of this period of her father’s life.