Few lines from Rachel's story:

As long as there was no war the Jews were allowed to leave Germany and Austria. But the Jewish people could not believe that Hitler’s regime would last. After all the good and safe years that they had spent there as loyal German citizens they would not and could not believe that Nazism would continue for long. Even those who wanted to leave thought that they would sell their houses first and then leave. But oh! How wrong they were. It did not even occur to them that the Nazis could confiscate their properties. They had all kinds of premonitions but not the slightest idea of how far and how cruel those vultures would go. Maybe in their hearts they knew more than they wanted to admit but they put their heads in the sand because they hoped that after all it could not happen and should not happen, because the truth was unbelievable.