"Thoroughly researched and beautifully written history."— New York Times Book Review “Absorbing
. . . a David-and-Goliath tale of the industrial age.”— Wall Street Journal A propulsive human
drama that chronicles the mass exodus of Jews from Eastern Europe to America in the early years
of the twentieth century and the men who made it possible. Over thirty years from 1890 to
1921 2.5 million Jews fleeing discrimination and violence in their homelands of Eastern
Europe arrived in the United States. Many sailed on steamships from Hamburg. This mass exodus
was facilitated by three businessmen whose involvement in the Jewish-American narrative has
been largely forgotten: Jacob Schiff the managing partner of the investment bank Kuhn Loeb &
Company who used his immense wealth to help Jews to leave Europe Albert Ballin managing
director of the Hamburg-American Line who created a transportation network of trains and
steamships to carry them across continents and an ocean and J. P. Morgan mastermind of the
International Mercantile Marine (I.M.M.) trust who tried to monopolize the lucrative steamship
business. Though their goals were often contradictory together they made possible a migration
that spared millions from persecution. Descendants of these immigrants included Ruth Bader
Ginsburg Estée Lauder George Gershwin Irving Berlin Fanny Brice Lauren Bacall the Marx
Brothers David Sarnoff Al Jolson Sam Goldwyn Ben Shahn Hank Greenberg Moses Annenberg
and many more—including Ujifusa’s great grandparents. That is their legacy. Moving from the
shtetls of Russia and the ports of Hamburg to the mansions of New York’s Upper East Side and
the picket lines outside of the notorious Triangle Shirtwaist Factory The Last Ships from
Hamburg is a history that unfolds on both an intimate and epic scale. Meticulously researched
masterfully told Ujifusa’s story offers original insight into the American experience
connecting banking shipping politics immigration nativism and war—and delivers crucial
insight into the burgeoning refugee crisis of our own time.
