Photo credit: Janet Donovan
“My mother and father had come from Germany to America; my father first, then he went back to marry my mother and bring her here where he was head of the New York office of a German bank,” author Hillie Mahoney told Hollywood on the Potomac at a book party in her honor at the Georgetown manse of T.H. Bonnie McElveen-Hunter. “Then came 1940 and the bank said, ‘Please come back. Close the office and come back to Germany’ – which he did.” What started out as an adventurous trip to Europe via San Francisco and Japan turned out to be a Journey Interrupted: A Family Without a Country in a World at War.
Co-hosts Alexandra de Borchgrave, Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, Aniko Gaal Schott with author Hillie Mahoney
“In the midst of World War II, a German-American family finds themselves stranded in Japan in this inspiring tale of an extraordinary family adapting to the hazards of fate, and finding salvation in each other. In the spring of 1941, seven-year-old Hildegarde Ercklentz and her family leave their home in New York City and set off for their native Germany, where her father has been recalled to the headquarters of the Commerz & Privat Bank in Berlin. It was meant to be an epic journey, crossing the United States, the Pacific, and Siberia—but when Hitler invades Russia, a week-long stay in Yokohama, Japan becomes six years of quasi-detention, as Hildegarde and her family are stranded in Japan until the war’s end. In this spellbinding memoir, Mahoney recounts her family’s moving saga, from their courage in the face of terrible difficulties—including forced relocation, scarce rations, brutal winters in the Japanese Alps—to their joyous reunion with their German relatives in Hamburg, and their eventual return to New York City in 1950. Richly detailed and remarkably vivid, Journey Interrupted is a story unlike any other—the inspiring tale of an extraordinary family adapting to the hazards of fate, and finding salvation in each other.” Publisher’s notes
“On the 19th of June, we arrived on this Japanese luxury liner at Yokohama; 3 days later on my birthday, the 22nd of June, Hitler marches into Russia. My 2 brothers were American citizens because they were born in America. I was born in Germany and therefore I was German. So there were 3 of us, 1 who’s German, 2 are Americans who were on my mother’s passport. Now we have Hitler marching into Russia and my father says, ‘Wonderful. I never really wanted to go to Germany. Now, we’ll go back to America.’ Finally, during the war in Japan, that’s when MacArthur came in 1945 after the atomic bomb, the signing of the instrument of surrender, and then he and Eisenhower tried to decide what they were going to do with all these farmers in Japan.” Her family eventually returned to the United States, but the full saga is best told in the video below which is truly fascinating.
“Everybody here is here because they are F-O-H’s, Friends of Hillie’s,” said host Bonnie McElveen-Hunter. “There is something magic about her generosity. If anyone ever doubted the brilliant, dynamic, decadent, relentless generosity of God, I present to you Hillie.”
Surprise musical talent flank Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, Nash Schott and Aniko Gaal Schott
“Hillie Mahoney’s 2008 documentary Journey Interrupted was directed by former ABC News producer Bob Frye, with musical score by Bob Merrill. The film depicts her family’s odyssey during WWI. In the Spring of 1941, as political tensions in Europe mounted, her German father was recalled to his native country, forcing the family to uproot from their lives in new York City. Crossing the Pacific, they made it to Japan, when Hitler invaded Russia. While awaiting passage, the attack on Pearl Harbor stranded them for the duration of the war. Hillie, her German parents, and her American-born brothers, spent the next decade under challenging circumstances before finally returning to New York, where Hillie rose to fame as “Miss Rheingold” of 1956, later becoming a spokeswoman and champion of charitable causes with her late husband David Mahoney, the noted industrialist and philanthropist.” Courtesy of Bob Merrill
