The story of a family over many generations is put into an historical context. The first three chapters deal with very different communities in Germany: Creglingen, a rural community in Baden-Wuerttemberg; Fuerth, a city adjacent to Nuremberg which had a large Jewish population and important institutions; and Augsburg, where Jews, from 1438 until 1803, could not reside but lived in its suburb, Kriegshaber. The book interweaves the detail of the family's life with an explanation of the status and experience of Jews in Germany over the centuries, as well as the histories of the cities and towns...