Ellie's Inheritance

by Hila Colman

A young Jewish woman, whose family has been impoverished by the 1929 stock market crash, struggles to define herself during the intellectual ferment of New York in the 1930's. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688222048
• ISBN13: 9780688222048
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 190 Pages

Customer Reviews

Isabella's book review

Ellie, a Jewish girl in the 1930's living in New York City, went from riches to rags. What caused this great tragedy? The Great Depression. During this time, stock markets crashed, banks paniced, businesses failed and millions of people experienced poverty. Ellie used to live in a large home and spent her time shopping and attending college. Because of the Depression, her family no longer had money for her education and needed to save the little money that was left for necessities. The young girl had to find a job in order to support herself and her father, who was never hired because of his age and thick Jewish accent. She finally accomplished this goal when she met a man named Lionel. Lionel was an opinionated Communist who also became Ellie's love interest. He found her a job working for the League Against War and Facism. Ellie's and Lionels spark soon demolished when he went to Spain in order to fight for and follow his dream of an end to facism.He died fighting for what he believed in. Then, Ellie met Paul who was a German-Jew. He had to run away from Germany because of Hitler's slaughtering of innocent Jews as the Holocaust began. Paul was afraid to open up because of his guilt for leaving his family, whom he knew they would most likely be killed. He and Ellie eventually grew closer and got engaged. Ellie also started working as an assistant to a fashion designer and eventually found a job as a fashion designer herself. She finally had followed her dream, even though the odds and the economy were against her favor. As leader of a country, the powerful Hitler had a great level of responsibilty. He was responsible for the minds and opinions of his people especially the youth. If they saw the leader of their country doing something, they'd want to do the same. He took advantage of his power and brainwashed them into thinking that Jews were not worthy of living by using the media and portraying Jews as bad people. His people participated in the burning of synagogues, aiding of the deportation of the Jews, and some even financially supported the training camps. Hitler took his responsibility as leader and used it in a negative way which resulted in the deaths of many innocent lives.