Out of Broken Glass

Out of Broken Glass tells the uplifting true story of a young German Jewish boy who is terrorized by the Nazis and torn from his family as he escapes alone to England on the Kindertransport. He overcomes fear and loneliness during wartime, living among non-Jewish strangers as he tries to retain his Jewish soul. At 14, he quits school to start work and agonizes over the unknown fate of his parents who perish in the Holocaust.

Near the end of the war, Sel joins relatives in New York, serves in the U. S. military and, armed with the G. I. bill but only an eighth grade education, he manages to enter college and earns degrees from CCNY and Columbia. After working at two companies, he joins ITT which transfers him and his new wife to Brussels where he faces more professional and personal challenges, especially in the German subsidiary. Returning to the U. S. with two young children, the Huberts settle in Westchester and become involved suburbanites.

Yet Sel?s past continues to haunt him as he undergoes major cathartic experiences while attending the 1981 reunion of Holocaust survivors in Jerusalem, and later as he publicly recites Kaddish in his German birth village after speaking to the assembled villagers in an ecumenical worship service. He retires from ITT, joins a consulting firm and teaches the lessons of the Holocaust by speaking at schools and colleges. He explores his perception of being Jewish in the post-Holocaust world and basks in the pride of his own family.