Jerusalem corner Berlin

His parents met at the Bauhaus in Dessau and fled to Palestine in 1935, desperately hoping to return home one day. Tom Segev, born in Jerusalem in 1945, lost his father in the first Arab-Israeli war. He and his mother then remained in Israel, but his German heritage was not to let him go.

Controversial and passionate, with irony and warmth, Tom Segev recounts his life, from the beginning of his career in Jerusalem to German reunification, from his encounters with Markus Wolf and Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro, Mother Teresa and Hannah Arendt, Willy Brandt and Günter Grass. He movingly describes how, in his search for an understanding of German identity, he was also confronted with Israel’s historical burdens, and how he finally found happiness in Ethiopia. Segev is a gifted storyteller who does not shy away from sensitive and controversial topics. An outstanding contemporary testimony full of optimism.

Dr. Tom Segev, publicist and historian, has been one of the most attentive and astute observers of German-Israeli history for more than 50 years. His books, most notably The Seventh Million (1995), made him internationally known.