Grasp­ing at Straws tells the sto­ry of the Ichen­häuser fam­i­ly, thor­ough­ly assim­i­lat­ed Ger­man Jews liv­ing in Cologne. The Ichen­häusers’ three sons served in the Ger­man army in WWI. But their ser­vice was for­got­ten when Hitler came to pow­er. The book relates how the Ichen­häusers sought to escape after Kristall­nacht and their sub­se­quent jour­ney. It also tells the sto­ries of fam­i­ly mem­bers and friends who did not get out. Those sto­ries are told large­ly through poignant, heart-rend­ing let­ters that fam­i­ly mem­bers and friends wrote from 1938 – 1946. The nar­ra­tive is sup­ple­ment­ed by more than 100 pho­tographs and doc­u­ments from the time at issue. The com­bi­na­tion of first hand nar­ra­tive along with a deep pho­to­graph­ic record make for a com­pelling book.