This memoir is a moving testament to the power of family. The Lucas clan
was a close-knit, successful family of rural German Jews--butchers and
meat dealers--whose strength and pride was challenged by the rise of
Nazism. As the family grew, so did its prosperity and power, and the
sons, daughter, and their relatives became known as the Sovereigns.
But anti-Semites, under the protection of the Nazi regime, began to
settle old scores, and targeted the economically successful rural Jews.
New laws stripped Jewish meat dealers of their rights, and Aryan
competitors eagerly forced them aside. That was only the beginning. In
the Holocaust that followed, some members of the family escaped. Others
did not.