Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Voyage of Their Lives

Subtitle: The Story of the SS Derna and Its Passengers

Author: Diane Armstrong

Narrator: Deidre Rubenstein

Format: Unabridged

Length: 18 hrs and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-24-05

Publisher: Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 33 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

Diane Armstrong set sail on the Derna with her parents when she was 9 years old. Like a detective searching for clues, she has located over a hundred of the passengers. Through their recollections and memorabilia, as well as archival documents, she has recreated the voyage and traced what became of their hopes and dreams. The result is the unique portrayal of a migrant ship and its passengers.

Editorial Reviews:

This audiobook from Diane Armstrong isn't a memoir in the singular tradition of most memoirs. It is a memoir of a community, the inspiring and heartrending tale of those aboard the Derna in 1948. With little certainty of success, hundreds crammed themselves onto the ship leaving behind a world of Nazi reign, death camps, and gulags in hopes of a new start in Australia and New Zealand. Performed with a sincere empathy from veteran narrator, Deidre Rubenstein, The Voyage of Their Lives: The Story of the SS Derna and Its Passengers is an incredible look back at some of the lives that were forever changed from one of the darkest periods in modern European history.

Critic Reviews:

"Deidre Rubenstein's energetic reading keeps [the story] moving. She gives each word its due and enlivens conversations and life stories, many of them harrowing." (AudioFile)

Members Reviews:

Could have been magnificent; still pretty good

The author must have run short of material. The first half of this book is beyond excellent, recounting the personal background and experiences of a group of War refugees who, in 1948, were emmigrating from various parts of Europe to Australia. Parts are especially interesting because the author, as a child, was one of the passengers herself, as we her own parents. Many scenes are memorable, eg,on Yom Kippur, services were held for the Jews. Her parents, for reasons of survival, had hid their Jewishness and because there was a Jewish quota, were traveling as non-Jews. The tension over the question of whether they should reveal themselves so they could observe the day is just one of the tiny points in this book that make it so interesting. Today, it's easy to forget all the "little" rules that existed at the time -- such as the Derma's 25% limit on Jewish passenbers.

All of the stories of the passengers on the voyage, the tensions among the several Germans -- some of them former Nazis -- and the surviving Jews; how a group of refugee children fared; the stress of the terribly overcrowed conditions, lost luggage, poor food, lack of water, all make it an engrossing 'how it was' book, and supremely interesting and worthwhile.

Unfortunately, a little over half through, the author apparently ran out of material and decided to fill in with contemporary accounts of what several former passengers are doing now. At this point, it becomes a tedious recital of success after success. Nice that they all did so well, but the endless accolades get seriously boring. She even goes so far as to quote the verbatim language on a placque of recognition one of the men had received from his community. Yikes!

Again, how wonderful he did so well.