September 1933 - Adolf Hitler breaks ground on his ambitious plans to link all major German cities with highways.  This ceremony kicked off construction of the Frankfurt-am-Main - Darmstadt/Mannheim highway.

Groundbreaking

Irene Némirovsky with elder daughter Denise (Epstein), mid-1930s, Paris.  JR.

Irene Némirovsky and daughter.

The ruins of the building that was the American Embassy in Berlin until 1941. Four days after the attack on Pearl Harbor the U.S. and Germany were at war and the embassy ceased operations altogether. Its personnel were confined for 5 1/2 months in the Grand Hotel Jeschke at Bad Nauheim.The Swiss, as a neutral state, took over the building for the rest of the war. The ruined embassy was finally demolished in 1957.