WITNESS FOR A GENERATION
Prominent Attorney John Baer Witnessed
History in the Making on Three Continents
Why did Witness for a Generation receive such fanfare upon publication-far more attention than usually accompanies the publication of a personal memoir? Clearly this book is more than just a memoir. John J. Baer, a prominent attorney in Los Angeles, has written a book that transcends the personal and has far-reaching significance on many levels. As an eye-witness account of the frightening rise of Nazi Germany, Witness for a Generation is of interest to historians, to Jews, in fact to anyone interested in the fate of the human race. As an account of an odyssey that brought a family to the New World and the determination with which Baer rebuilt his life first in South America, then in California, this book is a testament to persistence and faith. The importance of this memoir is underscored by the tribute it received upon publication: a catered reception at Los Angeles's renowned Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance on November 10, 1997.
John Baer watched his life explode in the Kristallnacht of November 9, 1938. After his father was deported to Buchenwald, he escaped Germany to find a new home in the the New World. His facility with languages helped him forge a career in government service in Bolivia and bring his mother, fiancee and future in-laws out of Germany to safety in South America, while his sister found a new home in Australia. At war's end they moved to the United States where he eventually studied law and became a prominent attorney specializing in International Law, representing most of the consulates in Southern California.
In Witness for a Generation Baer not only chronicles a life of danger and adventure, he reflects on the importance of promoting mutual understanding and peace among nations, and on the significance of Judaism in his life. He is mindful of the importance of his immigrant experience-in one sense, he has always been an outsider; in another sense, his Judaism has always given him a sense of being at home.
John Baer has practiced law in Los Angeles for nearly forty years. In addition to his work with most of the consulates and foreign trade missions in Los Angeles, he was a co-founder of the Center for International Commercial Arbitration, President of the Foreign Trade Association of Southern California, and is a long-time member of the Benefactors of Jewish Club of 1933. |
