I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion. 
 Hannah Rosenthal was an 11-year-old Jew in Berlin in 1939. She spends her days with her best (and only) friend, Leo. Hannah and her parents have watched their rights be stripped away a little at a time, and finally her parents secure spots for them on the Saint Louis, bound for Cuba. All Hannah knows is that, whatever happens, she does not want to be separated from Leo. 
 Anna is an 11 year old girl who lives with her mom in New York City. All she knows of her dad is that he was raised by his aunt Hannah, after whom she was named, in Cuba. On Anna's 12th birthday, she receives a package in the mail from Hannah. This gives Anna more questions about her father's family, and she asks to go to Cuba to meet Hannah. 
 No matter how many novels about Hitler's rule in Germany I read, I am always horrified anew how people could treat their fellow humans so horribly. In The German Girl, we get to see a glimpse of that cruelty all over again in Cuba 30 years later. This book was excellently written and full of emotion, especially the ending. I couldn't help but root for Hannah and Leo to stay together like they wanted.