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xi D Editor’s Note d More than a decade has passed since I had the good fortune to meet a sharp-eyed, sharptongued woman and was regaled by the stories of her distinguished family and the roles she and they played throughout the twentieth century.She spoke of her father,Ulrich Baron von Sell, trained as a diplomat, severely wounded in war, forced by circumstances to turn from the foreign service to a business career, eventually to become the financial adviser and closest friend of Germany’s last monarch, Kaiser Wilhelm II, who would, in turn, be godfather to the baron’s children. She told of growing up during the Third Reich within a household adamantly opposed to its dictates, in which it was finally decided that passive resistance to Nazism would not suffice and what the price of that decision might be.She also spoke of the courageous pastor,Martin Niemoeller,who became an exemplar to the world by remaining unmoved by the earthly might of Adolf Hitler, and whom she would marry, decades later. Crowns, Crosses, and Stars is Sarah Niemoeller’s story,the saga of a remarkable woman living in tumultuous times; born a German baroness, trained as an actress and an accomplished equestrienne, she was involved with myriad groups resisting both Hitler’s dictatorship and his genocidal efforts. Post-war, she assisted British Intelligence during the occupation period and experienced the trials of the Berlin Airlift before coming to America to create a new life for herself and her son. As an American citizen living in New York, she met and befriended many notables within politics, religion, and the arts before her return to Germany to wed Martin Niemoeller, resuming her life in the United States only after his passing ended a loving marriage, after which she began yet another phase in her life as an author, a public speaker, and a member of the Jewish People. My task has been to weave Sarah’s narrative into a relatively straightforward time line while allowing digressions for stories involving some of the hundreds of men and women— noblesandcommoners,heroesandvillains,thefamous,infamous,andthe“ordinary”—who have played a part in her life. The task has been a challenge and a delight. My only regret is that space limitations precluded more of those tales from inclusion. Crowns, Crosses, and Stars is a saga at once fantastic and fascinating.My thanks to Professor Zev Garber,the Shofar series editor who originally approached me,to the staff at Purdue University Press,including Charles Watkinson,Rebecca Corbin,and Katherine Purple, for their invaluable help with the manuscript, and, most of all, to Sarah Niemoeller, for the opportunity to bring her story to you. —Richard Libowitz Temple University, July 2011 ...

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