Secrets of a Suitcase : The Countess, the Nazis, and Middle Europe's Lost Nobility

A fascinating portrait of old cosmopolitan Central Europe, and a remarkable woman enduring as evil rises--all through the family belongings hidden in a suitcase.

When Pauline Terreehorst bid for a vintage Gucci suitcase at Sotheby''s Amsterdam, she had no idea what was inside. The case turned out to be full of fine dresses, furs and lace, with boxes of postcard albums showing grand castles and churches in Austria, France, England and Scotland. The curious correspondence revolved around Austrian philanthropist Countess Margarethe Szapary, and her daughter.

These unexpected family treasures are a gateway to a lost world: social, cultural and political life as the Szaparys knew it vanished in twentieth-century Europe''s great upheavals. Borders were redrawn, old cities received new names, communities changed loyalties--and Central Europe''s cosmopolitan, royalist aristocrats had to decide whether to become Germans under Nazi rule.

What did Margarethe choose, when her new neighbour Hermann Goring came knocking with a troubling request? What were the consequences for her and her children? And how did the family''s suitcase cross war-torn Europe to end up in Terreehorst''s hands decades later?