East side of Bennett Park near the steps to Fort Washington Avenue at 184th Street



We see the Art Deco A-train subway entrance designed by Squire J. Vickers across the street. Our Austrian neighbor Rivke, whose story this episode follows, lived on Bennett Avenue near this subway entrance’s lower level.

It is also within this episode that the neighborhood’s German Jewish and Dominican immigrant stories intersect. After Kristallnacht, most Jews in Nazi-occupied countries tried to leave for any place that would take them, any way they could. The Dominican Republic, under President-Dictator Rafael Trujillo, was the only country that initially proposed to allow an unlimited number of Jews to emigrate there. The son of Trujillo made a promise to Rivke’s husband that will surprise you.