How the Nazis stole a cookbook

Alice Urbach’s cookbook was a bestseller in the 1930s in German-speaking countries. A Jew, she fled her home under the Nazis, who republished the book under a different name without giving her credit.

Recipes for Kaiserschmarrn,  a kind of sweet scrambled pancake, apple strudel and special donuts for the Carnival season are just some of the dishes in Alice Urbach’s more than 500-page cookbook, So kocht man in Wien! (This Is How We Cook in Vienna!). In the 1930s, almost every Viennese household owned a copy of the book, and Alice Urbach found herself the author of a bestseller. The fame did not last long, however.