"While most former patrons have a favorite story to tell about Goudchaux’s/Maison Blanche, not many know the personal tale behind this beloved institution. In We Were Merchants, Hans Sternberg provides a captivating account of how his parents, Erich and Lea, fled from Nazi Germany to the United States, embraced their new home, and together with their children built Goudchaux’s into a Baton Rouge legend that eventually became Goudchaux’s/Maison Blanche—an independent retail force during the golden era of the department store and, by 1989, the largest family-owned department store in America" -- inside cover.