In 1948, Gidon and his mother boarded the S.S. America and sailed from France to Brooklyn. It was a momentous journey and the beginning of a new life. In the writing of the book, I found out that the S.S. America (pictured above) had quite an interesting career.
Built in 1939, later used by the US Navy to transport troops, the most massive espionage bust in US history, the Duquesne Ring, had two Nazi spies working on the ship's crew in 1941.
As with most great vessels, the S.S. America changed hands over time, and long after Gidon took it to his new life, in 1994, the ship ran aground in the Canary Islands. According to Google Maps, recently, it's disappeared from view except at low tide.