The Souvenir: A Daughter Discovers Her Father’s War by Louise Steinman 2001

"Only when we begin to share our stories, she discovers, can we also begin to approach the humanity we aspire to, and at the same time feel shame at the brutal bestiality of which we are all too capable."
 from a New York Times review by Diane Cole 12/02/01

When Louise Steinman was emptying her parents’ condominium after they had both died in 1990, she found a strong box that included 474 letters her father had written to her mother from the Pacific front where he had been stationed during World War II from August of 1943 until December of 1945. Also in the box was an envelope that contained a small Japanese flag with Japanese characters written on it. Her father Norman Steinman, who had immigrated to New York with his mother and sister when he was five and a half years old from Zhitomir, Ukraine, came home from serving in World War II a changed man, moody and uncommunicative. His wife and four children (the oldest of whom was born nine months after he went off to war) knew never to ask him about the war and to stay away from him if something triggered one of his rages.

Finding this trove of newsy, often emotional letters to her mother, as well as finding the Japanese flag, motivated the writer to investigate her father’s war years in an attempt to know her father as a young soldier. She learned that he had been an infantryman who had been shipped to the Philippines where he participated in one of the most difficult battles in Luzon as the Japanese tried to keep the Americans at bay and away from Japan.

She was also intent on finding out more about the Japanese flag her father had kept along with the letters. She started by having the writing on the flag translated and learned that the young Japanese soldier/owner of the flag, whose name was on the flag, had received it as a good-luck gift from family and friends who had signed their names on it. More investigation revealed that he had been killed in the Philippines shortly after he enlisted.

The author initially had her doubts about whether to search for his family, and whether to return the flag. She reports that her brother Larry asked her a provocative question: If their father had fought in Europe and had come home with a German flag with a swastika on it, would she be trying to find that soldier’s family and return the flag? A provocative question, indeed, one for which she has no ready answer. But she proceeded to visit the Philippines and then Japan where she returned the flag to the soldier’s family.

Steinman discusses the atrocities the Japanese visited on their enemies as well as those that resulted from the Americans dropping the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In researching wartime propaganda, brainwashing and military training, she cites literature that discusses the need to dehumanize the enemy as a way to rationalize torturing and killing them. She finds an obvious example in objectifying the enemy in her father’s easy use of “Japs” and “Nips.”

Like many children of survivors of concentration camps, she grew up with a father who had a traumatizing experience.  Research now informs us that he suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome that at that time went unlabeled, undiagnosed and untreated. A by-product of war, it claimed many victims and their families. She realizes that the damage war inflicts lingers through generations.

To read an article about late-onset Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome suffered by those who survived World War II, click here.

People
Herschel (Harry) Steinman – married Rebecca
    Ruth Steinman - daughter of Herschel and Rebecca
    Norman Steinman – son of Hershel and Rebecaa; married Anne Weiskopf
          Ruth Steinman – daughter of Norman and Anne; married to Matthew Solomon
             Jennifer Solomon – daughter of Ruth and Matthew
         Larry Steinman - son of Norman and Anne
         Louise Steinman – daughter of Norman and Anne; married Lloyd Hamrol; author
         Kenneth Steinman - son of Norman and Anne
   
Louis Weiskopf – married Sarah
     Anne Weiskopf - daughter of Louis and Sarah; married Norman Steinman (see above)
     Doris Weiskopt - daughter of Louis and Sarah

Friends and Acquaintances
    Sam Wengrow
    Morrie Franklin
    Sylvan Katz

Places
Zhitomir, Ukraine 
Bronx, New York
New York City, NY
Culver City, California
Luzon, The Philippines

In My Mother’s House: A Daughter’s Story by Kim Chernin, first published in 1983; HarperPerennial edition with new forward by author 1994

"It is the ideological aspect that distinguishes this memoir from more familiar stories of daughter-mother resentment."  from a review by Diane McWhorter in the New York Times 8/21/1983

Kim Chernin (b. 1940) spent seven years writing this fascinating memoir whose focus is her mother Rose’s life as an active and prominent member of the Communist Party and the author's relationship with her mother. To tell their story, the author covers four generations of Chernin women: Rose’s mother Perle, Rose, Kim herself, and Kim’s daughter Larissa.

Kim Chernin’s mother Rose told stories about her life that the author recorded in discrete chronological chapters. However, interspersed are chapters that take place in the “present” in which mother and daughter rehash and sort out the various strands of Rose’s stories, some of which Kim had never heard. The early chapters describe Rose's early life, how she and her family were part of the mass migration of Jews from Eastern Europe who came to America seeking a better life. Rose crossed the Atlantic with her mother and three younger siblings when her father, who had migrated several years earlier, sent for them.  

But life wasn’t easy. Their father mistreated their mother and then abandoned them. Perle barely learned English, hardly ever left the house, and, as is typical in many immigrant families, depended on her children, especially her oldest, Rose, to negotiate life in the United States for her. Perle suffered from depression and was institutionalized several times.

Rose was attracted to learning and loved school. When it was time for Rose to enter high school World War I was being fought. Luckily the high school day started early and ended early so that high school students could work in the factories. Rose was able to go to high school and work after school to help support the family. In school she met her future husband, Paul Kusnitz, who introduced her to socialism.

The memoir is then taken up with Rose’s long involvement with the Communist party, the committees she formed and ran, her travels and her speaking, and the time she spent in jail in the 1950’s. A major emphasis is the effect her work had on her family, especially her daughter, Kim, who grew up in the party but later became disillusioned. Rose’s  lifelong devotion and single-minded commitment to the Communist Party made it very difficult to accept her daughter’s turning away.

In order to write the book the author conducted extensive interviews with her mother. The memoir delineates their difficulties but the interviews and subsequent conversations allowed them the opportunity to listen to each other. Kim Chernin paints a picture of her mother as a strong woman who always kept in mind the difficulties her immigrant mother faced. Writing the memoir provided the author with the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of her mother’s roots and the external events that helped shape her world view.

The memoir includes photos.

To read a piece that Rose Chernin wrote in 1949 about organizing the unemployed in the Bronx in the 1930's, click here.


Family
Perle Chernin
    Rose (Rochele) Chernin – daughter of Perle; married Paul Kusnitz
        Nina Chernin – daughter of Rose and Paul
        Kim Chernin – daughter of Rose and Paul; marrried David Netboy; author
            Larissa Chernin – daughter of Kim and David
    Celia (Zipora, Sylvia) Chernin – daughter of Perle; married Harry Horowitz
        Ethel Horowitz – daughter of Celia and Harry
        Pim and Sandor – twin sons of Celis; half brother of Ethel
        Michael – son of Celia; half brother of Ethel
    Gertrude (Gita) Chernin – daughter of Perle
        Vida – daughter of Gertrude
    Milton (Mikhail) Chernin – son of Perle
    Lillian Chernin – daughter of Perle; marries Norman
        Terry and Paulie – children of Lillian and Norman
Gita Chernin – father’s sister
Sonia Chernin – father’s cousin

Paul Kusnitz – married to Rose Chernin (see above)
Barney Kusnitz – Paul’s brother; married to Sara
Sol Kusnitz
Sam Kusnitz
Max – brother of Paul; married to Anne

Acquaintances
Sonia Bloom
Peter Blume – Sonia’s brother
Sarah Kahen
    Jesse Kahen
Ben Gold
Sam Kichle
Al Levy   
David Thorne
August Thorne – David’s brother

Places
Chasnik, Russia
Staten Island, NYC
Bronx, NYC
Waterbury, Conn.
Canonsville, New York
Los Angeles, Calif.
Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, Calif.
Berkeley, Calif.
Binghamton State Hospital, Binghamton NY
Camp Wo-Chi-Ca, Port Murray, New Jersey