Little Failure by Gary Shteyngart  2014

"Hilarious as it often is, Little Failure is a record of existential homelessness, of living in a limbo between two different countries and identities." from a review by Peter Conrad in The Guardian March 2, 2014

For those of you who have read any of Gary Shteyngart’s novels, the settings, “characters” and laugh lines in this memoir will be familiar. Born in 1972 in the Soviet Union, he immigrated with his parents to the United Stated in 1979 and settled in Queens, New York. In this memoir he takes us back to what he remembers about his early childhood in Leningrad as Igor, then to his growing up in America as Gary.

In many ways this is the classic immigrant story.The Shtayngarts had come from a country and a culture where they had had deep roots. He dramatizes his parents’ clinging to their Russian ways and the Russian language in America, and the confusion he feels trying to become an American amongst the American born. At the same time that he and his parents marvel at the riches and possibilities America has to offer, they also are discomforted at what they see as an intellectually impoverished environment compared to what they left behind. They are quite perturbed at a far inferior education system in America and constantly push their son to be the best. Hence the title: Little Failure – a nickname his mother bestows on their only child because she’s not satisfied with how much he is achieving.

One of the great strengths of this memoir is Shteyngart’s ability to re-create how he felt and what he understood as a youngster. He deftly sketches in the economic and political climate - the  actualities of Soviet life, including the debilitating anti-Semitism that they experienced.  And he writes with compassion about the terrible choice his mother had to make in deciding she would emigrate, having to leave behind her sick mother in the care of her older sister. He writes lovingly about the influence that both of his grandmothers had on his life, and he conveys his father’s fervent attachment to his Jewish religion here in America which he wasn’t allowed to practice in the Soviet Union. Throughout he adds authenticity and color by sprinkling Russian language phrases into the ongoing family conversations and declarations.

Like most immigrant families who leave their homelands, the Shteyngarts immigrate so that the next generation will have more opportunity. The author understands and appreciates their motives, but the story he tells reveals that what drove them came at a cost. At the same time they were rescued from a hostile environment, they were displaced and had to start in an alien environment with nothing. His mordant, dark humor drives these points home.

This memoir includes many family photos.

To watch a video of Gary Shteyngart reading from his memoir and discussing his life, click here.
To read an article about Soviet Jewish immigration to the United States click here.

People
Author's mother's family
Seina Nirman
   Gayla  – daughter of Seina; married Dmitry Yasnitsky
       Lyusya Yasnitskaya – daughter of Gayla
          Victoria – daughter  of Lyusya
      Nina Yasnitskaya – daughter of Gayla; married Semyon Shteyngart
             Igor (Gary) Shteyngart – son of Semyon and Nina; author
      Tanya Yasnistskaya – daughter of Gayla
   Aaron – son of Seina 

Author's father's family
Steinhorn
 Isaac Shteyngart (formerly Steinhorn)-  married Polya Miller
    Semyon Shteyngart – son of Isaac and Polya; married Nina Yasnitskaya
Igor (Gary) Shteyngart – son of Semyon and Nina; author
Fenya Miller – sister of author’s paternal grandmother, Polya Miller (see above)

Places
Chemirovets, Ukraine
Dubrovno, Belarus
Orinino, Ukraine
Olgino, Russia
St Petersburg, Russia
Queens, New York

The Enemy at His Pleasure: A Journey Through the Jewish Pale of Settlement During World War I by S. Ansky edited and translated by Joachim Neugroschel, published in English in 2002

"Ansky balances his tale among statistics (of depleted populations, refugees and destroyed property, for instance), telegraphed stories told to him by survivors and his own experiences cast in an unflinching reportage." from a review in the Jewish Daily Forward by Alyssa Quint, 2/25/2005

In the Introduction to this compelling memoir, editor and translator Joachim Neugrsoschel writes that S. Ansky, born Shloyme Zanvel ben-Aaron Rappaport in Vitebsk, who is now best known for his play, The Dybbuk, was a Russian Jewish intellectual who became fascinated with ethnographic research. He used that interest to observe and record Jewish customs and folktales as he traveled throughout the Jewish Pale of Settlement. But he had to cut short his research when World War I broke out.

During the war he resumed travel, this time to aid Jewish communities who were adversely affected by the war. He became a driving force in alerting authorities, convening Jewish Welfare groups, requisitioning supplies, and requesting and doling out funds as he traveled back and forth between the countryside and Kiev and St. Petersburg. Ansky based this memoir on his notes from the field during the time he spent mostly in Galicia. He also reports on some locations he visited in Bukovina. He finished the memoir in 1920, the year he died.

Ansky felt deeply the tragic situation of the Jews, especially those in small shtetls with few resources. He notes that their outsider status, wherever they lived, made them vulnerable to all kinds of abuse, and it was easy for many different national and ethnic groups to scape-goat the Jews based on long-held anti-Semitism. In this case they were suspected by the Russians of aiding the Germans and Austrians, and at the same time, the Germans and Austrians suspected them of spying for the Russians. Advancing, occupying and retreating forces ravaged their businesses and set fire to their buildings, including synagogues where Ansky reported seeing desecrated torah scrolls and pages from prayer books littering the floors.

Often, when visiting a town or shtetl, Ansky noted that news of the war's progress had traveled. Aware of the approaching troops, fearing the worst, many Jews were hastily packing up what they could take with them and seeking out safer communities. But they frequently had no choice, and were expelled and resettled  with other Jews in designated locations. Ansky records in vivid detail the conditions he observed: Many displaced Jews were penniless, frequently homeless or living crammed in overcrowded rooms, wearing tattered clothing, starving, and often sick.

A master storyteller and an accomplished prose stylist, he recreates on the page conversations he had with Jews he encountered who told him graphic stories of what they had experienced and witnessed. Ansky was their tireless advocate. He then describes what he tried to do to alleviate their suffering: handing them an allotment of rubles and/or supplies and reporting their dire straights to those who were in charge. He paints vivid pictures of precarious lives lived in the midst of a war where danger was always present, and government administrators often expressed sympathy but did not or could not follow through. Ansky also spent much time and energy trying to work the system of Jewish religious groups, wealthy Jews who were potential benefactors, and Jewish social agencies.

This important memoir, as well as giving readers a window into the world of the Jews living in towns and shtetls in Galicia and Bukovina  during World War I, also provides an overview of Russian governance under the Czar during the war with its attendant bureaucracy, chaos, confusion  and violence. At the end of the memoir Ansky describes the overthrow of the Czar and the beginning of the Russian Revolution.  

To look at posts from a blog called Vanished World of a recent trip through what remains of Jewish Galicia, including artfully taken photos in its cemeteries, click here.

To read an earlier post from this blog about a priest's attempts to uncover Ukraine's Jewish past, particularly as it relates to World War II that is the subject of his memoir, The Holocaust By Bullets: A Priest's Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of 1.5. Million Jews, click here.

People
Alexander Gintsberg
Oscar Gruzenberg
I. Nayditsh
B.Y. Ratner
Dovid Faynberg
Yekheskl Landa - Brody
Meyer Margolis - Brody
Abba Lev
M.A. Varshavsky - Petrograd
S.A. Grinberg - Kiev
Yisroel Razov
Itzik Rosenberg tells story of Yuzefov
Yekheil Litman - Yuzefov
Itzik Halberstam - Yuzefov
Itshe Fuks - Yuzefov
Leyzer-Yekhiel Englender - Yuzefov
Lippe Shenker - Yuzefov
Leybesh Cohen - Yuzefov
 Mayer Cohen – son of Leybesh - Yuzefov
Dr. Yankev Diamant – Lwow
Srulik Vaisbord - Suchostow
Aaron Savtsits – Malarito
Yitsik Nakht – Tarnopol
Lip Shvager – Khorostkov
Hirsh Rapaport - Czortkow
I.M. Perpikar
Marek Fish – Czernowitz
Yirmiye Sikopant – Czernowitz
Dovid Shekhner - Czernowitz
Shimen Sas - Czernowitz
Hersh Rimer - Czernowitz
Leo Hershman - Czernowitz
Leyb Retter – Sadagora
Aleykim Gastanter – Sadagora
Yitsik Shamatnik Sadagora
Shmuel Zagrebelsky – Sadagora
Shmuel Sender – Czernowki
Aaron Rat – Vaslutsk
H.D. Margolin – Kiev
Shaul Ginzburg - Kiev
Arnold Zaydenman - Kiev
H.B. Veynshlboym - Kiev

Places
Warsaw, Poland
Yuzefov, Poland
Bloyne, Poland
Suchostow, Galicia
Gora, Galicia
Nowomiasto, Galicia
Brody, Galicia
Lwow , Galicia
Zheshov, Poland
Tarnow, Poland
Zolkiew, Galicia
Stri, Galicia
Przemysl, Galicia
Vilna, Lithuania
Kovno, Lithuania
Petrograd, Russia
Kiev, Galicia
Janow, Galicia
Javarov, Galicia
Magerov, Galicia
Mosti-Veliki, Galicia
Kovel, Galicia
Sokal, Galicia
Kristanopol
Poretsk, Galicia
Vladimir-Volinsk, Galicia
Lutsk, Galicia
Vatin, Galicia
Tortshin, Galicia
Lokatsh, Galicia
Malarito, Galicia
Brest-Litovsk, Galicia
Kobrin, Galicia
Pinsk, Galicia
Luninets, Galicia
Homel, Galicia
Tarnopol, Galicia
Skolat, Galicia
Khorostkov, Galicia
Husiatyn, Galicia
Kopetshinyets, Galicia
Probuzhne, Galicia
Czortkow, Galicia
Yagelnitse, Galicia
Tlusti, Galicia
Bukovina
Zaleshtshik, Bukovina
Snaytin, Bukovina
Czernowitz, Bukovina
Sadagora, Bukovina
Kamenyets, Bukovina
Gora-Humara, Bukovina

The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss by Edmund de Waal 2010

"[T]he intelligence and creativity with which de Waal constructs a family history are what make this special book so supremely ­winning." from a review by Megan Buskey in the New York Times 1/28/2011

Edmund De Waal (b. 1964) was raised in the Anglican Church. But he knew that he had one Jewish grandparent: his paternal grandmother, Elizabeth, had been a Jewish Ephrussi. Her great-grandfather Chaim Efrussi moved from Berdichev to Odessa where he raised his family and made his fortune.  Chaim (whose name became Charles Joachim Ephrussi) traded mainly in wheat, but eventually his sons, who set off for Paris and Vienna, went into banking and became powerful and influential businessmen. 

De Waal is fascinated by the large colorful Ephrussi family. Joachim’s grandson Charles became an influential art collector in Paris and had a collection of 264 netsuke, miniature Japanese carvings. De Waal traces the journey of the netsuke as a way to tell the story of the Ephrussis who were citizens of the world. The collection moved amongst family members from Japan to Paris to Vienna, back to Japan, and then to England when the author inherited them.

We read about six generations of Ephrussis. De Waal spends one section on some of the Paris Ephrussis where he recreates the zeitgeist of the second half of nineteenth century Paris. He describes the Rue de Monceau with its large mansions owned by wealthy Jewish families, the Ephrussis being one of them. We see Joachim’s grandson Charles immersed in the art world, a friend and business associate of now-famous Impressionist painters. De Waal vividly demonstrates how Charles's being Jewish, no matter how assimilated, affected his life. And we also read about his acquisition of the netsuke collection.

Viktor Ephrussi is the author’s great-grandfather. Because this is the author’s branch of the family, he spends a lot of time on the Vienna Ephrussis. The counterpart to the Rue de Monceau in Paris is the Ringstrasse (often referred to as Zionstrasse) where the Ephrussis lived in a imposing mansion. He paints a detailed portrait of Viktor and Emmy and the cultured, affluent life they lived in Vienna, a city hospitable to Jews during the reign of Kaiser Franz Josef. But always there was anti-Semitism just below the surface. Soon they were embroiled in World War I, and as the author notes, they were in the wrong country; they were on the losing side. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved.

De Waal takes us through the build-up to World War II, the rising anti-Semitism, the Anchluss, and the effects of the war on his branch of the Vienna Ephrussis. We read about the fate of his extended family members who scattered, if they could get out, to all corners of the globe ahead of Hitler’s murderous intentions. He sketches in the post-war life of his grandmother who married a de Waal, and the memoir ends where it started - in Japan where his grandmother's brother Iggy lived, the last owner of the netsuke. Great uncle Iggy bequeaths them to de Waal.

What we have in this carefully researched memoir is European history of the late nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth as seen through the lives of the wealthy, privileged members of the Ephrussi family. We see them at the height of their power socializing with prominent artists and writers, businessmen and titled nobility. But then we see that their wealth did not protect them; that being Jewish was their defining trait no matter how much influence or assets they had had, no matter that many Ephrussis had assimilated, had married Christians or had converted.

To watch Edmund de Waal discuss the process of writing this memoir, click here.

To read a very interesting in-depth article from the Economist about the process and the consequences of  writing of this book, click here.

People
Author’s father’s family   
Charles (Chaim) Joachim Ephrussi (Efrussi) – married Belle (Balbina) Levenson; second marriage to Henriette Halperson
    Leon (Leib) Ephrussi – son of Charles and Belle; married Mina Landau
        Jules Ephrussi – son of Leon and Mina; married Fanny Pfeiffer
        Ignace Ephrussi – son of Leon and Mina
        Charles Ephrussi – son of Leon and Mina
        Betty Ephrussi – daughter of Leon and Mina; married Max Hirsch Kann
            Fanny Kann – daughter of Betty and Max; married Theodore Reinach
                Leon Reinach – married to Beatrice de Camondo
    Ignace (Eizek) von Ephrussi – son of Charles and Belle; married Emilie Porgees
        Stefan von Ephrussi – son of Ignace and Emilie; married Estiha
        Anna von Ephrussi – daughter of Ignace and Emilie; married Baron Herz von Hertenreid
        Viktor von Ephrussi – son of Ignace and Emilie; married Emmy Schey von Koromla
             Elisabeth von Ephrussi – daughter of Viktor and Emmy; married Hendrick de Waal
                Victor de Waal – son of Elisabeth and Hendrick; married Esther Moir
                    John de Waal – son of Victor and Esther
                    Alexander de Waal – son of Victor and Esther
                    Edmund de Waal – son of Victor and Esther; married to Susan Chandler; author
                        Benjamin de Waal – son of Edmund and Susan
                        Matthew de Waal – son of Edmund and Susan
                        Anna de Waal – daughter of Edmund and Susan
                    Thomas de Waal – son of Victor and Esther   
            Gisela von Ephrussi – daughter of Viktor and Emmy; married Alfredo Barr
            Ignace von Ephrussi – son of Viktor and Emmy; in a relationship with Jiro Sugiyama
            Rudolf von Ephrussi – son of Viktor and Emmy; married to Virginia Bailey
                Constant Hendrik de Waal – son of Elisabeth and                
    Michel Ephrussi – son of Charles and Henriette; married Lilliane Beer
    Maurice Ephrussi – son of Charles and Henriette; married Charlotte Beatrice de Rothschild
    Therese Ephrussi – daughter of Charles and Henriette; married Leon Fould
    Marie Ephrussi – daughter of Charles and Henriette; married Guy de Percin

Alphonse de Rothchild – father of Beatrice, who is the wife of Maurice Ephrussi (see above)
Joseph Reinach – brother of Thomas who is the husband of Fanny Kann (see above)

Family members of Emmy Schey von Koromla who married Viktor von Ephrussi (see above)
Paul Schey von Koromla – married to Evelina Landenaur; parents of Emmy
    Philippe (Pips)Schey von Koromla – son of Paul and Evelina; brother of Emmy; married to Olga 
    Eva Schey von Koromla – daughter of Paul and Evelina; sister of Emmy; married Thuroczy de Also-Korosteg et Tuocz-Szent-Milhaly
    Gerry Schey von Koromla – daughter of Paul and Evelina; sister of Emmy; married Baron Weiss von Weiss und Horstenstein
Arthur Schniztler – cousin of Emmy Schey von Koromla
Herman and Witold Schey von Koromla – twin brothers; cousins of Emmy Shey von Koromla
Anna von Leiben – Emmy’s great aunt
Fritz von Leiben – a cousin of Emmy’s children
Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (Piz) – cousin of Emmy
Frank and Mitzi Wooster – cousins of Emmy

Acquaintances
Bernhardt Altmann
Louise Cahen
Egon Friedell
Rudolf Gutmann
    Marianne Gutmann – Rudolf’s daughter
Karl Kraus
Fanny Loewenstein

Places
Berdichev, Ukraine
Leopoldstradt, Vienna, Austria
Vienna Austria
Kovecses, Czechoslovakia
Rue de Monceau, Paris
Paris, France
Odessa, Russia

Yesterday: A Memoir of a Russian Jewish Family by Miriam Shomer Zunser, published in 1939, reissued in 1978, edited by her granddaughter Emily Wortis Leider

"Miriam Shomer Zunser, journalist, playwright, and artist, was an important promoter of Jewish culture in America during the period before World War II." from the entry by Eric Goldstein in the Jewish Women's Archive

Written in New York when Europe was in turmoil and its Jewish communities were being decimated, Miriam Shomer Zunser, a successful Yiddish playwright, takes her readers back to an earlier time. She begins her memoir with stories about her grandparents Michel and Yentel Bercinsky who married in 1834 and who raised their family in Pinsk which was then part of the Russian Empire.  Yentel Bercinsky had 24 babies, but only eleven lived to adulthood.

The author tells highly polished stories about this large Bercinsky family, stories that had been circulating in her family, many of whose members were obviously gifted raconteurs. (A number of family members, including the author, had careers in the literary arts and in theater.) The early chapters in particular have a fairy tale, once-upon-a-time quality to them, complete with young brides and grooms and elaborate wedding celebrations and Purim feasts.

Zunser’s grandfather was an accomplished self-taught legal scholar who argued the law on behalf of his community. He was religiously observant and a prominent member of the community where he owned a large home and felt a moral obligation to feed the poor. But he was also a patriarch who expected to be obeyed.  Zunser relates how her grandfather sought out what he deemed an advantageous match for each child. The author then writes chapters in animated prose focusing on the various children and their fates. The chapters have dramatic story lines that are full of intrigue worthy of fiction. She tells about her grandfather negotiating dowries and staging huge weddings. But some of his children were married against their will, and some marriages ended in separation and divorce. As the stories unfold we learn a great deal about what life was like for this family in nineteenth- century  Russia and in the early 20th century when most of the Bercinsky children immigrated to America and had to reinvent themselves as Americans.

Zunser digresses in order to spend some time telling us about her father who had married into the Bercinsky family with the approval, of course, of her grandfather. Nochim- Mayer Shaikevitch, a prolific writer of pulp fiction, escapist novels written in Yiddish in Russia, took a pen name (Shomer) he said because he used family stories as fodder for his fiction and was concerned about embarrassing them. The author writes that her father’s popular novels encouraged a generation of Yiddish speakers to learn to read; that he had paved the way for the next generation of more literary story tellers like Sholom Aleichem who had disdained Shomer’s fiction. But her father’s life in America mirrored that of so many immigrants, especially the men. His fiction had fallen out of favor; he never really gained a footing in the United States and died a broken man.

In 1978 Zunser’s memoir, which was out of print, was republished with a Postscript written by her granddaughter, Emily Wortis Leider. In this Postscript we learn more about the remarkable author, Miriam Shomer Zunser, who was active in many endeavors. Besides writing Yiddish plays with her sister Rose, she created projects focusing on Jewish music. And well aware that many women did not have fulfilling opportunities outside the home, she became active in the women’s suffrage movement.

The memoir includes many family photos.

To read a lengthy article by Arthur Arye Gordon which in its first third highlights the funeral for Miriam Shomer Zunser's father, the novelist Shomer in 1905, click here. It uses a discussion of the funeral as a way of characterizing aspects of Jewish life in New York City at the beginning of the twentieth century.

People
Tzodek-Mayshe Bercinsky- married Shayndel
    Laybush Bercinsky - son of Tzodek-Mayshe and Shayndel
    Michel Bercinsky - son of Tzodek-Mayshe and Shayndel; married Yentel
        Rochel-Leah Bercinsky - daughter of Michel and Yentel
        Mayshe Bercinsky– son of Michel and Yentel; married to Henye
            Alter – son of Mayshe and Henye
        Dinneh  Bercinsky – daughter of Michel and Yentel; married Nochim –Mayer Shaikevitsch (Shomer)
            Shayndele Shaikevitsch - daughter of Dinneh and Nochim-Mayer
            Avrom (Abe) Shaikevitsch - son of Dinneh and Nochim-Mayer
            Manye (Miriam, Minnie) Shaikevitsch – daughter of Dinneh and Nochim - Mayer; married Charles Zunser; author
                Helen Zunser Wortis - daughter of Miriam and Charles
                    Emily Wortis Leider (author of memoir’s postscript)
                Florence (Flossie) Zunser Saltz - daughter of Miriam and Charles
                Shomer Zunser - son of Miriam and Charles
            Anna Shaikevitsch - daughter of Dinneh and Nochim - Mayer
            Rose Shaikevitsch - daughter of Dinneh and Nochim - Mayer
            Mayshe Shaikevitsch - son of Dinneh and Nochim - Mayer
        Haiye Bercinsky – daughter of married Avrom Chaim Rosenberg
            Shayne-Channe – Avrom’s daughter from first marriage
            Uziel – Avrom’s son from first marriage
            Mayshe Rosenberg – son of Haiye and Avrom
        Faygle Bercinsky - daughter of Michel and Yentel
        Avrom Bercinsky - son of Michel and Yentel
        Dvayreh Bercinsky - daughter of Michel and Yentel
        Fraydel Bercinsky - daughter of Michel and Yentel; married Avrom Gruenberg
        Menye Bercinsky - daughter of Michel and Yentel; married Boruch Rubenstein
        David Bercinsky - son of Michel and Yentel; married Nancy Davidson
        Joshua Bercinsky (Behring) - son of Michel an Yentel
    Berel Bercinsky – son of Tzodek-Mayshe and Shayndel; married Gittle
    Sarah Bercinsky - daughter of Tzodek-Mayshe and Shayndel

    Zlate – Yentel’s sister
    Berel Fialkow – Yentel’s brother-in-law; married to one of Yentel’s sisters
    Uziel Rosenberg – father of Avrom Chaim Rosenberg
    Jo Davidson – Nancy Davidson’s brother
    Elyakum Zunser – father of Charles

Author’s grandfather’s family
Sorke – married Gavriel Goldberg
    Hodes –daughter of Sorke;  married Isaak  Shaikevitsch
        Nochim-Mayer Shakevitsch – their son; married Dinneh Bercinsky (see above)
    Ronye Vigodsky– daughter of Sorke

Family friends and acquaintances
Jacob P. and Sara Adler
Bertha Kalich
Molly Picon
Ludwig Satz
Getzel Tsichovsky
Elia Baillin
Zimel Blucher
Abraham Goldfaden
Joseph Lerner
Sigmund Mogulesco
Uziel Rosenberg
    Avrom Chaim Rosenberg – Uziel’s son; marries
Abbe Rosenthal
Dov-Baer Debzevitch
Zwi-Hirsch Masliansky
Samuel Joseph Fuenn

Places
Yaneve (Jonava), Lithuania
Pinsk, currently in Belarus
Nesvizh, currently in Belarus
Yeshivah of Volozhin, was in what is now Belarus
Odessa, Russia
Nikolayiev, Ukraine
Homel, currently in Belarus



(Yesterday by Miriam Shomer Zunser is, unfortunately, currently out of print, but used copies are available for purchase through internet sources.)

Ester and Ruzya : How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler’s War and Stalin’s Peace by Masha Gessen 2004

"Reviewers sometimes call a work of nonfiction 'as exciting as a novel,' but that would be an understatement applied to this extraordinary family memoir." from a review by Katha Politt in the New York Times in March, 2005

Masha Gessen, a journalist who was born in 1967 in Moscow, immigrated to the U.S. when she was fourteen, but then moved back to Moscow in 1991 as a foreign correspondent. When she returned to Moscow she was reunited with her grandmothers, Ester and Ruzya, who have been friends since shortly after World War II. The author is intrigued with their lives, since they had lived through some of the most turbulent decades in modern European history, and she interviewed both of them extensively for this book. They both are accomplished, and multi-lingual and held responsible jobs that went a long way toward supporting their families through difficult times.

This fascinating memoir is the story of these two women whose lives were shaped by the forces of history. Ester, her father's mother, was born in Bialystok, Poland and when Hitler started exercising his power, she left to go to school in Moscow. Gessen recreates her childhood in Bialystok and writes extensively about her father Jakob who was a member of the Judenrat in the Bialystok ghetto and died at the hands of the Nazis.

Her grandmother Ruzya, her mother's mother, was raised in Moscow. Her young husband died in the war when she was pregnant,  and she managed to land a job with the NKVD as a translator and censor that supported her and her daughter. But the job exposed her to the harshness of Stalin's regime and its purges and through her eyes we see the toll it took on the lives of citizens of the Soviet Union.

The details of their lives are very engaging. But the most interesting and perhaps vexing sections of the memoir are the ones in which she focuses on the potential moral dilemmas of members of her family. She investigates the life of her father as a member of the Judenrat in the Bialystok ghetto by doing extensive research, including reading privately printed memoirs written by survivors of the Bialystok ghetto where her father's name is mentioned frequently. Was he a potential savior? A dupe? With the information she gathers, she tries to sort out all of the angles.

The same is true when she talked extensively with her grandmother Ruzya who worked as a censor. Her grandmother feels culpable. Should she have held a censor's job? How does that implicate her in the evils Stalin perpetrated? Geffen has carefully researched this topic as well and integrates her research into her discussion seamlessly. This allows us to contemplate the situation in its complexity.

Throughout the memoir is a discussion of anti-Semitism, both obvious and covert. Beyond the rationing, the paranoia, the constant worry that you might be denounced for any reason, real or imagined, was the added burden of being targeted because you were a Jew. The author forcefully conveys all of this by discussing the lives of her family members, most especially two remarkable women who survived those years in large part due to their own resourcefulness and whose accomplishments are celebrated in this memoir.

There are some pictures at the beginning of each section.

For more information on the NKVD, Stalin's People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, click here.


People
Jakub Goldberg –  married to Bella; author’s great grandparents
    Ester – their daughter; married Boris Gessen; author’s grandparents
        Sasha – son of Ester and Boris; author’s father
Helena – Bella’s sister; author’s great great aunt
Arnold Gessen – married Miriam; author’s great grandparents
    Boris – their son; married Ester Goldberg;
        Sasha (Alexander) – their son; marries Yelena Minkin; parents of author
            Masha – daughter of Sasha and Yelena; partner with Svenya; author
                Vova
                Yael (Yolotchka)
            Kostya  (Keith) – son of Sasha and Yelena
            Leonid – son of and Ester Goldberg and 2nd husband Sergei
           
Moshe Solodovnik – married Eva; author’s great grandparents
    Ruzya – their daughter; married Samuil Lvovich Minkin; author’s grandparents
        Yelena (Yolotchka) – daughter of Samuil and Ruzya; marries Sasha Gessen
    Yasha – their son
    Boris – their son
    Semyon Zenin – Ruzya’s second husband
    Alik – author’s 3rd husband
Lev – Eva’s brother; author’s great great uncle
Lev Minkin – married Batsheva; author’s great grandparents
    Samuil – their son; married to Ruzya Solodovnik
        Yelena – daughter of Samuil and Ruzya; author’s mother (see above)
    Zhenya – daughter of Lev and Batsheva; author’s great uncle

Friends, Acquaintances, and Sources
Isaj Drogoizinski
Efraim Borasz
Berel Subotnik
Rabbi Rozenman
Civi Wider
Itzhak Malmed
Jakub Makowski
Daniel Moszkowicz
Pejsach Kaplan
Nahum Grossman
Regina Wojskowska
Chaika Grossman – married to Meir Orkin
Malka Orkin – sister of Meir Orkin
Refoel Rajzner
Mordechai Tennenbaum-Tamaroff
Sara Brenner
Gideon Hausner
Hannah Arendt
Chaim Rumkowski
Leo Baeck
Adam Czerniakow
Isaiah Trunk
Marie Syrkin
Raul Hillberg
Solomon Mikhoels
Zhenia Galperin
Lena Zonina
Polina Zhemchuzhina
Sergei Eizenshtein
David Oistrakh
Isaak Fefer
Ilya Ehrenburg
Max and Lusya Akivis
Margarita Aliger
Yevgeniy Varga
Aleksandr Kushnerov
Iosif Yuzefovich
Boris Shimeliovich
David Gofshetein
Veniamin Zuskin
Vladimir Shamborg
Yevgenia Ginzburg

Places and Institutions
Dzerhinsky, Soviet Union
Ashkhabad, Turkestan
Biysk, Siberia
Yekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk), Russia
Brok, Poland
Bialystok, Poland
Bialystok Ghetto
Pereslavl, Ukraine
Novosibirsk, Russia
Omsk, Russia
Warsaw, Poland
Pietrasze Field, Poland
Pruzhany, Belarus
Majdanek labor camp
Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee
Glavlit
Dubna, Russia
NKVD