The Seamstress: A Memoir of Survival by Sara Tuvel Bernstein 1997

"A striking Holocaust memoir, posthumously published, by a Romanian Jew with an unusual story to tell." from Kirkus Reviews August, 15, 1997

Introductory chapters in this memoir about Seren (Sara) Tuvel’s early years set the scene for what is to come. Seren was the seventh of her father’s eleven children. Her mother, who was the widower Abraham Tuvel’s second wife, raised his six children and the two of them had five more. Their home was a gathering place for all of the children and grandchildren.

Seren was a good student who won a scholarship to continue on at the gymnasium in Bucharest but her father, a traditional observant Jew, said no. She defied him and moved to Bucharest but she was not happy in school and quit, apprenticing herself to a dressmaker where she learned how to sew intricate high-end fashion bought by the nobility. This skill, as well as her intelligence, foresight and resourcefulness, served her well as she fought to stay alive both in the years before and during World War II. 

With the steady march of Hitler into neighboring countries, the bucolic setting of Valea Uzului in Romania, the site of her father’s job managing a mill, soon became a memory. Jews living near the border were accused of spying and while Seren was home she and her father were arrested and jailed in Bucharest. When she was eventually freed, she made her way to Budapest, Hungary where she and other relatives thought they’d be safer. However in March of 1944 she and her sister were captured and forced to join a labor detail. The author eventually ended up in Ravensbruck, amongst the first group of Jewish women in this camp that the Nazis had set aside for common criminals, gypsies, Communists, and others who they saw as political agitators. She was 26 years old.

Four months later she and the small group of women who still survived the punishing conditions of Ravensbruck were moved to Turkheim, a division of Dachau, then to Bergau where they were eventually rescued by the Red Cross. She describes the terrible conditions she worked under when she was a member of a forced labor detail. The conditions got only worse as she was transported from camp to camp. She was sent to recuperate at St Ottelein Convent which had been turned into a post-war hospital and then volunteered to teach sewing to displaced women at an ORT school in the next town. There she met her future husband who was teaching tailoring.

She concludes with their unsuccessful search for surviving family members, but then describes a joyous reunion with relatives who were living in Israel after she had assumed they had all been killed. By this time she and her husband were living in Montreal. A final chapter by her daughter, Marlene Bernstein Samuels, provides information about the later years of her mother’s life including the writing of her memoir.

To read an article about Romania and the Holocaust, click here.

People
Abraham Tuvel
    Herman Tuvel – son of Abraham and first wife; married to Tamara
        Miksha Tuvel – son of Herman and Tamara
            Herman Tuvel – son of Miksha
        Ernie Tuvel – son of Herman and Tamara
        Joseph Tuvel – son of Herman and Tamara
    Meyer Tuvel – son of Abraham and first wife; married to Lottie
    Mendel Tuvel – son of Abraham and first wife
    Berta Tuvel – daughter of Abraham and first wife; married Morris
        Yosef – son of Berta
    Louise Tuvel – daughter of Abraham and first wife; married Bela
    Rose Tuvel – daughter of Abraham and first wife, married Eugene
        Emma, Alfred (Yakov), Magda, Elena, Estelle – children of Rose and Eugene
    Shlomo Tuvel – son of Abraham and Miriam; second wife Zella
    Eliezer Tuvel – son of Abraham and Miriam; married to Sylvia
        Judith and Rivkah Tuvel – daughters of Eliezer and Sylvia
    Seren (Sara) Tuvel – daughter of Abraham and Miriam; married Meyer Bernstein; author
        Jacob Bernstein – son of Seren (Sara) and Meyer; married Linda
            Rebecca Bernstein
        Marlene Bernstein Samuels – daughter of Seren (Sara) and Meyer
           
    Zipporah Tuvel - daughter of Abraham and Miriam
    Esther Tuvel – daughter of Abraham and Miriam; married Sidney (Sigmund)

Friends
Ira Bergman
    Ruth Bergman
Reuben Handler
    Leah Handler – daughter of Reuben
Samuel Stein
Joshua Stein – Samuel’s brother
Ellen (Helen) Weise
Lily Cohen
Zora Cohen – Lily’s sister

Places
Fulehaza,Romania
Lunca de Mijloc, Romania
Bucharest, Romania
Galati,Romania
Valea Uzului, Romania
Reghinal-Sasesc, Romania
Brasov, Romania
Miercurea-Cuic, Romania
Satu-Mare, Romania
Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, Germany
Turkheim, Dachau, Germany
Bergau, Austria
St. Ottelein Abbey, Emming, Germany
Feldafing, Germany
Schwabhausen, Germany

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

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

An Exclusive Love: A Memoir by Johanna Adorjan

“'Perhaps you live a longer, happier life if you don’t look back so much,' the author writes at one point. The reader can be thankful that Johanna Adorján didn’t quite believe her own counsel." from a review by David Michael in Book, an online review of the New Republic 6/22/11

This slim but powerful memoir by Johanna Adorjan (b. 1971) is an investigation and meditation on the double suicide of her paternal grandparents, Veronika and Istvan Adorjan, Jewish Hungarian refugees who lived in post-war Denmark. They were both survivors of the Holocaust and the Soviet invasion of Hungary and ended their lives in October of 1991 when the author’s grandfather was approaching death due to heart disease.

There are many interesting pieces to this story. Neither her grandmother nor her grandfather would ever talk about their lives during the war. Adorjan describes her grandparents as having been assimilated Jews who lived in Budapest when Hitler invaded Hungary. Her grandfather was deported to Mauthausen; her grandmother survived because she had forged papers, but both her grandmother’s parents were shot. Despite conversations with her father, other relatives, and interviews with many surviving friends from before and during the war, she learned virtually nothing about their wartime experience.

Another interesting aspect of this memoir is that it is as much an investigation into aspects of the author's identity as it is an attempt to understand her grandparents. Adorjan relates that she herself had never thought much about her Jewish heritage. Adorjan’s mother is not Jewish which made Adorjan’s connection to her Jewish identity even more remote. She was amazed that a trip to Israel had such a strong emotional impact on her, surprised at how at home she felt there.

Throughout, Adorjan asks herself insightful questions. For example, since her grandparents were unwilling to talk about their experiences during the war, what gives her the right to try to learn about their experiences by talking to relatives and friends? Is it an invasion of privacy even though her grandparents are dead?  Is it possible to ever understand another person? She cites statistics of Jewish suicides during the war in Budapest. She talks about the suicides of survivors after the war and puzzles over her grandparents’ double suicide 45 years later, hoping that what she might learn about their lives, especially their wartime experiences, will provide explanations, will help her to know them better.

To read an article in Haaretz about a study of suicide rates amongst Holocaust survivors in Israel, click here.

People
Sandor Adorjan (formerly Samuel Adler) – married Frida Mayersberg
            Istvan Adorjan – son of Sandor and Frida; married Veronica (Vera) Fellner
                                    Johanna Adorjan – granddaughter of Istvan and Frida; author
                                    David and Gabriel Adorjan – grandsons of Istvan and Frida
Josef Adorjan – brother of Sandor
            Istvan Adorjan  - son of Josef
Elemer and Gizella Fellner – parents of Veronica Fellner Adorjan (see above)

Places
Budapest, Hungary
Zalaegerszeg, Hungary
Charlottelund, Denmark
Melbourne, Australia
Munich, Germany
Berlin, Germany
Mauthausen, Austria
Gunskirchen Lager, Austria

The Assault by Harry Mulisch first published in 1982 in Dutch; published in English in 1985 – fiction

"For a book to have deeply serious intentions, as this one does, is, of course, no guarantee of artistic success. But Mr. Mulisch also brings exceptional skill and imagination to his task." from a review by John Gross in the New York Times on May 31, 1985

Harry Mulisch (1927-2010), considered an important Dutch post-World War II writer, was the son of a Jewish mother and Austrian father. Mulisch’s father worked for a bank that catalogued property stolen from the Netherlands' Jewish community and after the war he was sentenced to three years in prison. Mulisch’s father maintained that he collaborated with the Nazis in an effort to save his family. His wife and son survived the war. The author’s maternal grandmother, however, was killed.

It is easy to see how the novel, The Assault, grew out of Mulisch’s complicated history, though the characters and the plot are not autobiographical.  The novel starts with a short prologue that sets the scene in a home in Haarlem and then recounts moments both during and after the war as seen through the eyes and experiences of the son Anton who was twelve in January of 1945. The novel is divided into five “episodes,” each pegged to a year in Anton’s life: 1945, 1952, 1956, 1966, and 1981.

This is not a specifically Jewish story. Anton and his family are not Jewish. They get into trouble because they unwittingly get caught up in the repercussions after “the assault” - the murder committed by members of the Resistance of a Chief Inspector of Police. Anton never sees his brother or parents again. We see that throughout his life he tries to leave the past behind, but in each of the episodes because of various encounters, he is forced to look back into his past and puzzle over details he thought he had forgotten that have been deeply submerged.

It's clear that a major theme in this novel is that victims of war are scarred for life. Memory and its accompanying pain lie buried waiting to be summoned by a chance encounter or remark. For the above reasons this novel is an important contribution to a corpus of work, both non-fiction and fiction, having to do with the trauma of war on survivors and the children of survivors.

The Assault was made into a movie in the Netherlands that won the Oscar for best foreign film in 1986.

To read the obituary for Harry Mulisch published in the New York Times, click here.

Family
Alice Schwarz – author’s mother
    Harry Mulisch – her son; author

Place
The Netherlands

The Four Seasons Lodge - a documentary directed by Andrew Jacobs 2010

"[Director Andrew Jacob's] pitch-perfect film provides an affectionate look at a brave, disappearing subculture." from a review by Lou Lumenick in the New York Post 11/13/2009

The Four Seasons Lodge near Ellenville in the Catskill Mountains in New York was for twenty-five years a bungalow colony that served as refuge for a group of Holocaust survivors mostly from Poland. At the time of the filming the survivors were in their 80’s and 90’s. Some of the original members had died and some were ailing. But life goes on, and this moving documentary records the day-to-day summer lives of these survivors in their cabins and in the main lodge where they socialize at dinner dances, where they play cards, and eat some communal meals.

Amongst themselves their pasts are acknowledged but mostly unspoken. However, many, prodded, talk briefly in the camera’s presence about their experiences during the war. Some exhibit bitterness and anger, some say little, some tell their stories in a matter-of-fact tone. Some refuse to talk. But what comes across time and again is that the traumas they experienced during World War II – displacement, torture, hunger, sickness, the death of loved ones - are an integral part of who they are, and that they understand each other like no one else outside that experience can. They feel comfortable amongst each other. They have become a large surrogate family.

Beyond their shared tragic past, however is also the camaraderie prompted by memories of life before the war- shared customs and culture. Though they have been in America many more years than they lived in Poland, many of them switched easily between speaking English, Yiddish and Polish.

The documentary has many joyous moments. Despite the tragedies inflicted on them during World War II, they survived, married (or re-married), had children, became successful in businesses and careers, found each other, and celebrated each summer by spending it together. But there is an obvious elegiac quality to the film as well. They are old and many are frail. They realize that they cannot keep coming to Four Seasons Lodge much longer. They had actually voted to sell it the previous summer and at the end of the documentary we are witness to a meeting where they reconsider. Can they cancel the sale? We see that the will to live and continue as a community is strong.

To learn more about the movie and to see a 2 1/2 minute trailer, click here.

Lodge members (not all with speaking parts in the film)
Hyman and Tosha Abramowitz
Aron and Basie Adelman
Pola Alexander
Rose Ashkenazy
Ella Berenstein
Lisa Bernstein
Esther Bershtel
Ruth Bieber
Sonya Blumenfeld
Olga Bowman
Eugenia Boyman
Jack and Rosa Braun
Henry and Rose Brewster
Sol and Rose Bronheim
Sima Broszencki
Tobias Buchman
Leon and Hanka Chain
Harris and Ann Chandler
Tadeusz and Jadwiga Chrostowscy
Edith Dach
Irving and Etel Drexler
Yankel and Tusia Elkes
Josef Feinsilber
Isaak Fenster
Chava (Claire) Ligorski-Fenster
Joe Fenster
Joseph and Minnie Fox
Paula Ganis
Sam Gaska
Esther Geizhals
Sol Glazer
Henry and Carola Greenspan
Helga Grunberg
Regina and Morris Grysman
Miriam Hendler
Nettie Insdorf
Carolina Jerud
Nadzia Josefowicz
Etel Kotlarski
Victor and Regina Lewis
Eva Ligorski
Pola Lubat
Linda Mandelbaum
Lucy Myers
Felicia Neuwirth
Ted and Susan Ostrowitz
Regina Peterseil
Joseph and Minnie Plonsky
Joseph Hedy Pollack
Carl and Cesia Potok
David and Ester Potok
Anita Skorecky Reisner
Sidney Rosen
Toby Rosenstein
Lola Rotschwalb
Max Rubin
Helen Schwartzberg
Bella Shampan
Leon Sherman
Rose Simpser
Anita and Martin Skorecky
Erna Strenger
Charles and Pola Swietarski
Irving and Shari Weinberger
Sophie Welwart
Lola Wenglin
Sabina Zeimel

Places
Catskill Mountains, NY

Great House by Nicole Krauss 2010 (fiction)

"Great House is a smart, serious, sharply written novel of great care and yearning." from a review by Patrick Ness in The Guardian 2/19/2011

Nicole Krauss’s latest novel is a profoundly Jewish book. One way to interpret Krauss’s Great House is to see it as a novel whose subject is how history, but most specifically Jewish history, shaped the lives of her characters.  This is not an easy novel. Krauss constructs four distinct but interconnected stories. Each story is divided into two chapters, but the two chapters of each story are not placed side by side. She adds to the reader’s difficulty in following each strand by introducing characters with similar names. One of her narrators is named Arthur; another narrator is named Aaron. There’s an important character named Lotte in one strand and another named Leah in a separate strand. There is a Dov and a Daniel in two different strands.  But these confusions serve a purpose: They help blur the distinctions of plot and character and force us to ask the question: Why did she make these choices?

By making it difficult to keep track of various characters and plots we’re more likely to see them less as distinct individuals, but more as just slight permutations - threads in the strands that make up the tapestry of a traumatizing Jewish history. They all live “now” but their stories range over time and they all have been formed and scarred by historical events, most especially events of Jewish history. The narrator of one of the threads talks about his growing up in Budapest and being routed out by the Nazis in 1944. His father died on a death march. Another character in a different strand tries to puzzle out his wife’s behavior in light of her having been born in Nurenberg and of her having been part of the kindertransport to England. She never saw her parents again. In a third story that takes place in Israel the narrator’s sons go off to fight in Israel’s Yom Kippur war. In another, the narrator tells us about her involvement with a Chilean Jewish poet who went back to Chile and died under Pinochet’s regime fighting the dictatorship.

Characters are haunted by the past. Ghosts appear in dreams and float into everyday life. Krauss's narrators make allusions to people and events in Jewish history that stretch all the way back to Biblical history and forward into recent Israeli history. For example, there are mentions of Molech, Bar Kochba, the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, Moshe Dayan. Readers who are interested in an exploration through the medium of fiction of the psychic burden that a history of loss has exacted and continues to exact on the Jewish people are urged to read Nicole Krauss’s Great House.

To read an interview with Nicole Krauss discussing Great House, click here.

Watermarks (documentary) directed by Yaron Zilberman 2005 (in English, Hebrew and German)

"As these women tell their stories in a tone of wonderment, 'Watermarks' becomes more than a pointed footnote to the Holocaust." from a review by Stephen Holden in the New York Times, 1/21/2005

This moving documentary combines contemporary interviews of surviving members of a Jewish women’s Austrian swim team with archival footage. In response to the “No Jews Allowed” policy of Austrian sports clubs, a Jewish sports club called Hakoah was founded in Vienna in the early part of the 20th century for the purpose of fielding a soccer team. In the documentary, members of the women’s swim team interviewed who are in their 80’s and live in Israel, England and the United States talk about how the club was so popular it kept adding new sports. At one point there were 3000 active members. Interviewees stressed that Jewish athletes were motivated to perform well and win medals to prove to the world that they could succeed at athletics. Many athletes who trained with Hakoah went on to win medals for Austria in major competitions.

We learn about the lives of these young girls as swimmers, their dedication to each other as well as to their sport, and the trips they took to sports events outside the country. For example they competed in the U.S. and they went to Palestine in 1935 to participate in the second Maccabbiah games. Wherever they went, their competitions were attended by thousands of adoring fans.

Two sisters who were interviewed for the movie who emigrated to Israel – Judith and Hanni Deutsch – were both on the swim team and recall vividly their great successes but also the creeping climate of hate against the Jews. The club leadership made a decision once Hitler came into power not to attend any events in Germany, which of course included the 1936 Olympics. When Judith Deutsch, who had been named best Austrian athlete in 1935, was asked to join the Austrian swim team and she declined, it provoked such anger on the part of the Austrians, they banned her from ever competing for Austria again. Her sister Hanni also related an upsetting incident. In honor of the Olympics and the Olympic torch bearer who ran through Vienna on his way to the stadium in Berlin, there was a parade in which all sporting clubs marched. Onlookers regaled members of EWASK, a pro-Nazi sports group with loud cheers of “Heil Hitler.” Members of Hakoah were met with silence. Hanni said she could feel the hate and it was terrifying.

Valentin Rosenfeld, the president of the Hakoah swim team and Zsigo Wertheimer, their coach, escaped Hitler’s clutches by fleeing to England. Once there they worked on helping members of the swim team to emigrate by providing them with the paperwork and signatures they needed. Valentin Rosenfeld then established a Hakoah newsletter that went out to all the émigrés which kept them connected.

The documentary ends with a return trip to Vienna. The women were excited but nervous. Some of them had such bad memories of Vienna, they didn’t want to return, but they reconnected, revisited the city of their youth, and confronted their past. This documentary brings to light through interviews with the former swimmers, through their conversations with each other, and through fascinating archival footage, their triumphs representing a Jewish sports club in 1930’s Vienna. Their collective experience constitutes a thread in the tapestry of European history that deserves to be better known today.

To read an interesting article in the Forward that covered the 100th  birthday of the founding of Hakoah in Vienna and discusses the size and status of the Vienna Jewish community today, click here.

People
Hanne Deutsch Lux 
Judith Deutsch Haspel
Trude Platzek Hirschler
Anne Lampl
Ann Marie Pick Pisker
Valentin Rosenfeld
Nanne Selinger

Greta Wertheimer Stanton
Elisheva Schmidt Susz
Hedy Bienenfelld Wertheimer
Zsigo Wertheimer

 Places
Vienna, Austria

The Heavens Are Empty: Discovering the Lost Town of Trochenbrod by Avrom Bendavid-Val 2010

"Thoroughly researched, this book brings the mythical town to life, wonderfully preserving a memorable segment of Jewish lore." from Publisher's Weekly, 3/28/10

Avrom Bendavid, whose father had been born in Trochenbrod, a town that was sometimes in Ukraine, sometimes in Poland, depending upon the historical moment, has written an engaging, informative memoir about a town that is no more. Bendavid lovingly recreates Trochenbrod through interviews he conducted with former Trochenbrodians who now live in South America and Israel as well as the United States, through independent archival research, and through a number of visits he made to the fields where Trochenbrod once stood and to neighboring towns and cities.

Bendavid starts with Trochenbrod’s history and demonstrates how unique it was. He contextualizes it as an outgrowth of the edict that created the Jewish Pale of Settlement as well as Russian rulers who encouraged Jews to farm. Trochenbrod became a fairly isolated Jewish farming community where the first baby’s birth is recorded as having taken place in 1813. It was not easy. The land was marshy. Jewish pioneers had to learn about farming through trial and error, but soon each piece of property had its own plot. The residents bought cows and other livestock and they survived. Bendavid, through his research, was able to document that though it started slowly, its residents developed as a community and worked together for the betterment of Trochenbrod. For example, they formed a dairy cooperative – each home would contribute milk that several of the Trochenbrodians took to neighboring towns to sell. As they prospered, they sold eggs and other produce.

Bendavid then moves on to discuss Trochenbrod in the twentieth century. As isolated as they were, world events took their toll, and it took the better part of a decade for residents to climb out of the hole created by a combination of World War I, the Russian Revolution, a typhus epidemic, and border changes.  But by the 1930’s the town was doing well, having moved past farming as a way to support themselves. Instead there was a gradual shift to commercial ventures like those tied to the leather industry. The author includes a list of the many small businesses of Trochenbrodians.

But because Trochenbrod was isolated and members of the community thought of themselves as doing well, they paid little attention to what was going on in the outside world. Relatives who had left Trochenbrod for America earlier who came back to visit expressed shock at their primitive equipment and primitive ways, but most Trochenbrodians saw no reason to leave. Their naïveté cost them their lives. In 1939 there were 5000 residents. The Germans invaded the area, marched in and wiped them out. It’s estimated that 60 survived.

Although this memoir is about a specific town, a reader can learn a great deal about shtetl life in Eastern Europe by reading about Trochenbrod. Survivors describe farming life, food preparation, the thriving commercial district, Sabbath and holiday celebrations, weddings, schooling, and youth groups, both Zionist and Communist.

This memoir includes an introduction by Jonathan Safran Foer whose novel Everything Is Illuminated is a fictional account of his own trip to find Trochenbrod. It also includes photos, maps, and a glossary of Hebrew and Yiddish terms. The author has also created a useful chronology that integrates Eastern European Jewish history with the birth and death of Trochenbrod. The chronology starts in 1791 when the Pale of Jewish Settlement was established and ends in 1950 when a survivor reported that Trochenbrod no longer existed.

To learn more from a site dedicated to the community of Trochenbrod past and present, click here.

People
Family
Moshe David Plesser (changed his name to Pearlmutter, then Beider) – married Bella
    Israel Beider - son of Moshe and Bella
    YomTov (Yonteleh) Beider (changed his name to Chagai Bendavid) - son of Moshe and Bella
        Marvin Bendavid - son of Chagai Bendavid
        Avrom Bendavid-Val – son of Chagai Bendavid; married to Leah
Naftali Bendavid – relationship not clear
Oren Bendavid-Tal – relationship not clear

Acquaintances and Sources
Ruchel Abrams
Elke and Michael Antwarg
        Miriam Antwarg Ciocler – granddaughter of Elke and Michael
Yitzhak Aronski
Jacob Banai
Avrum Bass
Laura Beeler
Marlene Berman
Charles and Marilyn Bernhardt
Eliezer Burak (changed to Barkai)
    Henia Katzir – daughter of Eliezer Barkai
Shoil Burak
        Alyn Levin-Hadar – granddaughter of Shoil
Yaakov Burak
Tuvia Drori
Shmilike Drossner
Esther Safran Foer
Shaindeleh Ruchel Gluz (became Jeanne Glass Kokol)
    Irving Kokol – Jeanne Glass Kokol’s son
Peshia Gotman (Peshia Gotman)
Phyllis Grossman
Hirsch Kantor
Morton Kessler
Nahum Kohn
Ida Gilden Liss
        Andrea Liss – Ida’s granddaughter
Marvin Perlman
Yehezkel Potash
Ellie Potash
    Basia-Ruchel Potash (Betty Gold) – daughter of Ellie
Shmulik Potash
Laura Praglin – cousin of Geri Wolfson Fuhrmann
Moshe Hirsch Roitenberg
Szoel Rojtenberg
Gad Rosenblatt
Nachman Rotenberg
Label Safran
Machli Schuster
Moishe Sheinberg
Meylakh Sheykhet
Anshel Shpielman
Wolf Shuster
    Morris Wolfson – son of Wolf Shuster
            Geri Wolfson Fuhrmann – Morris’s granddaughter
Bert and Ellen Singerman
Thomas C. Spear – distant cousin of Irving Kokol
Evgenia Shvardowskaya
David Shwartz – married to Miriam
Motel Shwartz
Hanna Tziporen
Chaim Votchin
Anne Weiner
Ida-Sarah and Isaac Weiner
        Miriam Weiner Bernhardt – granddaughter of Ida-Sarah and Isaac
Chaim Veitzblum (Albin Ostrovsky)

Places
Trochenbrod, Ukraine
Lozisht, Ukraine
Kivertsy, Ukraine
Yaromel Forest, Ukraine
Givatayim, Israel