Monday, November 23, 2020

Memory is Our Home: Loss and Remembering: Three Generations in Poland and Russia 1917-1960s

Memory is Our Home: Loss and Remembering: Three Generations in Poland and Russia 1917-1960s (Edition Noema)Memory is Our Home: Loss and Remembering: Three Generations in Poland and Russia 1917-1960s by Suzanna Eibuszyc
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A powerful historical memoir...

Memory is Our Home by Suzanna Eibuszyc is a stunning literary achievement. It’s a book that re-creates an overlooked part of history of the thousands of Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust by escaping to the Soviet Union. The book's epic sweep and grasp of detail are exemplary, while some scenes could make even a stone weep. The book reconstructs that horrific period of time in human history not as something abstract, but as felt knowledge thanks to the author’s mother, Roma Talesiewicz Eibuszyc.

To paraphrase the author, she bases her book on her mother Roma Talasiewicz-Eibuszyc’s diary, her writings about Warsaw, Poland during the years following World War I and the six long years of World War II, and how she was able to survive in Soviet Russia and Uzbekistan. Interwoven with her journals are stories she told to her throughout her life, as well as her own recollections as her family made a new life in the shadows of the Holocaust in Communist Poland after the war and into the late 1960s. By retelling this story, she sheds light on how the Holocaust trauma is transmitted to the next generation, the price her family paid when they said good-bye to the old world, and the challenges they faced in America.

This was a fascinating and captivating read that had me engaged from the beginning. The author shows exceptional ability when it comes to storytelling and there are plenty of emotional highs and lows in this page turner that will take the reader on a truly mesmerizing and emotional journey. The author weaves a well-crafted and all-encompassing human dramatization that serves as a memorial to all those who suffered, died and survived during this tragic period of human history.

Highly recommended reading and a well-deserved five stars from me.

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