Connecting the Past to the Present.
The firsthand and the inter-generational experience, the key, without it there is no memory once we are gone.
Memory is Our Home, a historical memoir and a gripping true-life story, real people living real lives, a worthy addition to high school and college curriculum.
Transmitting the memory of the vibrant culture before the Holocaust is just as important just as the memory of the Holocaust, to combat ignorance and prejudice and sharing of cultures and knowledge of history. It was always my goal to bring this book out of obscurity and into a wide readership, a book that can be read at the high school, college level and beyond, while teaching the important aspects of Eastern European twentieth-century history.
Memory Is Our Home (Beshert) pays tribute to Jewish legacy, to a young woman’s courage and endurance, on the background of Eastern European history.
Leading scholars in the US and Israel have responded with praise, noting its historical value, its ability to inspire and teach readers young and old, and the important contribution it will make to current and future generations.
Warsaw was called the Paris of the North.
In vivid details the book describes the vibrant political, economic and the flourishing creative life. My mother’s community, siblings, extended family are brought to life. 1.5 million Jews for Eastern Europe are unaccounted for, we don’t know where and how they were murdered, vanished as if they never existed. This is the fate of my mother’s entire family that stayed in Warsaw. This vibrant cultural, religious community never recovered.
Praise
Rarely has a book been written that pencils so bleak a portrait of the Poland that had been cloaked in the secrecy of life under Germany’s iron fist. Even for those who lived those years in the rest of occupied Europe, it presents an unfamiliar, stark, black-and-white vision of hell. Rudy Rosenberg, author of And Somehow We Survive.
This is an essential primary source for scholars and graduate students.
Dr. Joanna B. Michlic, Bristol University.
A poignant chronicle of one woman’s harrowing journey across the decades.
Marilyn J. Harran, Chapman University.
Essential reading for all those interested in the fate of Polish Jews in the twentieth century.
Prof. Antony Polonsky, Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.
This memoir is unusual. It is not only the result of a conversation between mother and daughter; it is also constructed in two voices. We learn about the past and the present, or more technically, about intergenerational transmission. Prof. Dennis Klein, a historian at Kean University in New Jersey, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the main themes that feature in memoirs written by Holocaust survivors – chief among them, a narrative of betrayal.
http://tlv1.fm/the-tel-aviv-review/2014/12/13/unforgettable-and-unforgivable-narratives-of-betrayal-in-holocaust-survivors-memoirs/
Jewish woman who faced the terrible events that shaped 20th century Polish Jewish existence and alone survived to recount a full life.
Prof. Kenneth Waltzer, Michigan State University.
Unforgettable and highly recommended.
Prof. Matthew Feldman, Teesside University.
Reminds us of a truth the Holocaust sadly confirmed: traumatic total loss creates an absence that can only be retained as memory.
Prof. Al Filreis, University of Pennsylvania.
For me personally, the memoir was particularly moving — and relevant — since Roma’s story was so similar to my father’s.
Prof. Arlene J. Stein, Rutgers University.
A narrative from a generation that successfully escaped the Holocaust but endured its losses for the rest of their lives.
Prof. Dalia Ofer, University of Jerusalem
Sweet memories as well as the haunting details of victimization and overcoming enormous obstacles for three generations of Jews.
Prof. Elaine Leeder, Sonoma State University.
This tells the story of so many people so that reading it can help heal a lot generations who carry this unbelievable tragedy in their lives.
Prof. Shatit Shoshi, Bar Ilan University.
A deeply, moving and historically rich account of a Holocaust story common to many survivors but still little known and documented.
Prof. Atina Grossmann, Professor of History, Cooper Union, New York
A vividly told story of Polish Jews who suffered the oppression of both Hitler and Stalin.
Prof. Myrna Goldenberg, Montgomery College.
I congratulate Suzanna Eibuszyc for her work to inspire all the new generations to come.
Inge Auerbacher, Holocaust survivor, author, and inspirational speaker.
This is a haunting and brave book, it will both move and educate readers.
Janice Eidus, author of The War of the Rosens and The Last Jewish.
Notions of sacrifice, determination, loyalty and love in various forms. Reads like a Jewish version of Angela’s Ashes, by Frank McCourt.
Aaron Elster, author of I Still See Her Haunting Eyes.
A most compelling and illuminating memoir. In her straightforward style, the author encompasses life in its totality, highly recommended.
Judy Weissenberg Cohen, Poet and editor of Women and the Holocaust.
Impression of Roma being the sane center in the middle of millions of ants scurrying about trying to survive in the face of incredible odds.
Rudy Rosenberg, author of And Somehow We Survive.
Will live in our hearts, reviving the spirit of those who suffered.
Rabbi Barbara Aiello.
Roma felt strongly that she had to pass on her legacy, and I believe likewise that it is beshert meant to be.
Dr. Dina Ripsman Eylon, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal.
The memoir resonates deeply in everyone whose life has been touched by events beyond their control.
Rita B. Ross, author of Running from Home.
It’s one of the most moving pieces that I’ve had the honor of sharing on The Jewish Writing Project site.
Bruce Black, founder of The Jewish Writing Project.
Growing up in the poverty of Post-World War I Poland. It is about what it is like to feel fear the day the Germans invaded Poland in 1939.
Dr. John Z. Guzlowski, Eastern Illinois University.
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