My intention in writing this book is not to present an academic history of the Holocaust, but rather to share what I learned directly from my parentsÑinsights that were, at best, glimpses compared to what I later uncovered through my own research and reading. My mother, for example, never spoke about the profound dehumanization that began with the establishment of the ghetto: the strict laws displayed on placards, posted on every dwelling, and the suffocating enclosure itself. Was her silence a way of protecting herself from the memory, or was it because what followed in Auschwitz was even worse? Perhaps she simply didnÕt want me to know. Regardless, I eventually came to understandÑand to recognizeÑthe true depth of her inner strength.
I have witnessed the same strength from my father, otherwise always the tight-lipped, thoughtful man, when he broke down while telling me some of the family stories. He has been grieving for a lifetime quietly for his parents, my sister and other lost relatives. Yet, with my mother, they rebuilt their lives three times., Holocaust, Auschwitz, memoir, immigration, America, family, Susan Simpson Geroe| 9781257955091 | 158PAGES