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ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 532

Holocaust memoir

Etta Shiber, seen in a publicity photo for the 1943 book 'Paris-Underground,' and Kate Bonnefous, shown in 1940, were friends and unlikely heroes of the early French resistance. (Courtesy Ballantine Books via JTA)
March 12, 2025, 6:08 am
Two friends defied the Nazis. Then one woman ‘wrote’ a book that betrayed the other
In ‘Paris Undercover,’ author Matthew Goodman digs up the truth behind a successful ‘memoir’ that played fast and loose with facts as one of its subjects sat in Nazi prison
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
Adolf 'Dolu' Finkelstein with Lusia Finkelstein in Lwow, in the mid-1930s. (Finkelstein Family Collection)
August 26, 2023, 9:59 am
Caught between Hitler and Stalin, one family’s miraculous tale of survival
In ‘Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad,’ journalist and politician Daniel Finkelstein tells of his forebears’ separate grim escapes from gulags and Nazi camps before settling in the UK
By Robert Philpot
Pick-Goslar survived to have three children, 11 grandchildren and 33 great-grandchildren. (Eric Sultan/The Lonka Project via JTA)
June 19, 2023, 2:28 am
In new memoir, Anne Frank’s best friend tells incredible story of Holocaust survival
In ‘My Best Friend Anne Frank,’ the late Hannah Pick-Goslar talks about how she grew up with the future icon and their brief reunion at Bergen-Belsen during Frank’s last days
By Shira Li Bartov
Louis Hofmann (as Cioma Schönhaus) and Luna Wedler (as Gerda) in 'The Forger.' (Courtesy of Kino Lorber)
March 15, 2023, 6:02 am
How a young Jewish man with a talent for forgery hid in plain sight in WWII Berlin
Now playing in the US, the German-language feature film ‘The Forger’ recounts true-life story of the spirited Cioma Schönhaus, who created documents that saved hundreds of lives
By Renee Ghert-Zand
Detail from 'Portrait of Stella' by artist Maira Kalman, from 'One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World' by Michael Frank (Avid Reader Press)
December 29, 2022, 12:26 am
99-year-old Holocaust survivor is a final portal into vibrant life of prewar Rhodes
In ‘One Hundred Saturdays,’ Stella Levi shares with author Michael Frank her memories of centuries-old traditions of the Aegean island’s Sephardic community destroyed by the Nazis
By Renee Ghert-Zand
Suzette Sheft (right) with her grandmother Monique Sheft (formerly Inge Eisinger). (Courtesy)
November 9, 2022, 10:25 pm
Teen weaves grandmother’s Holocaust experience into a compelling young adult read
After her father’s death, Suzette Sheft realized the importance of recording family history, and passes the lesson on with surreal nonfiction work ‘Running for Shelter,’ out Nov. 9
By Renee Ghert-Zand
Yelena Lembersky, author of 'Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour.' (Courtesy)
July 26, 2022, 1:43 am
Relics of a USSR both maddening and sweet emerge in blockbuster Jewish memoir
Yelena Lembersky’s ‘Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour’ is a surprisingly even-handed tale of escape from the Iron Curtain with her grandfather’s famous Babyn Yar massacre paintings
By Julie Masis
Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert and Dov Forman, authors of 'Lily's Promise.' (Courtesy)
November 5, 2021, 3:09 pm
Keeping a vow to tell her tale, Auschwitz survivor becomes TikTok sensation
Lily Ebert, author of the new memoir ‘Lily’s Promise,’ and her great-grandson Dov Forman have gained millions of social media followers, and their posts have over 100 million views
By Robert Philpot
Jori Epstein (L) with Holocaust survivor Max Glauben. Epstein wrote a book about Glauben's story after meeting at a Dallas synagogue. (Courtesy of Epstein/ via JTA)
July 6, 2021, 2:48 am
This Jewish sports writer doesn’t work on Shabbat — so she covers the NFL
At just 26, Jori Epstein is writing about the Dallas Cowboys in a male-dominated industry — and she’s penned the biography of a Holocaust survivor, to boot
By Alan Zeitlin
Clockwise, from left: Cover of 'The Passenger,' by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz and translated into English via publisher Peter Graf (Courtesy); Kristallnacht destruction in Magdeburg, Germany, November 1938. (German Federal Archive/Wikipedia Commons); Author Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz (Courtesy Leo Baeck Institute, New York); Schoolchildren and others brought to watch the burning of synagogue furnishings on Kristallnacht in Mosbach, Germany, November 1938 (Courtesy).
June 9, 2021, 3:47 am
WWII victim’s 1938 novel about Kristallnacht makes English-language revival
Writer Ulrich Boschwitz fled Germany after pogrom and wrote contemporary account ‘The Passenger’ before death at sea by a Nazi torpedo. Now rediscovered, it’s earning rave reviews
By Rich Tenorio
Uri Shulevitz, author of 'Chance: Escape From the Holocaust,' and cover art. (Photo of Shulevitz courtesy of Paula Brown/ book cover courtesy Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
April 8, 2021, 4:56 pm
Fate has starring role in Holocaust-surviving illustrator’s memoir for children
Acclaimed writer/illustrator Uri Shulevitz returns with autobiography ‘Chance: Escape From the Holocaust,’ filled with encounters so fantastic they could only happen in real life
By Rich Tenorio
Franci Rabinek Epstein and daughter Helen Epstein, New York, c. 1950s. (Courtesy of Helen Epstein)
October 10, 2020, 9:24 am
Sexually explicit memoir of women’s abuse in Nazi camps finally sees light
Second-generation trauma expert Helen Epstein publishes late mother Franci Rabinek Epstein’s manuscript, initially rejected in mid-1970s for being ahead of its time
By Renee Ghert-Zand
Jaivet Ealom is now a political science student at the University of Toronto. (Cole Burston/ via JTA)
July 24, 2020, 10:45 pm
Holocaust survivor’s book spurs Rohingyan refugee to escape Australian detention
‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ by Viktor Frankl allowed Jaivet Ealom to hold onto hope and flee a notoriously brutal Manus Island facility, and finally against the odds reach Canada
By Amanda Levinson
Esther Safran Foer holds a black and white photo of her father, Louis, top left, and the family that hid him during the war. (Courtesy)
May 20, 2020, 4:10 am
Safran Foer matriarch joins author kids with her first book, on Holocaust roots
Esther Safran Foer releases postwar memoir detailing her birth in a DP camp, the midlife discovery of a murdered sister, and her investigative journey back to Ukraine
By Anne Joseph
Sala Glass (center) with two cousins in Chrzanow c.1916. (Courtesy of Hadley Freeman)
May 4, 2020, 3:38 am
Mysterious keepsake box reveals shards of grandmother’s pre-WWII life
In ‘House of Glass,’ The Guardian’s Hadley Freeman writes a family memoir about her search to explain why her paternal grandmother survived, but didn’t thrive after the Holocaust
By Renee Ghert-Zand
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