Four Letters to the Witnesses of My Childhood

Cloth $19.95    |    978-0-8156-0869-1    |    2007

A vivid and poignant chronicle of one woman’s childhood amid the horror of Nazi occupation.

Reviews
"A historical account of a tragedy... A David and Goliath story of a young girl’s determination to escape the clutches of a seemingly unbeatable evil force... Clever, unself-conscious and meaningful."
—Jewish Observer

"A true work of literature."
—Multicultural Review

"Ganor was born in Lvov, Poland, in 1936. After earning an M.D. in 1957, she practiced internal medicine in Warsaw, and in 1969 she emigrated to the U.S. with her husband and two daughters. The four letters of the title are written to her mother, her sister, her father, and her stepmother, recalling the first 12 years of her life and the events that shaped them. Ganor’s mother and sister were killed in the Holocaust. Ganor chronicles her life in pre-war Lvov and the relationships between Jews, Poles, Ukrainians, and Gypsies. She writes of her suffering as a Jewish child surviving alone under Nazi occupation. She spent some time in the children’s ward of a hospital—the safest place to hide from the Nazis—and was forced to wander the streets, lonely, homeless, hungry, and cold. This is an account of one Jew’s unforgettable odyssey through the hell of the Holocaust, a felicitous blend of personal recollection and keen observation."
—Booklist

"Ganor’s book, a collection of four letters, is her legacy to those years, a legacy which needs to be read and remembered."
—Story Circle Book Reviews

Description
The evocation of memory is wrought with emotional and historical significance in this distinctive Holocaust memoir. With lyrical prose and remarkable candor, Helena Ganor narrates her story through a series of recently penned letters to the significant people in her life during her wartime girlhood: her sister, mother, father, and stepmother. Both Ganor's mother and sister perished during the Holocaust.

The author’s letters reveal much about living in pre-war Lvov, Poland, and its surrounding area. Her descriptions of relationships between local Jews, Poles, Ukrainians, and Gypsies in southeastern Poland lend a broad historical context to the Holocaust. Ganor combines deeply personal reminiscences of struggling as a Jewish child cast out alone to survive under Nazi occupation with reflections on the varied ways that humans respond to impending catastrophe. Punctuating her letters with poems, Ganor’s story is an inspiring contribution to Holocaust literature.

View other books on Religion, Theology, and the Holocaust

Author
Helena Ganor was born in Lvov, in southeastern Poland. After earning an M.D. in 1957, she practiced internal medicine in Warsaw. In 1969 she emigrated to the United States with her husband and two daughters, settling in southern California. She was awarded second prize for poetry by the International Society of Poetry.

5 1/2 x 8 1/2, 160 pages, 13 photographs