Memoir Preview

-- Welcome message will go here --

none
In the Lion’s Mouth: The Holocaust Memories of Adele Grynholc Jochelson, Survivor of the Kovno Ghetto and Klooga Camp

Jennifer  Dwork  and Maryann McLoughlin

In the Lion’s Mouth: The Holocaust Memories of Adele Grynholc Jochelson, Survivor of the Kovno Ghetto and Klooga Camp

 

We could say that Adele and her sister went out of the lion’s den into the lion’s mouth.

Adele née Grynholc and her sister, Tola, lost their parents to illness just before the Germans occupied Vilna, Lithuania, in June 1941. Only teenagers, the sisters were invited by an uncle to come to the Kovno Ghetto where he would look after them. After various mishaps on their way to Kovno—for one, all their possessions were stolen—they arrived at the Kovno Ghetto. There for twelve hours a day, Adele was forced to labor for the SS, unloading bricks and heavy cement bags from freight trains and working for the Luftwaffe repairing and expanding the military airfield.

During the fall of 1943, Adele and Tola were deported from the ghetto via cattle cars to Klooga Labor Camp in Estonia where the conditions were brutal. Food was scarce and even water was rationed. Adele worked at various jobs in Klooga; the worst was in a factory making cement blocks that were needed as fortifications. No easy work!

Adele Jochelson’s memoir, In the Lion’s Mouth, describes the liquidation of the camp and how she and Tola survived—two of only eighty survivors. The sisters survived because of Adele’s courage and wisdom, qualities manifest even at her young age of nineteen. Readers will be inspired by her memoir, a testimony to resilience and grace.

 

Flight to Tašhkent: The Desperate Journey of Holocaust Survivors Yosef Mednik and Feiga Geldi Mednik

Gary Mednick  with Maryann McLoughlin

Flight to Tašhkent: The Desperate Journey of Holocaust Survivors Yosef Mednik and Feiga Geldi Mednik

 

Yosef Mednik was born in Mizoch; Feiga Geldi, in Shumsk. Both towns are in Poland, about twenty miles apart. Married in 1939 before WWII began, in 1941 the desperate couple fled east in advance of the EinsatzgruppenAktions (mobile killing squads). Their families refused to flee with them, thus dooming themselves to a tragic fate.

Yosef and Feiga journeyed east, settling temporarily in Zaporizhia, Ukraine. When the Germans caught up with them, they fled farther east with the Red Army, ending up in Tašhkent, in the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). Their experiences of life on a kolkhoz, a collective farm, and, for Yosef, in the Polish/Soviet Army are profoundly moving.

Yosef and Feiga Mednik experienced the Holocaust in places readers rarely hear about. Most readers know about the ghettos and concentration camps but are not cognizant of the number of Jewish refugees who fled to the U.S.S.R. Yosef’s and Feiga’s experiences in Tašhkent on the kolkhoz and in the Polish/Soviet Army provide readers with a better understanding of where Jews fled to escape murder at the hands of the Nazis. This is a part of the Holocaust that has not been fully explored. We can be grateful to Gary Mednick’s determination to publish his parents’ memoir, Flight to Tašhkent, for enlightenment about Jews in the Soviet Union during the Holocaust.

 2019. 172 pages. ISBN: 978-1-935232-90-2

One of the Six: The Memoir of a Holocaust Survivor from Sokółka

Bertha Frydman  Borowick and Maryann McLoughlin

One of the Six: The Memoir of a Holocaust Survivor from Sokółka

 

Bertha Frydman Borowick was born one hundred years ago in Sokółka, Poland. She lived in a home that many generations of her father’s family had lived in. Surrounded by a loving father and siblings, Bertha’s childhood was idyllic as were her teen years. She went to school, learning bookkeeping, and played with other children, skating, sledding, and swimming.

In 1939 the Grim Reaper rode through Sokółka. Both the Soviets and the Germans occupied Bertha’s town. The Germans routed the Soviets in June 1941 and eventually made the town Judenrein (free of Jews). Almost 50% of Sokółka’s population—three thousand Jews including Bertha, her father, and three of her siblings, and their offspring—were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in January of 1943.

Assigned to a Kommando in “Canada,” Bertha survived despite contracting typhus. She remained in Auschwitz-Birkenau until January 1945 when the Germans transported her in an open cattle car to the infamous Bergen-Belsen. By April there was little food or water. Epidemics such as typhus, tuberculosis, and dysentery decimated the camp. Bertha survived in part because she wanted to live to be reunited with Moishe, her boyfriend from Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Bertha and Moishe did reunite and immigrated to the U.S. in 1949 with their daughter, Nancy. They were successful both as store owners and as real estate developers. They lived the American Dream. Bertha Borowick, despite her success, realizes that millions never had the chances that she and Moishe had. She hopes that her memoir, One of the Six, will make people more aware of the consequences of hate.

 

Sacrifice and Resilience: A Jewish German Family’s Memories of the Holocaust

Marion Groch  Zeiger  and Maryann McLoughlin

Sacrifice and Resilience: A Jewish German Family’s Memories of the Holocaust

 

This memoir is the story of generations of the Rubenstein family. The Rubensteins had built lives for themselves in Germany going back at least to the mid-1800s. In 1871 German Jews, including the Rubenstein family, became emancipated, achieving full equality with other Germans. Equality prevailed until 1933 when Hitler came to power. Then the Rubenstein family as well as the newly engaged Gertrude Rubenstein and Josef Groch began to be plagued by the Third Reich. First, because they were Jews, they could not have their wedding where they wanted; then they could not live where they wanted. Eventually those, in retrospect, minor difficulties were overshadowed by the violence of Kristallnacht. Events propelled Josef’s escape to England in August 1939, leaving behind Gertrude with their two young children, George and Marion.

Once Josef’s leaves for England, he and Gertrude are separated for years—separated by the war, by time, as well as by continents. Considered an enemy alien, Josef is deported by the British to Australia aboard the infamous ship HMT Dunera. There he is incarcerated in detention camps. Gertrude and the children manage to depart Europe on one of the last boats leaving Genoa, Italy, arriving in the U.S.

Even after they are reunited, Gertrude and Josef endure difficulties making a life for themselves in the U.S. Yet through hard work, sacrifice, and perseverance they prevail. The family is resilient, rising from the ashes of the Holocaust to peace and prosperity in their beloved adopted country.

Readers will marvel at the hardships that the Rubensteins and Grochs surmount both in Australia and the U.S. Sacrifice and Resilience is a stirring memoir that will hearten readers, young and old.

 

Reddening of the Sea: The Memoir of a Hungarian Holocaust Survivor

Rose Bachmann  Steinberg  and Maryann McLoughlin, with Sarah Albertson

Reddening of the Sea: The Memoir of a Hungarian Holocaust Survivor

 

Born in Oradea Mare, Hungary, Rose Bachmann enjoyed her childhood. She sometimes rode the trolley to visit the Eagle Palace, a shopping complex. She played with her sister, Gita, her cousins, and with the neighborhood children, Jews and non-Jews alike. Rose loved the Sabbath attending synagogue and eating her mother’s delicious cholent at the Shabbat dinner. She attended a Hebrew school where her favorite subject was geography. In the summer she visited her aunt’s farm to play with the chickens, goats, and sheep.

Her tranquil life was threatened by the German occupation in March of 1944 and the subsequent ghettoization of her family. In early June, after a few months in the ghetto enduring deplorable conditions, Rose, her mother, several aunts and uncles, and six cousins were deported on cattle trains to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Forcibly separated from her mother, Rose after being processed was sent to another camp, Riga-Kaiserwald, in Latvia. There she was reunited with her Aunt Rozsi. In late summer, Rose was again transported, this time to Stutthof, a death camp, where conditions were especially harsh. The prisoners were evacuated in April 1945. Many were put on overcrowded barges and, if they could not do as ordered, were executed and thrown into the Baltic Sea. Rose will never forget how red the water was from the blood. Rose survived this brutal voyage and was liberated by the British.

In 1948, Rose immigrated to the U.S., happy to live with her mother’s sister and husband. She was no longer alone. In 1950, Rose met Isidore Steinberg, and they married in 1951. The couple have a daughter Carolyn and a son Robert, grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Rose has a family! They are her joy.

Rose Steinberg’s memoir, The Reddening of the Sea, is both heart-wrenching and inspiring. Rose is resilient. To endure three concentration camps as a teenager and yet to become a warm and loving woman is remarkable. Her memoir is a tribute to her strength and courage.

 

The Circus That Was Auschwitz: The Holocaust Memoir of Sara Berkovitz Katz

Sara Berkovitz  Katz  and Maryann McLoughlin

The Circus That Was Auschwitz: The Holocaust Memoir of Sara Berkovitz Katz

 

Born Serena Berkovitz in 1928 in Sevluš, Czechoslovakia, Sara, the youngest of seven, lived happily with her parents, Regina and Meyer, and her siblings. Her father made orthopedic shoes. In March of 1939, the Hungarians occupied Sevluš, closing the schools to Jews, so Sara’s mother home-schooled her. In 1944, after the German occupation, Sara and her family were forced into the Sevluš Ghetto. From May 1944 until May 1945, Sara was incarcerated in two concentration camps: Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland and Zittau in Germany. She was liberated in May 1945 by the Soviets. After liberation, Sara returned to her home in Sevluš but soon realized that “we didn’t live there anymore.”

Brihah, the organization that helped Jewish Holocaust survivors escape post–World War II Europe, transported Sara to Pöcking DP camp in Germany and then to Genoa, Italy, where she met Joseph Katz, a survivor of Mauthausen Concentration Camp, whom she married. In December 1947, the group left Italy for Eretz Yisrael.  Sara and Joseph settled in Haifa in 1948, immigrating to the U.S. in 1961 with their two children, Rivka and David. Sara has been happy in the U.S., enjoying the peace and beauty of her beloved adopted country.

Readers of The Circus That Was Auschwitz will be inspired by Sara’s determination and her endurance. But most of all Sara’s memoir will motivate those who have suffered great loss. She remained resilient despite the injuries and losses she experienced.

 

796 Days: Hiding as a child in occupied Amsterdam during WWII and then coming to America

Leo Ullman  

796 Days: Hiding as a child in occupied Amsterdam during WWII and then coming to America

A mesmerizing first-person story of a young Jewish boy pushed into hiding over a period of nearly 2 1/2 years during WWII with total strangers who did not know who he was, while his parents hid in an attic elsewhere, not knowing where their son was or whether he was alive. This all in the heart of Amsterdam during the brutal occupation by the Nazis. Their family, long established, leading honest, law-abiding, normal and comfortable lives were suddenly forced to (in their own words) "disappear," to "become illegal," and to "live like rats" to avoid capture and deportation to killing camps. Yet they survived, facing constant fear of death, house-to-house searches, betrayal, disease and hunger, until liberated by the Allies. They then left their home, their country and their friends to start anew, in the U.S., seeking freedom from oppression. They quickly grew roots, becoming active and involved in their chosen community, and were able to succeed with zeal and good fortune. This chronicle includes not only Leo Ullman's own personal story, but stories of other family members and their often miraculous survival. The book contains numerous unique photos, copies of documents and correspondence in support of the stories, as well as valuable historical and factual context of those terrible times.

2015. 402 pages. ISBN: 978-1-941501-12-2

Two Voices: A Mother and Son, Holocaust Survivors

Donald Berkman and Maryannn McLoughlin

Two Voices: A Mother and Son, Holocaust Survivors

“As a young man, I did not speak of my past; however, as I have become older, I am haunted by memories.” —Don Berkman

This is the remarkable story of a Margate resident's childhood. Donald (Chipkin) Berkman, and his mother, Sara, Holocaust survivors, escaped from the ghetto to the forests of Lithuania, living in root cellars and barns but continually moving around to outwit the Nazis. They survived for over two years on potatoes, bread, and, at times, grass. Immigrating to the U.S., Don and his family had a difficult life coping with language and poverty. Yet he prevailed, marrying, and building a prosperous business and a good life for himself and his family.

Two Voices: A Mother and Son, Holocaust Survivors adds to the literature about child Holocaust survivors and their resilience, despite the traumas suffered during the hell of the Holocaust.

2010. 177 pages.  ISBN 978-1-935232-15-5

Riding the Storm Waves: The M.S. St. Louis Diary of Fritz Buff

Fred Buff  Editor Maryann McLoughlin

Riding the Storm Waves: The M.S. St. Louis Diary of Fritz Buff

“The Voyage of the Dammed!” The “Double-Crossing!” This is how the 1939 journey of the M.S. St Louis from Hamburg, Germany, to Havana, Cuba, is described. Seventeen-year-old Fritz (Fred) Buff was one of the 937 passengers on the infamous ship carrying refugees fleeing Nazi-dominated Germany. With Fred's diary we have a teenager's eyewitness account of life aboard the St. Louis.
Fred eventually immigrated to the U.S. and fought in WWII for the U.S. Navy in the Pacific at the Battle of Okinawa among others.
Fred Buff's diary will inspire teenagers as well as adults. In addition, his diary gives us a first-hand account of the voyage of the dammed.

2009. 148 pages.  ISBN 978-1-935232-12-4

Forced to War: The WWII Memoir of a Frenchman

Georges Raymond Beck  with Maryann McLoughlin

Forced to War: The WWII Memoir of a Frenchman

Following the German annexation of Alsace and Lorraine in 1940, Berlin forcibly integrated the French citizens of Alsace and Lorraine into the German army. From 1942, they were made German citizens, and 100,000 Alsatians and 30,000 Mosellans (north Lorraine) were enrolled by force into the German Wehrmacht, especially to fight on the Eastern front against Stalin's army. These men were called the malgré-nous (literally, in spite of ourselves), or in English as the "unwilling" or the "against our will."

Georges Raymond Beck, an Alsatian, was one of these malgré-nous. In the spring of 1942, he received a notice to report for the Reichsarbeitsdienst, Reich Labor Service, compulsory pre-military service. In July 1942, he was inducted into the German army and ordered to report for basic training.

By October 1942, Georges and fellow malgré-nous were on a military train, traveling through Germany, Poland, and finally into the U.S.S.R. His convoy traversed unending Russian forests and along the way was strafed by the Soviet Air Force. During the Soviet counter offensive in 1943, George and a friend decided to escape. He said, "We had no allegiance to the German Nazi doctrine whatsoever. We had no interest in helping the German war effort and had no qualms about escaping, if and when the time was right." The rest of Georges' memoir describes his dangerous journey back to France and his subsequent marriage and immigration to the United States, where he prospers.

Forced to War will appeal to WWII buffs and to students of the history of WWII as well as to a general audience. All readers will appreciate Georges' determination and resilience both as amalgré-nous and as an immigrant.

2015. 195 pages.

Traveling Through Siberia with Bed and Babies: A Holocaust Survivor's Joys and Sorrows

Esther Berkowitz  and Maryann McLoughlin

Traveling Through Siberia with Bed and Babies: A Holocaust Survivor's Joys and Sorrows

When the Germans attacked Poland, Esther Berkowitz and her fiancé, David, married and fled east to territory occupied by the Soviet Union. During their train journey to Siberia where they had been deported by the Soviets, Esther gave birth to her son, Daniel. The family's odyssey takes them to the Ural Mountains, then to Kazakhstan, and finally to Vineland and Atlantic City.
This memoir, Traveling Through Siberia with Bed and Babies: A Holocaust Survivor's Joys and Sorrows, will add immeasurably to readers' knowledge of the Holocaust. In addition they will be enriched by Esther's life journey, her courage and resilience.

2007. 54 pages.  ISBN 978-0-9766889-9-9

Chocolate, The Taste of Freedom: The Holocaust Memoir of a Hidden Dutch Girl

Maud Peper Dahme  and Maryann McLoughlin

Chocolate, The Taste of Freedom: The Holocaust Memoir of a Hidden Dutch Girl

"This is story of a terrible evil and of those who at the risk of their own lives decided that evil must not triumph. It is a story of endurance and hope. It is the story of a gentle and courageous woman who emerged from the desperation of the European Holocaust to become a leader in her community in the new world."

-Governor Thomas Kean

 

Of the 1.6 million Jewish children who lived in Europe before WWII, only 100,000 survived the Holocaust. Most were hidden children. Dahme was one of those hidden children, hidden from the Nazis by righteous gentiles in the Netherlands. In July of 1942, six-year-old Maud and her four-year-old sister, Rita, were taken to the Spronk farm in Oldebroek and later to a fishing village, Elburg, where they were hidden with the Westerinks for the rest of the war. In 2014, in The Netherlands, Jo (Frederica von Gulik-Westerink) and her parents, Jacob and Henriette Westerink, were honored as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Museum. The Spronks were honored at a ceremony in November at the Hague.

Chocolate, The Taste of Freedom chronicles not only the wartime adventures of Dahme but also her post-war experiences-reunion with parents, immigration, U.S. schools, marriage, and Holocaust education advocate.

In 2014, Maud Dahme was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame as one of the state's "Unsung Heroes." Dahme's memoir, her story of courage, hope, and bravery, will inspire generations of young and old. She will no longer be an unsung hero.

2015. 181 pages.

In Fire and In Flowers: The Holocaust Memoirs of Nathan and Phyllis Dunkelman

Phyllis Dunkelman  and Maryann McLoughlin

In Fire and In Flowers: The Holocaust Memoirs of Nathan and Phyllis Dunkelman

In Fire and In Flowers includes the memoirs of both Phyllis and Nathan Dunkelman, who met after the war in a displaced persons camp. Nathan, only twelve years old when the Germans occupied Poland, survived the Lódz Ghetto, Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, and Althammer labor camp. Phyllis, only ten years old when WWII started, lived in Kozienice, Poland, where a ghetto was established in 1941. In 1942 she was sent first to Gorzyczki Polenlager, a labor camp for non-Jewish Poles, next to Skarzysko Kamienno labor camp, and eventually to five other camps including Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen.
After liberation, Nathan and Phyllis ended up in Zeilsheim displaced persons camp, where they met and fell in love. In 1951 they immigrated to the U.S., settling in Vineland on a poultry farm and raising three children as well as chickens. Their work evolved into a prosperous wholesale egg and chicken business, and the family continued to thrive with six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. As Nathan remarked, “We went through hell and came back. We have been in fire and in flowers.”
Nathan and Phyllis, a loving and resilient couple, surmounted many obstacles both during the Holocaust and in the New World. In Fire and In Flowers will inspire readers, especially those dealing with adversity.

2014. 165 pages.

An Exile from a Paradise: Memories of a Holocaust Survivor from Bedzin

Hanna Granek Ehrlich  and Maryann McLoughlin

An Exile from a Paradise: Memories of a Holocaust Survivor from Bedzin

Paradise! Before the Holocaust, Bedzin was considered by many Jews to be an earthly paradise. Bedzin sang; it was happy. It was called the “singing town.” Orchestras went throughout the streets. Courtyard musicians performed.
Hanna Granek was born in this beautiful city of Bedzin. Hanna's happiest years were spent at Gymnasium Fürstenberg. Hanna remembers the close friendships that developed throughout her years at the gymnasium. Hanna and her friends walked the promenade, danced the tango, foxtrot, and the waltz and went to Shirley Temple and Laurel and Hardy movies. Her childhood was idyllic.
Paradise Lost! Bedzin was captured by the Nazis. A mountain of stones remained of their great and beautiful synagogue. Here a small shoe that had been flung from a child on his way to annihilation. A short distance away from this shoe—a prosthesis. There a small tallis flapped on a fence and twisted its fringes, as if trying to oust the defiling forces, the evil that had penetrated Bedzin.
After graduation, Hanna was on her way to the university when, in September 1939, the Germans attacked Poland, World War II broke out, and universities were forbidden to accept Jewish students. The occupation of Bedzin was followed by restrictions, ghettoization, deportation, and the murder of most of Hanna's friends and family. After years in forced labor camps, Hanna was liberated and reunited with her friend from Bedzin, Wolf Ehrlich. The two married in Munich and immigrated to the U.S. where they established a poultry farm and a china and crystal shop in Mays Landing, New Jersey. Hanna's memoir, An Exile from a Paradise: Memories of a Holocaust Survivor from Bedzin, Poland, is awe-inspiring, a story of resilience and hope, of exile and acceptance.

2014. 146 pages.

If the Dawn Is Late in Coming: Survivor of Vilna and Vaivara

Ida Feinberg  and Maryann McLoughlin

If the Dawn Is Late in Coming: Survivor of Vilna and Vaivara

Newly married, Ida Feinberg, her husband, Sender, her mother and father, younger brother, Peter, and her Bubbe were living happily in Vilna when the Germany army occupied Vilna on June 25, 1941.
Moved first into the Vilna Ghetto, Ida, Sender, and her father were next deported to Vaivara Concentration Camp in Estonia. Separated from Sender and her father, Ida survived, despite typhus, malnourishment, hard labor, and a death march.
Ida's memoir, If the Dawn Is Late in Coming: Survivor of Vilna and Vaivara, is one of the few we have of Holocaust survivors sent to one of the Balkan camps. Her memoir increases our knowledge of these camps as well as our information about the Vilna Ghetto. Although profoundly affected by her experiences during the Holocaust, Ida, a former Atlantic City resident, took comfort in her family and their love—her victory over Hitler and the Nazis.

2008. 81 pages.  ISBN13 978-0-9793771-5-0

Of a Comb, a Prayer Book, Sugar Cubes, and Lice: Survivor of Six Concentration Camps—Elizabeth Blum Goldstein

Shana Fogarty Editor Maryann McLoughlin

Of a Comb, a Prayer Book, Sugar Cubes, and Lice: Survivor of Six Concentration Camps—Elizabeth Blum Goldstein

Elizabeth Blum Goldstein, one of eight children, was born in Kisar, Hungary, in 1926. Her parents had a general store, orchards of fruit trees, and fields of wheat. In 1944 Elizabeth's peaceful family life was destroyed when the Nazis invaded Hungary. The family was sent for several weeks to the ghetto in Mátészalka, Hungary, and then deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where Elizabeth was separated from everyone but her sister Iboyla. Eventually Elizabeth and Iboyla were in six concentration camps—Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland; Płaszów, Poland; Hundsfeld, Germany; Gross-Rosen, Germany; Mauthausen, Austria; and Bergen-Belsen, Germany, where Elizabeth was liberated in 1945. Because Elizabeth was emaciated and ill, she was sent to a Swedish hospital to recover. In 1948, Mrs. Goldstein immigrated to the United States. Elizabeth has two children, Susan and Kenny, and three grandchildren, Shana, Bryana, and Adam.

Elizabeth Blum Goldstein was interviewed by her granddaughter, Shana Fogarty, over a number of weeks. With the help of Dr. Maryann McLoughlin of the Center, Shana completed the book, which was originally published in 2006; the revised edition, in 2015.

Shana Fogarty Shah, Elizabeth Goldstein's granddaughter, graduated from The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey [now Stockton University] with a major in Speech Pathology/Audiology and a minor in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. She earned a master's degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Towson University in Maryland. Between academics, working, and spending time with friends and family, Shana completed this interview of her grandmother and the subsequent manuscript. She currently works as a speech-language pathologist and enjoys spending time with her husband and children. Shana wrote this book so that readers of Elizabeth Blum Goldstein's Holocaust experiences would be inspired by her grandmother's courage and resilience and in addition would become more aware of the dangers of genocide.

2005. Revised Edition, 2015. 85 pages.  ISBN13 978-0-9766889-4-5

Of Being Numerous: World War II as I Saw It

Bernard Friedenberg  with Maryann McLoughlin

Of Being Numerous: World War II as I Saw It

Bernard Friedenberg, Atlantic City High school graduate and Margate resident, enlisted in WWII after Pearl Harbor, December 7,1941, serving in World War II first as an ambulance driver and soon after as a member of a medical detachment. He was deployed in all the major battles of the war: Operation Torch in Algeria; the campaign for Sicily; Omaha Beach on D-Day; and Aachen, Germany. Bernie was also in one of the bloodiest battles of World War II—the Battle of the Bulge.
Bernie, a highly decorated soldier, was awarded his first Silver Star for making five trips under heavy fire to recover the wounded from a mine field on Omaha Beach. He was awarded a second Silver Star for action in Munsterbusch, Germany. He was twice awarded the Bronze Star for valor and the Purple Heart twice.
Of Being Numerous: World War II as I Saw It is a tribute to the men and women who served in World War II.

2012. 249 pages.  ISBN 978-1935232-5-75

The Photographs in Nona's Album

Jen Garsh  Editor Maryann McLoughlin

The Photographs in Nona's Album

The author of The Photographs in Nona's Album is Jennifer Garsh; Nona is Stema Koen, her grandmother. A Stockton graduate, Ms. Garsh wrote about her grandmother's life for her final internship project in Stockton's Holocaust Resource Center.
The Photographs in Nona's Album recounts the childhood of Stema Koen, who grew up in Janina, Greece. Stema was saved because she was taken as a child from Greece to the United States. You will learn what happened to the rest of the Koen family in Greece during the Holocaust as well as what happened to Stema Koen in the United States.
This book is recommended for school children from fifth to twelfth grades. All ages will be interested in this little known area of Holocaust history—that is, that Jews as far away as Greece were victims of the Holocaust.

Second Edition, 2014. 33 pages.

The Black Unfolding: A Holocaust Memoir of Rawa-Ruska

Sylvia Liebel Genoy  and Maryann McLoughlin

The Black Unfolding: A Holocaust Memoir of Rawa-Ruska

The [family] they'd thought was safe,

seized, shipped east,

on a rattling train,

those trains,

that Crescendo,

the Black Unfolding.

-Rochelle Natt

 

The youngest of seven children, Sylvia (Sara Gross) grew up in Rawa-Ruska, in southeast Poland. A good student she looked forward to further studies. In 1941, however, the Germans occupied Rawa-Ruska and measures against Jews were promulgated. There would be no further education for Sylvia, then 15 years old.

In summer of 1942, after escaping from a roundup of Jews who were being deported to Belzec Death Camp, Sylvia and her sisters, as non-Jews, volunteered for work in Germany. Little did the sisters know then what would be the fate of the rest of the family.

Sylvia's memoir describes her work at an AEG electric factory in Berlin and, later, on a farm in the village of Bentwisch am Wittenberge. All the while she was terrified of being betrayed as Jewish and deported to a concentration camp.

The Black Unfolding: A Holocaust Memoir also looks beyond WWII and the Holocaust, describing Sylvia's life after liberation in 1945: her marriage to David Liebel, their immigration to the United States, and the family's eventual move to Vineland when the forsythia was in bloom; the grass, a luscious green; and lilacs scented the air. Unfortunately, even in pastoral Vineland tragedy struck the family.

This memoir will give readers a glimpse at yet another aspect of survival during the Holocaust and introduce them to a strong and resilient woman who refused to succumb to the darkness.

2015. 86 pages.

The Pear Tree Did Not Survive: A Memoir of a Shtetl Boyhood, Siberian Labor Camps, and the Aftermath of the Holocaust

Phillip Goldfarb  and Maryann McLoughlin

The Pear Tree Did Not Survive: A Memoir of a Shtetl Boyhood, Siberian Labor Camps, and the Aftermath of the Holocaust

Former Galloway resident, Feivel (Phillip) Goldfarb was born in Sêdziszów Malopolski in the province of Krakow, the youngest of nine children. When the Germans occupied Poland in 1939, Phillip fled east, from where he was deported by the Soviet Union to Siberia to the taiga to cut trees. Next he was sent to the desert of Kazakhstan to harvest saxoul trees, used for fuel. At the end of the war, after surviving two typhus attacks, Phillip returned to Europe looking for family. After several years in DP camps, Phillip immigrated to the U.S., adjusting to life on a chicken farm.
Phillip's survival of the Siberian and Kazakhstan work camps is an incredible story, building on our understanding of the scope of the Shoah.

2008. 120 pages.

 The Desperate Times! Julius Goldfarb's Diary, 1939-1944

Phillip Goldfarb  and Maryann McLoughlin

 The Desperate Times! Julius Goldfarb's Diary, 1939-1944

A lost diary found!! Phillip Goldfarb knew that his brother, Julius, had written a diary when Julius was in hiding in Poland in 1944. Julius Goldfarb wrote his diary about the period he called the “desperate times”: from September 1939, when the Germans attacked and occupied most of Poland, to August 1944 when Julius was liberated on the outskirts of Lancut, in southeastern Poland. During the Holocaust, Julius journeyed across Poland from west to east, as far as Lvov, surviving forced labor camps and the Rzeszów Ghetto. When that ghetto was liquidated in October 1943, Julius went into hiding near Lancut with the Gwizdak family. When the diary was rediscovered in 2009 years after Julius's death, Phillip was determined to translate the diary in honor of his brother.
Julius's diary, about survival and rescue, subtitled The Desperate Times, will give readers a sense of immediacy as they read his descriptions of his efforts to avoid Nazi persecution.

2008. 120 pages.

In Sunshine and In Shadow: We Remember Them

Vera Herman Goodkin  Editor Maryann McLoughlin

In Sunshine and In Shadow: We Remember Them

Saved by Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat, Vera Herman Goodkin was born in Czechoslovakia, enjoying an idyllic childhood until the Nazi occupation on March 15, 1939. Her father and mother with nine year-old Vera fled their home, hiding with relatives, in attics and cellars. Later the three were caught and imprisoned separately. Happily they went to Budapest, Hungary, where they were saved and reunited by Wallenberg, who saved thousands of Jewish lives in Budapest. The family immigrated to the United States in October 1947, when Vera finished her high school education.
This memoir of Vera's coming of age during the Nazi occupation as well as her memories of her grandparents, parents, aunts, and uncles is a family history as well as a personal history. Readers will be inspired and moved by this memoir—In Sunshine and In Shadow: We Remember Them.

2005. 174 pages.  ISBN13 978-0-9766889-9-8

Fridays with Eva: Caring and Learning from My Mother-in-Law, a Holocaust Survivor

Bethanie Gorny  Editor Maryann McLoughlin

Fridays with Eva: Caring and Learning from My Mother-in-Law, a Holocaust Survivor

When Linwood resident Bethanie Gorny's eighty-two year old mother-in-law moves from Vineland to a Ventnor senior citizen apartment building, it is a turning point for both.
Eva is a Holocaust survivor, observant Jew, joke teller, and widow, while Bethanie is a middle aged professor hard at work on her career.
Fridays with Eva is a heartwarming memoir that will inspire, entertain, and enlighten all who read it. Parents, grandparents, and grandchildren, will all connect on some level with this story that crosses generations and cultures. Fridays with Eva is ultimately about how relationships have the power to change us, about what makes life meaningful, and about how to survive life's vicissitudes from small to large.

2010. 161 pages. ISBN 978-1-935232-11-7

A Red Polka-Dotted Dress: A Memoir of Kanada II

Shirley Berger Gottesman  and Maryann McLoughlin

A Red Polka-Dotted Dress: A Memoir of Kanada II

As a child, Shirley Berger Gottesman, lived in Záluž in the TransCarpathian region, with parents and four siblings as well as her extended family, grandmother, aunts, and uncles. In April 1944, after Passover, the family was deported to a ghetto in nearby Munkács and a short time later to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Shirley, then sixteen, was assigned to Kanada II, given a uniform (the red polka-dotted dress), and told to sort the possessions brought from the cattle cars. Her barrack was only ten feet away from Crematorium IV. In her memoir, Shirley describes the horror of what she saw, stating: “It was so unbelievable. I can't even conceive of what they did. Impossible! We were ready for work. We were even ready not to have enough food. We were not ready to be gassed.”
Shirley Gottesman's memoir of Kanada II and slave labor camps in Germany will both horrify and inspirit readers. Despite the hell she endured in Europe and the nightmares she continues to endure, Shirley found a haven in the U.S. on a farm in Millville, New Jersey, with her husband Sam. Readers will recognize Shirley's bravery and resilience as she lives each day, refusing to allow her memories of the Holocaust to overwhelm her life.

2011. 89 pages.

Once My Name Was Sara

I. Betty Grebenschikoff  

Once My Name Was Sara

Ventnor resident, Betty Grebenschikoff's memoir, Once My Name Was Sara, describes Berlin in the thirties and her family's escape after Kristallnacht, sailing to China on May 21, 1939, getting out only about three months before WWII began. Betty describes life in the Shanghai Ghetto as well as the period after the war when the U.S. was stationed in Shanghai and the euphoria of those days. After her marriage, Betty and Oleg are caught up in the Civil War in China; in 1949 they immigrate to Australia and a few years later to the U.S., settling in Ventnor, New Jersey.
Once My Name Was Sara furthers our knowledge about the journeys Holocaust survivors took to escape the horrors of the Third Reich.

First Edition, 1992. Second Edition, 2004. 180 pages.  ISBN 0-9639344-0-6

Two More Weeks! Deutschland Kaput!

Jadzia Altman Greenbaum and Maryann McLoughlin 

Two More Weeks! Deutschland Kaput!

Born in Bedzin which was occupied by the Germans in 1939, Jadzia Altman Greenbaum survived a series of labor camps and a death march during which she saw Dresden burning. Ending the death march at the hellish Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Jadzia was barely alive. Infected with lice from the over-crowding in Bergen-Belsen, she developed typhus. When the British liberated the camp in April of 1945, Jadzia was hospitalized and lingered near death for weeks. Despite her illness and her psychological state (she learns she is the only survivor of her family), Jadzia recovered. Jadzia not only recovered but she eventually flourished, marrying David Greenbaum and immigrating to the U.S.
Janet's memoir, Two More Weeks! —her story of transcending the deaths of all her family and meeting the challenges of living in a new land—is powerful. With her husband, Janet built a new life and family in the United States, settling in Ventnor. She has triumphed over the death and destruction of the Shoah.

2008. 106 pages.  ISBN 978-0-9793771-8-1

Lives Interrupted: The Memoirs of George and Miriam Greenman

Miriam Greenman  and Maryann McLoughlin

Lives Interrupted: The Memoirs of George and Miriam Greenman

Margate residents, Miriam Yonish Greenman and George Greenman first met after World War II in Lódz. They fell in love, married, and looked to the future with hope.
In 1939, George had been a first-year law student in Poznan, Poland. Despite antisemitism, George looked forward to a career in law. His hopes were dashed when Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939. Thrown out of school, ghettoized, deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp and later to slave labor in Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp, George thought not about the law but about his survival and the survival of his father, Morris.
In 1939, Miriam, a nascent concert pianist, was living with her mother and father in Lida, Poland, when the Red Army occupied the city. After the Germans broke the non-aggression pact with the Soviets in June 22, 1941, the Germans attacked Lida. By December of 1941, Miriam and her mother were living and working in the Lida ghetto. During the liquidation of the ghetto on May 8, 1943, shy Miriam saved her mother, Nina, from death. In the summer of 1943, mother and daughter joined the Bielski Otriad in the Naliboki Forest, where despite difficult and dangerous conditions they survived until the end of the war.
After liberation, Miriam and George met and married and while waiting, and waiting, for their visas to the U.S., lived in DP camps. In May of 1949, they immigrated to the United States making a living not in law or on the concert stage but on a chicken farm in McKee City, New Jersey. They do realize their American dream, however, eventually prospering after years of hard, hard work.
The story of these two talented and intelligent young people will sadden you when you think about their interrupted lives but will hearten you as you see them win against the odds, surviving and prospering in the U.S.

2012. 128 pages. ISBN 9-78-1935232-5-75

But Where Is Tanya? Courage and Loss in the Vilna Ghetto

Zina Gurland  Editor Maryann McLoughlin

But Where Is Tanya? Courage and Loss in the Vilna Ghetto

Former Atlantic City and Margate resident, Zina Gurland was born in Vilna, Lithuania. When the Nazis invaded Vilna in June of 1941, Zina and her daughter, Tanya, struggled to survive. Zina did survive the ghetto and the HKP labor camp; however, Tanya was taken during a Nazi roundup of the ghetto children.
But Where is Tanya? Courage and Loss in the Vilna Ghetto is an inspiring book about the Shoah and its devastating effects but also about perseverance after great loss. Readers will be moved by this powerful memoir.

Second Edition, 2007. 185 pages.

No Longer Does the Wind Weave: Magda's Memoir

Magda Hafter  and Maryann McLoughlin

No Longer Does the Wind Weave: Magda's Memoir

Magda Kelemen Hafter was born during the inter-war period in Zemianska Olca, in southwest Slovakia. From 1939, Magda's town was occupied by Hungarian Fascists and, in 1944, Magda and her family were sent to Velký Meder, to a ghetto that had previously been a pig farm and still smelled like one. From this ghetto, the Kelemen family was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Magda was later sent to slave labor camps in Plaszów and to Gross-Rosen subcamps, where she toiled for businesses such as Krupp.
Readers of her memoir, No Longer Does the Wind Weave, will be inspired by Magda's courage as a Holocaust survivor and as a widow raising three children in Vineland, New Jersey. This is a book for all ages.

2011. 87 pages.  ISBN 978-1-935232-35-3

Once a Flower, Always a Flower: Terry Herskovits—Hungarian Survivor of the Nazi and the Communist Regimes and the Hungarian Spring

Terry Goldstein Herskovits  with Maryann McLoughlin and Judith Wizmur

Once a Flower, Always a Flower: Terry Herskovits—Hungarian Survivor of the Nazi and the Communist Regimes and the Hungarian Spring

A triumphant story of courage and resilience!
Hidden during the Holocaust, jailed during the Soviet occupation of Hungary, Terry Goldstein Herskovits's story is an epic one, spanning not only the gruesome Nazi years, but also the cruel years of Stalin's rule over Hungary.
Toba (Terry), the seventh of twelve children, born in Kivjazd, Czechoslovakia, migrated to Budapest, Hungary, when her sister's tales of its splendor beckoned to her. When the Nazis occupied Budapest in 1944, they brought to an end Terry's sweet and exciting teenage years. Little in Terry's life during the next ten years was sweet. On the heels of the Nazis came the Communists and their highly restrictive regime, during which time Terry was separated from her children and imprisoned for three years.
Terry's memoir, Once a Flower, Always a Flower, recounts her life and her horrendous experiences in Eastern Europe. But readers also learn about her wonderful life in the United States where, she, as loving and protective Mamele, has nurtured children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Terry's courage, determination, and endurance through almost insurmountable difficulties and hardships will remind readers of all ages about what is important in life—family and freedom.

2013. 124 pages.

Flower of Ice, Cobweb of Lace: Escape to the USSR

Nella Gelberg Juffe  and Maryann McLoughlin

Flower of Ice, Cobweb of Lace: Escape to the USSR

Margate resident, Nella Gelberg Juffe was raised in Chelm, Poland, where her parents, and baby sister Pola, lived until the German Army attacked Chelm in 1939. Warned by a Soviet officer, the family—Nella, 7 years old, her father, and her mother carrying Pola—took one of the last trains leaving Chelm, for relative safety in the Soviet Union. Mother and daughters found safety in Lgov until the Germans captured them, imprisoning them in a small concentration camp in Lgov 2, where they experienced freezing weather, deprivation, and hunger.
Nella's memoir is inspiring—the story of a little rascally girl who traveled across the frozen USSR and a ravaged Europe, becoming in the process a wise, strong, and good woman.

Second Edition, 2012. 205 pages. ISBN 9-781-935232-4-83

The Blue Vase: A Memoir of a Vienna Kindertransport Child

Ruth Kessler  and Maryann McLoughlin

The Blue Vase: A Memoir of a Vienna Kindertransport Child

In the beginning was the end of innocence
When goose steps clicked
And evil licked the world with violence.
—David Walders, “Born in Safety”
 
Ruth Fisch Kessler was born in safety in Vienna, Austria, in 1933, to Henry Fisch and Charlotte Schwartz Fisch. This happy loving family, which included her older sister, Erika, however, was devastated by two events, the Anschluss and Kristallnacht, both in 1938. On May 12, 1939, Ruth was asked by her parents to take a long and frightening journey to England where they would later join her. Ruth was one of the 10,000 Kindertransport children taken from their homes in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia and transported to Great Britain, where they were met by foster parents. For five-year-old Ruth this was a very scary experience. But her foster parents, Stella and Joseph Webber, were warm, loving, and kind. Ruth stayed with the Webbers until the war in Europe was over in 1945.
In 1946, Ruth heard from her father who had immigrated to the U.S.in 1940. She was the only family member he had left. Although the Webbers didn't want Ruth to leave, her father insisted. On May 13, 1946 she docked on Canal Street in New York. Because her father could not afford to care for her, Ruth was placed in foster homes. Ruth was in five foster homes and a number of schools until she graduated high school and married Louis Kessler, a nurturing and good man, in 1952.
To read Ruth Kessler's memoir, The Blue Vase, is to hear a first-hand account from a child both blessed and cursed by her experiences. Readers of all ages will be astounded by Ruth's resilience after great tragedy.

2014. 90 pages.

From the Vilna Ghetto to the U.S. and Liberty

Molly Avidon Kiejdan  and Maryann McLoughlin, with Edith Kiejdan Jacoby

From the Vilna Ghetto to the U.S. and Liberty

From the age of three Molly Avidon lived with her dear aunt and uncle in Vilna, a flourishing city that Napoleon had called the “Jerusalem of the North.” Molly’s early life was good, but when she was fifteen, in 1940, she said she grew up so fast that she felt as if she was eighty. Initially occupied by the Soviet Union, in June 1941, Vilna was bombed by the Germans who ousted the Soviets and initiated a reign of terror against Vilna Jews.

The Nazis assigned Molly to work in vegetable gardens and on the railroads. These labors she did in the frigid cold and suffocatingly hot weather during which time she received very little food. Eventually she was transferred to an Army Motor Vehicle Repair Park where she survived with her husband, Pinchus Kiejdan, whom she had met while working there. Molly and Pincus were two of the very few survivors of the Vilna Ghetto.

Liberated by the Soviets in 1944, Molly’s trials were not over. In 1945, she gave birth to her son Michael in a small cold room without a doctor, electricity, or heat. After many hardships in post-war Europe, the three immigrated to the U.S. in 1949. Their pursuit of freedom brought them first to New York and then to Mays Landing, New Jersey where they had five more beautiful children.

Eventually Pinchus and Molly moved to Margate, New Jersey, where their children continued their education. Pinchus’s construction business prospered. He and his wife, Molly, contributed much to their community. Readers will be inspired by Molly’s resilience and her celebration of her husband’s philanthropy.

2019. 168 pages.

Weep Tears of Blood: A Teenager Survives Auschwitz

Murray Kohn  and Maryann McLoughlin

Weep Tears of Blood: A Teenager Survives Auschwitz

Weep Tears of Blood is the poignant memoir of Rabbi Dr. Murray J. Kohn, the beloved rabbi emeritus of Vineland, New Jersey, professor of Holocaust Studies at Richard Stockton College of NJ, and Holocaust survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. Murray endured over two years in Auschwitz and then was sent on a death march to a sub-camp of Buchenwald. Murray was freed at Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia by the Soviets on May 8, 1945. Only Murray and his father survived.
Weep Tears of Blood is not only a history of a teenager's traumatic experiences during the Shoahbut also a history of immigration and assimilation into the America of the 1950s and 1960s. Rabbi Dr. Kohn's memoir will appeal to scholars as well as students and the general public.

2010. 108 pages.

Journeys End: The Holocaust Memories of the Kühnreich, Karpf, and Teichman Families

Terry and Eli Kühnreich  and Maryann McLoughlin

Journeys End: The Holocaust Memories of the Kühnreich, Karpf, and Teichman Families

This book encompasses the Holocaust memories of the Teichman, Karpf, and Kühnreich families: Arthur Kühnreich and Genia Karpf Kühnreich, Paula Bettman Karpf and Leo Karpf, Jakob Teichman and Marie Liebermann Teichman. Born in different worlds—Maków Podhalański, Poland; Breslau, Germany; and Złoczów, Poland, their destinies propelled them through ghettos, concentration camps, displaced persons camps, and on to immigration on ships with the names of USS General J. H. McRae and MS Vulkania. In the United States, the six were eventually bound together through the marriage of two of their children, who met in Vineland, New Jersey.
The memoir traces each of their extraordinary journeys through the Holocaust to the freedom and safety of life in the United States.

2016. 178 pages.

Feathers, Smoke, A Shattered Family

Berl Lazarus  and Maryann McLoughlin

Feathers, Smoke, A Shattered Family

Born in May of 1942, Berl Baruch Lazarus, as a baby, was taken out of a Berlin hospital and transported to Auschwitz Concentration Camp where his mother and father had been deported. On his clothing was a tag with his name on it. Soon after his arrival at Auschwitz he was transferred to Terezín (Theresienstadt) Camp/Ghetto, where he survived for 2 ½ years. In 1945 Terezín was liberated, and Berl was sent to England, with a group of toddlers to Bulldogs Bank. Berl's story is included in the 2000 award-winning documentary Children of Bulldogs Bank. Berl eventually immigrated to the U.S., to Atlantic City, later serving his new country in the Vietnam War. Berl never forgot his parents and with the help of the International Red Cross, Stockton Professor Michael Hayse, and German archivists, Berl discovers the truth about his parents and finds and connects with relatives living in Germany.
Berl's story is remarkably inspiring: a three year old survivor without parents or relatives who grew up to be loving and responsible person—a good husband and father.

2009. 102 pages.  ISBN 978-1-935232-05-6

Angel Wings Around Her: A True Story of Gusia Weinstock, A Survivor of Bergen Belsen

Heather Lazinger  Editor Maryann McLoughlin

Angel Wings Around Her: A True Story of Gusia Weinstock, A Survivor of Bergen Belsen

Over the years, Jean (Gusia) Weinstock had told her story of surviving the Holocaust to her granddaughter Heather Lazinger. Ms. Lazinger recently wrote down her grandmother's memories to preserve them not only for her own family and their future generations but also for others so that they would know her grandmother's recollections of the Holocaust. A wonderful tribute to Heather's grandmother and her family!
Jean Weinstock was born in Poland in 1930. Jean remembers her childhood fondly: visiting grandparents, challah for Shabbos, synagogue on Saturday, trips to the mountains with her father and mother, and doing well in school. Much of this changed in the late 1930s when antisemitism increased. Jean's father tried to protect his family by applying for visas to emigrate from Poland to the United States or some country in South America.
However, before they could leave, their section of Poland was occupied first by the Russians (1939) and then by the Germans (1941). In 1942 the family was deported to Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp, in Germany. In 1945 they marched in the snow from Bergen-Belsen to the train station. During this march Jean's mother had a stroke, but on the train near Magdeburg, Germany, the Americans liberated them. After the war Jean and her family went to Brussels, Belgium, and after three years of waiting for their visas the family immigrated to the United States in 1948.
For a time Jean worked in the New York fashion industry, eventually marrying her husband, Sol, and moving to Lakewood, New Jersey. Jean continues to thank G-d for protecting her, her children and grandchildren; she feels as if an angel's wings are around them.
Angel Wings Around Her: The True Story of Gusia Weinstock, A Survivor of Bergen-Belsen is the moving story of a woman's coming of age during the Holocaust.

2004. 106 pages.

Lives Entwined: Fanny and Max Lesser, Holocaust Survivors

Fanny  Lesser  and Maryann McLoughlin

Lives Entwined: Fanny and Max Lesser, Holocaust Survivors

Fanny Fixler Lesser, one of eight children, was born in Czechoslovakia, where her family had lived for generations. On Passover of 1944, the Nazis moved the family to the Chust Ghetto, and seven weeks later deported them to Auschwitz. Fanny was one of 300 women selected by Dr. Mengele for slave labor at Weiswasser, a Nazi slave labor camp in Poland. Many months later, Fanny and other women were exchanged by the Swedish Red Cross for trucks and ammunition.
Max Lesser lived in Czerwinsk, Poland, where, until the war, “everybody was a relative.” He and his family were taken to the Czerwinsk Ghetto, then to Nowy Dwór Ghetto, and finally to Auschwitz-Birkenau where all the women and girls in his family were murdered on the day they arrived in mid-December 1942. Max, a barber, survived because the SS needed barbers. In January of 1945, Max escaped the infamous Auschwitz death march.
After the war, Max and Fanny met on a train in Germany, marrying in Eggenfelden DP Camp. From Germany, the couple immigrated to the U.S., eventually settling in Margate.
Fanny and Max's memoir, Lives Entwined, tells of terror but also of triumph: from the Holocaust and from the brink of death, to the United States and freedom and security. Fanny's and Max's life stories will enthrall adults as well as students of all ages.

2007. 150 pages.  ISBN13 978-0-9793771-2-9

No Place for Us, My Dear 

Marion Lewin  and Maryann McLoughlin

No Place for Us, My Dear 

No Place for Us, My Dear is the story of two young Holocaust survivors from the same town-Wyszogród in Poland. Marion Lewin, born Malka Pasternak, was eleven years old when the Germans occupied Poland. From 1939 until 1945, Marion hid on farms and even volunteered to go with the Polish youth as a laborer into the heart of Germany.

Drafted in 1939, Joseph was captured by the Germans. Eventually he was forced into a number of ghettos, including the Warsaw Ghetto, from which he escaped. Joe was recaptured in 1944 and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, leaving there on a death march. Jumping from a moving train, Joe escaped the Nazis yet again!

Marion Lewin's memoir, No Place for Us, My Dear, is an inspirational story of survival and resilience. Marion and Joseph had the courage and brains to outwit the Nazis, surviving to create a beautiful family and a life in the United States. This is a memoir for all ages, but especially for teenagers.

Second Edition, 2015. 311 pages.

The Sound of Wings: A WWII Navy Nurse in the Pacific

Josephine Plummer Lopatto  Edited by Maryann McLoughlin and Claire Lopatto

The Sound of Wings: A WWII Navy Nurse in the Pacific

Written when she was 93, The Sound of Wings, a memoir by Josephine Plummer Lopatto, a WWII Navy nurse assigned to the Pacific, is an inspiring story of courage and bravery. Miss Plummer served on active duty as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps from February 23, 1943, to May 15, 1946. For her service in World War II, she was awarded the American Theatre Medal, the Asiatic Pacific Medal, and the American Victory Medal.
During her time in the Pacific, Plummer was in constant danger and witnessed horrible suffering. Yet she and the others nursed and comforted young military men in physical as well as emotional pain.
After World War II was over, Plummer Lopatto married and raised nine children in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where she eventually continued her nursing career. She continues to be the vibrant center of her family that now includes eleven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. The Sound of Wings celebrates nurses, their sacrifices and their service to our nation during WWII. Read the memoir. Be inspired!

2013. 162 pages.

To Tell of Fire in the Night

Paula Stotsky May  and Maryann McLoughlin

To Tell of Fire in the Night

Born in Belitza, Poland, now Belarus, Paula Stotsky May, now a Vineland resident, was safe in the dream world of childhood and girlhood. Paula was awakened from her dreams by her father's death, the Soviet occupation, and by the German occupation and destruction of Belitza. Paula's nightmares had only begun.
Their home destroyed by fire, the family is forced to move to the Zhetel Ghetto in February 1942. One of the few survivors of the liquidation of the ghetto, Paula escaped and fled to the forest, surviving in bunkers in the dense forests with her husband Louis, her sister, and others until the Soviets advanced against the Germans.
A story of rescue and resistance, of hate and love, Paula's memoir, To Tell of Fire in the Night, will teach and inspire.

2010. 109 pages.  ISBN 978-1-935232-27-8

Leaves Swept by a Cruel Wind: The Holocaust Journals of Ilona Elefánt Schwarcz—1945-1949

Edited by Marianne  Meyer  and Maryann McLoughlin. Contributions by Eta Elefánt Hubscher

Leaves Swept by a Cruel Wind: The Holocaust Journals of Ilona Elefánt Schwarcz—1945-1949

Written in the DP camps immediately after liberation, the historic significance of Ilona Elefánt Schwarcz's testimony, so close to the actual experience, cannot be overestimated. Completed within four years and three months of liberation, these journals still have the full heat of intense rage and abject sadness of the here and now. However, they are also leavened by the patience and intellect needed for remarkable "rememberings." For such a private document, the journals were meticulously organized, divided into two sets of alternating parts: The most introspective, thoughtful, and thought-provoking passages introduce “rememberings,” or recollections, of the cruel events of the Holocaust experienced by Ilona and her sister, Eta.
Readers will be inspired by the tenacity and love of Ilona, who fights to survive mainly for her frail sister, Eta, whom Ilona saves on numerous occasions. Readers will also be saddened to realize the long-term effects of the Holocaust. For survivors, the Holocaust did not end at liberation. These journals underscore this fact. Dr. Vera Goodkin, Professor Emerita and Associate of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education writes, “Each fragment of this incredible mosaic dovetails with the next to create a tapestry of unspeakable suffering and injustice.”

2013. 290 pages.

Beyond the Ouija Board: A World War II Teenager in Occupied Belgium

Arlette Michaelis  Editor Maryann McLoughlin

Beyond the Ouija Board: A World War II Teenager in Occupied Belgium

Arlette de Monceau Michaelis lived in Brussels, Belgium, during the German occupation of that country during World War II (1939-1945). During those war years, Arlette, a teenager, and her family—parents, brother, and sister—resisted the Germans in many ways. After her parents and brother were imprisoned, Arlette and her sister were on their own dealing with frigid temperatures and meager rations. During these war years, Arlette, whose parents' rental apartment was often used to shelter Jews, became a courier and aid to Father Bruno Reynders, the Belgian priest, who rescued Jews.
After the war Arlette worked as a translator for Belgian Airlines, SABENA. She met and married her husband, Lance, a sales manager for the airlines. For a time the couple lived between New York and Cape May County, New Jersey, eventually settling in New Jersey. Arlette is retired from Avalon Elementary School.
Arlette Michaelis's memoir will appeal to many audiences—young and old, European and American, Jew and non-Jew, historian and romantic.
In 2011, Arlette deMonceau Michaelis and her family were honored by Yad Vashem as “Righteous Among the Nations.”

2005. 150 pages.

The Miracle of Survival: Angels at my Back

Janet Moskowitz  and Maryann McLoughlin

The Miracle of Survival: Angels at my Back

Former Ventnor resident, Janet (Jadzia) Zuchter Moskowitz, was born in 1921, in Bedzin, Poland. Her family lived closely connected to her extended family, aunts, uncles, and cousins—one hundred and forty relatives—who also lived in Bedzin. The thought never came into her mind that those things would ever disappear. She said, “So quickly it was over.”
In September 1939 the Germans overran Poland; by October they had burned down Bedzin's beautiful synagogue, and by November were sending young people to slave labor camps. In 1943, after being sent to the outskirts of Bedzin to a ghetto, thousands of Jews, including Janet, her mother, brother, aunts and uncles were rounded up and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Separated from all but an uncle and cousin, Janet struggled to survive. In 1945 after a death march to Ravensbrück, Janet was sent to Neustadt Gleve, Germany, a sub-camp of Ravensbrück, where she worked in a Dornier airplane factory. There Janet was liberated in May 1945.
Janet Moskowitz's story of courage is a powerful inspiration to young and old, Jew and non-Jew.

2007. 112 pages.  ISBN13 978-0-9793771-3-6

Ernest Triumphant!

Ernest Paul  with Maryann McLoughlin

Ernest Triumphant!

Student, Resistance Fighter, Politician, Entrepreneur, Author, and Lecturer—Ernest Paul's journey took him from a bucolic village in Czechoslovakia through the chaos and horror of World War II to the ordeals facing the fledging State of Israel and eventually to the shores of opportunity in North and South America.
Ernest Paul was a teenager studying in Budapest when World War II broke out. As Nazism enveloped Hungary, young Ernest chose to join the Hungarian Resistance. His bravery in saving lives earned him the Medal of Courage from the Hungarian government.
When World War II ended, Ernest went to Israel, serving the newly founded State of Israel in its tenuous early years, as both a soldier and politician. After a time, Ernest journeyed to America and without a higher education or financial assets, became a successful entrepreneur and pioneer in global sourcing in South America. Most recently, after losing his beloved wife Sara, Ernest Paul, an Atlantic City resident, has undertaken the task of writing both Sara's and his own memoirs and lecturing on the lessons of the Holocaust. By his own example, Ernest Paul shows us that it is possible to triumph over life's daunting challenges. Ernest Paul's memoir of his richly rewarding life is aptly titled Ernest Triumphant!

2010. 406 pages.

The Forsaken Suitcase: The Holocaust Memories of Claire Fuchs Kosden Perskie and Family

Claire Fuchs Kosden Perskie  and Maryann McLoughlin

The Forsaken Suitcase: The Holocaust Memories of Claire Fuchs Kosden Perskie and Family

From the Golden City to Atlantic City: Claire's life story began with her parents' marriage in the "Golden City," Prague, in Czechoslovakia. Traveling from different countries with their own suitcases, her parents, Ester and Eugen, had met in Prague and fallen in love.

In July 1939, before the war began, at only five years old, Claire Perskie had to flee Prague. Her mother had secured fake passports that she, Claire, and her brother Harry used to join her father who had escaped earlier to England. While in London, Claire was fostered for a time by a wealthy English family. Her parents, although they had fled from tyranny and almost certain death, were viewed as aliens and were forced to register if they went more than five miles from their residence. Thus began Eugen's mission-to have his cousin Katie in Florida send him and his family U.S. visas. Many letters went back and forth across the Atlantic. Many were the heartbreaking delays in securing these visas during WWII, including when the family was trapped in London during the Battle of Britain. Eugen wrote to Katie of his fears for his mother and sister still in Prague where the Nazis were burning synagogues and transporting Jews to death camps; he felt helpless not being able to save them.

After the war, the family immigrated to the U.S., staying briefly with Katie, but mostly looking for work in various states, Florida, North Carolina, Maryland, and finally in Atlantic City where they settled, running bed-and-breakfast inns. As for most immigrants, life was not easy. But through hard work and perseverance the family prospered.

For many years Claire researched her family's history wanting to write a memoir. Then in 2009, an old leather suitcase was found curbside in Milton, Florida. Rescued by a preservationist, who found letters from England inside the suitcase, the letters were sent to Claire who then told the story in The Forsaken Suitcase. Claire's memoir is a tragic story of loss and desperation but also of hope and resilience. Readers will be inspired by the family's triumph over the many overwhelming obstacles to immigration that were faced in Czechoslovakia and England as well as in the U.S.

2015. 241 pages.

From Black Dust to Diamonds: Icek Randel's Memoir of the Holocaust

Izzy Randel  and Maryann McLoughlin

From Black Dust to Diamonds: Icek Randel's Memoir of the Holocaust

“The residents of Dabrowa Górnicza would say that there were no clear or blue skies. Everything was covered in soot, the walls, the houses, and the footpaths.”

 

Born in Dabrowa Górnicza during the interwar period, Icek (Izzy) Randel and his family lived a comfortable middle class life. Dabrowa Górnicza, an important coal mining region is close to Bedzin, where many of Izzy's relatives lived. The stability and security of family life was shattered when the Germans attacked and then annexed the area.

Vineland resident, Izzy Randel's memoir, From Black Dust to Diamonds, carries us through labor camps and displaced persons' camps to Germany where he meets Helen, the love of his life.

Izzy Randel's Holocaust story is a tragic one, yet he endured. His memoir is emotionally rewarding—romance and resilience—and an inspiration to all who have prevailed over great loss and obstacles.

2011. 83 pages.  ISBN 978-1-935232-4-14

Try to Survive and Tell the World

Rose Ickowicz Rechnic  Editor Maryann McLoughlin

Try to Survive and Tell the World

Rose Rechnic, born in Będzin, Poland, was the sole survivor of her family, all of whom were murdered in the Holocaust. Rose’s memoir fulfills her promise to her mother, whose final words before she went to the gas chambers were “Try to survive and tell the world.”

In a series of vignettes spanning more than sixty years, Rose Rechnic conveys the unspeakable, while engaging her readers with vivid images, both haunting and uplifting. She includes the story of her aunt, Regina Safirsztajn, who was one of the heroes of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Sonderkommandouprising.

This memoir continues in the tradition of Rose’s lifelong commitment to Holocaust education. It is her hope that the world will never forget the millions of Jews whose lives were sacrificed to antisemitism.

Try to Survive and Tell the World is a memoir that will inspire young and old.

2002. Revised Edition Forthcoming Fall 2017. 159 pages.  ISBN 0-615-12056-3

Cutting My Life in Two: A Holocaust Memoir

Joseph Rosenberg  and Maryann McLoughlin

Cutting My Life in Two: A Holocaust Memoir

Joseph Rosenberg, of Margate, grew up in Nyíregyháza, Hungary, a large city near Budapest. Joe had a comfortable childhood, loved and protected until April of 1944. By then the Nazis had forced the family to move into a ghetto and in May of 1945 deported them to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. From Auschwitz, Joe was sent first to Jaworzno slave labor camp and after a death march to a starvation camp, Gunskirchen. Liberated by the U.S. Army, Joe was barely alive. Joe, only seventeen, and his brother Beru were accepted on a special transport to the U.S.

After settling near an uncle and aunt's in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Joe served in the U.S. Army. In 1954, Joe met his future wife, Nita, whose large and loving family embraced Joe as a brother. Joe loves the U.S, its freedom and its opportunities. He calls it, “America, the Beautiful.” This is a memoir of theShoah but also a memoir about immigration and the long term effects of the Holocaust.

2011. 70 pages.  ISBN 978-1-935232-37-7

Girl in a Striped Dress: A Survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Geislingen, and Allach

Rosalie Lebovic Simon  with Maryann McLoughlin

Girl in a Striped Dress: A Survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Geislingen, and Allach

Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings,

Hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.

 

—Elie Wiesel

 

Rosalie Lebovic Simon, born in Czechoslovakia, the baby of the family, was only a child when World War II began. A gifted student she was expelled from school in 1943. By April of 1944 she and her whole family were deported first to a ghetto located in Mátészalka, Hungary, and then eight weeks later to Auschwitz Birkenau. There she and her four sisters were separated from her parents and her brother, William.

Rosalie's memoir tells of the number of escapes from death that she had. Twice selected for the gas chambers, she is saved by the kindness of others. Eventually she is transported with her sisters to labor camps where they work making munitions. Liberated in 1945 by the American army, Rosalie and her sisters, after finding their father, return to Teresva, their hometown, to a ghost town with the Jewish homes emptied and no children playing. Not yet fourteen years old Rosalie was faced with some bitter truths. Her life and the lives of her family had been torn to pieces as if by wolves. But, she writes, “at least we had our lives.”

When she was eighteen, Rosalie immigrated to the United States, living for a time in Baltimore, Maryland, where she met her husband, Sidney. The couple later moved to South Jersey and has prospered. Sidney and Rosalie have three children, seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren—these are not only her revenge on Hitler but also her hope for the future.

Rosalie ends her memoir with a prayer: “I pray that the world's children grow up where there is no more bloodshed and murder. I pray that no one is ever again forced to wear a striped dress, the uniform of a concentration camp prisoner.”

2014. 164 pages.

In the Birch Woods of Belarus: A Partisan's Revenge

Sidney Simon  and Maryann McLoughlin

In the Birch Woods of Belarus: A Partisan's Revenge

One of five children, Margate resident, Sidney Simon was born in Belitze, Poland, now Belarus. Sidney had a happy childhood, fishing and swimming in the River Neman. When the Nazis invaded Belitze, Poland, they terrorized the Jews and eventually put Sidney's family in a ghetto, from where they escaped to the forests.

Sidney Simon's memoir recounts his life as a partisan and his experiences in the Soviet army. After the war, Sidney and his family immigrated to the United States where Sidney met Rosalie, whom he married in 1952.

In the Birch Woods of Belarus: A Partisan's Revenge will give readers a new understanding of the partisans and their contributions. They will understand better that Jews did resist when they could. This memoir will captivate students and adults alike, showing the courage and love of a young man for his family and his religion. Sidney Simon is a role model not only for his bravery but also for his resilience, from despair comes hope—the blessings of love and family.

2010. 157 pages.  ISBN 978-1-935232-00-1

Beautiful Soul: Bella Kurant's Memoir of the Nazi Era

Bella Kurant Fox Slamovich  with Maryann McLoughlin and Barbara Roth

Beautiful Soul: Bella Kurant's Memoir of the Nazi Era

When Bella Kurant was fifteen, she lived through the German bombing of Warsaw, Poland, at the beginning of WWII. After witnessing those horrors, Bella returned home to her parents in Skrzynno, seeking shelter and safety. Bella found neither shelter nor safety for six long years. In October 1942, the SS and the Einsatzgruppen liquidated the Jews of Skrzynno. Escaping her hometown, Bella began her torturous journey to freedom. She was incarcerated in many ghettos and labor camps from 1942 until her liberation in 1945: the Radom Ghetto, Szydlowiec Ghetto, Wolanów Labor Camp, Blizin Labor Camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau for a short time, Hindenburg Labor Camp, Dora-Nordhausen Camp, and finally to the hellish Bergen-Belsen Camp with its mountains of dead bodies. In those labor camps, Bella sewed uniforms, painted signs, and welded for the Nazis. Along the way, she endured death journeys on foot and by train. Yet despite her own pain and guilt, Bella saved the lives of two especially fragile women.

When Bergen-Belsen was liberated on April 15, 1945, Bella remained there, waiting for news of surviving family members. Despite her depression, she assisted other survivors in locating their families. Best of all she fell in love at first sight with Paul Fox, a Holocaust survivor from Wloclawek, Poland. In 1946, the couple married and immigrated to the United States, where Bella finally found shelter and safety. Their child, Elan, was born in 1948. Although coping with many difficulties, the family eventually prospered in San Francisco, opening a kosher deli and a catering business.

After Paul's death, Bella married Henry Slamovich, a Schindler Jew. Bella and Henry live in San Francisco surrounded by their loving children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. The life story of this gitte neshuma, beautiful soul, will be an inspiration.

2015. 475 pages. ISBN 978-1-941501-16-0

Once the Acacias Bloomed: Memories of a Childhood Lost

Fred Spiegel  with Maryann McLoughlin

Once the Acacias Bloomed: Memories of a Childhood Lost

Fred Spiegel was born in a small German town in 1932. Like Anne Frank, Fred and his sister, Edith, relocated to Netherlands, and were subjected to persecution after the German army invaded and occupied the Netherlands in May 1940. The Spiegel children, separated from their mother, were sent to transit camp Westerbork in the Netherlands. Then they were transported east, ending up in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The two survived the war and reunited with their mother in England in the fall of 1945. Fred later lived in Israel and Chile before immigrating to the U.S. with his wife, Yael, an Israeli Sabra.

Fred's memoir, Once the Acacias Bloomed: Memories of a Childhood Lost, deepens our understanding of the world during the Shoah, as seen through the eyes of a child.

First Edition, 2003. Second Edition, 2011. 140 pages.  ISBN 0-9674074-6-X

Death, Hideous, Hovers Overhead: A Memoir of the Hungarian Labor Service

Joseph Steinberg  and Maryann McLoughlin

Death, Hideous, Hovers Overhead: A Memoir of the Hungarian Labor Service

Joseph Steinberg was born in Svalyava, Czechoslovakia, in 1922, a time of stability, tolerance, and democracy. Under the presidency of Tomáš Masaryk, the 1920 Czech constitution had granted minority rights to Jews. In Joseph's hometown Jews and non-Jews lived in harmony. But by 1938, Hitler' Germany and neighboring states such as Hungary were negotiating for parts of Czechoslovakia. Occupied by Hungary in 1938, the Jews of Svalyava were subjected to harsh antisemitic laws. By November 1942, forced labor became obligatory for all Jewish males between the ages of 21 and 48. These labor battalions, conscripted by the Hungarian regime, were stationed all over Hungary and beyond, including on the Eastern Front. Jews in these units were treated deplorably and subjected to atrocities, such as marching into mine fields to clear areas so that the regular troops could advance. Thousands died from abuse, cold, malnourishment, and disease. Some labor units were entirely wiped out during the fighting, especially at Stalingrad. Ironically, after Germany occupied Hungary in March 1944, the labor service offered the possibility for thousands of Jews who otherwise would have been deported to death camps.

In 1942, Joseph Steinberg was drafted into the labor force and eventually served at Komárom and Esztergom labor camps, working at various grueling jobs, which were acerbated by cruel battalion leaders. Joseph's brothers Mark and David were also drafted into labor battalions, serving on the Eastern Front. Joseph survived the siege of Budapest in December 1944, only to be sent on a forced march to Koszeg labor camp on the Austrian border.

After the war, Joseph immigrated to the United States where he met and married Marion Beleiff of Philadelphia. They owned beach stores in Ocean City, Maryland, and Stone Harbor, New Jersey, before retiring to Ventnor. They have three children and six grandchildren-a very close and loving family.

Joseph Steinberg's memoir is one of the few about a survivor of the Hungarian Labor Service. As his memoir's title, Death, Hideous, Hovers Overhead, attests, Joseph's life in the labor force was perilous. His courage and resiliency will inspire readers.

2014. 107 pages.

I Shall Lead You Through the Nights: The Holocaust Memoir of Eva Feldsztein Wasserman

Eva Feldsztein Wasserman  with Maryann McLoughlin and Stephen Felton

I Shall Lead You Through the Nights: The Holocaust Memoir of Eva Feldsztein Wasserman

"Carry the baby in your left arm. Your right arm must
be free to cross yourself when you pass a holy shrine."

One of the few survivors of the Warsaw ghetto, Eva Feldsztein escaped the ghetto with her baby, running from the Nazis for two long years.

Before WWII began, Eva Feldsztein nee Zuchawetzka studied nursing in Warsaw, graduating from the St. Sophie School of Nursing and Midwifery. Eva did private duty nursing until she met and married Victor Feldsztein. During the siege of Warsaw, Eva visited as many sick as she could, running through courtyards and climbing over roofs, often caught in the crossfire. Incarcerated in the Warsaw ghetto late in 1940, Eva witnessed terrible scenes of starving children and families. In the ghetto, in June 1942, Eva gave birth to Stephen, a premature baby weighing just one kilogram. Miraculously, the baby survived. Having avoided various Nazi Aktions, in March 1943, Eva and Baby Stephen escaped the ghetto. She assumed a new identity as a Polish Christian. Eva with Stephen moved around Poland, hiding in different locations. She had many close calls and was beaten and jailed; however, through her wisdom, courage, and luck, Eva escaped deportation. She was helped throughout the two years by the Matacz family members, who in fall 2012 were honored as Righteous Among the Nations. Eva and Stephen survived the war only to learn that Victor and Stasio, her stepson, had been murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

After the war, Eva met David Wasserman, also a survivor. They married and immigrated to the U.S.in 1947, settling in Brooklyn, New York. Eva and David had two more children, Mina and Allen, and the family built a good life in America—in a free society.

Eva died in 1992, shortly after finishing writing her memoir. Her manuscript has been published thanks to the love and care of her son, Stephen, and daughter, Mina. Readers will be inspired by the bravery and audacity of Eva who was determined that her “miracle” baby and she would survive and prosper.

2013. 187 pages.

This I Remember: A Polish Youth Survives the Shoah

Arnold Weitzenhof  and Maryann McLoughlin

This I Remember: A Polish Youth Survives the Shoah

Born in Gdov, Poland, former Galloway resident, Arnold Weitzenhof, remembers his family bakery and grocery store, especially the tin the tea came in—a tin box painted red with the picture of a Chinaman with braids on the front. He remembers that his parents wanted Arnold to be a dentist because he had beautiful, artist's hands. In 1939, Gdov was occupied by the Wehrmacht; however, in 1940 the SS and Gestapo made the town Judenfrei (free of Jews). Arnold, only twelve years old, and his brothers were taken to Stalowa Wola Concentration Camp, By the time the war was over, Arnold had survived four different camps—Stalowa Wola, Julag One, Plaszów, and Czestochowa.

The only survivor of his family, Arnold immigrated to the United States and retired from hairdressing to Galloway with his wife, Gloria, a retired accountant. This I Remember: A Polish Youth Survives the Shoah, a memoir of a boy will appeal to students—especially middle and high school students—but all of us can find much to admire in Arnold's story. Arnold Weitzenhof prevailed over tremendous hardships and sorrows to become a prosperous, gentle, and loving man.

2006. 74 pages.  ISBN13 978-0-9766889-8-3

On the Run Mother and Daughter, Holocaust Survivors, in the USSR

Ruth Budyshewitz Werner  and Maryann McLoughlin

On the Run Mother and Daughter, Holocaust Survivors, in the USSR

Born in Dlugosiodlo, Poland, 45 miles from Warsaw, Ruth Budyshewitz Werner seemed destined for adventure. Her father had already left Dlugosiodlo to seek his family's fortune first in Cuba, then in Columbia, South America, and finally in the U.S. That was the custom then when it was difficult to earn a living in small Polish towns. Ruth's mother, Anna, lived with her husband's family; his mother, aunts, uncles, and cousins helped Anna and watched over her. Anna cared for Ruth.

In September 1939, when Ruth was nine years old, the Germans occupied Dlugosiodlo. A month later they exiled the town's Jews. They were ordered to leave Dlugosiodlo, within the hour, abandoning their homes and taking as much as they could carry. They were told to go where the Soviet army was—“to your brothers the Russians.” Thus began Ruth and her mother's exile in the U.S.S.R. For years on the run, they stayed one step ahead of the Wehrmacht (German army) from Belarus all the way to Tatarstan, the Ural Mountains, and finally to Ukraine, enduring along the way famine as well as hard work on Soviet collective farms. In 1946, mother and daughter were repatriated to Poland, but antisemitism there propelled them to seek safety in displaced persons (DP) camps in Germany.

Receiving U.S. visas from Ruth's father, they emigrated from Europe in January 1948. In New York City, Ruth earned her accounting degree and met Irving Zimmerman Werner whom she married. In 1949, the couple settled in Vineland, seeking to make a living, first on a chicken farm and then in retail. Despite various setbacks, Ruth and Irv prospered in the U.S., having three children, Barbara, Judy, and Kenny. No longer “on the run,” Ruth is happy to have settled in the U.S., appreciating the freedom and opportunity here. A coming of age as well as a Holocaust memoir, Ruth's life story will inspire children and adults alike.

2014. 110 pages.

Teaching the Unspeakable: The New Jersey Story of Holocaust and Genocide Education

Dr. Paul Winkler  with Maryann McLoughlin

Teaching the Unspeakable: The New Jersey Story of Holocaust and Genocide Education

This book presents the 30-year history of the State of New Jersey's involvement in Holocaust and Genocide education with the establishment of a Council/Commission by Governor Tom Kean and the passage of the legislative “Mandate” in 1994 that students in all grades must learn about the Holocaust and genocide.

The book highlights many of the programs and curriculum developments over the years and the importance of the network of Holocaust/Genocide centers throughout the State. The book concludes with activities and concerns for the future to ensure that Holocaust and Genocide activities become an integral part of the education of our students.

Second Edition, 2013. 122 pages. ISBN 978-1-935232-74-2

One Voice, Two Lives: From Auschwitz Slave to 101st Airborne Trooper

David Wisnia  Robin Black, and Doug Cervi. Edited by Maryann McLoughlin

One Voice, Two Lives: From Auschwitz Slave to 101st Airborne Trooper

This powerful memoir takes the reader from a peaceful home in Sochaczew to terror in Auschwitz-Birkenau and lastly to the safety of the Screaming Eagles. David Wisnia, a child singing star, was the middle child in a family of five. His father was a prosperous furniture manufacturer; his mother a contented housewife. After the family moved to Warsaw, David's family happily celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. He remembers the marmalade, a rare delicacy, served on this special day. Six months later Europe was at war, Warsaw was occupied, and tragedy struck his family. David became a fugitive on the run from the Nazis.

Eventually rounded up by the SS, David was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. There, because he can sing, he was assigned a "good" job disinfecting clothing in the Sauna, a relatively warm and comfortable place. Despite this he lived through three years of fear, knowing each day could be his last. David survived Auschwitz as well as a death march with the help of fellow inmates. His encounter with the 101st Airborne after escaping from the SS was the stuff of fairy tales. "Little Davey," as he was called, at eighteen years, ended up being "adopted" by the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division who assisted him in immigrating to the U.S.

David's story is unique: he is a Holocaust survivor and also one of a band of liberators. One Voice, Two Lives adds a new dimension to Holocaust narratives.

2015. 186 pages. ISBN 978-1-941501-20-7

The Wheel of Life: A Memoir

Shelley M. Zeiger  and Maryann McLoughlin

The Wheel of Life: A Memoir

An inspiring memoir about an exceptional person—Holocaust survivor, immigrant, husband, father, grandfather, entrepreneur, rescuer, and developer of joint ventures and cultural exchanges with the U.S.S.R. These words describe the main spokes on Shelley M. Zeiger's wheel of life.

Born in 1935 in eastern Poland, Mr. Zeiger was a child when his hometown Zboròw was occupied first by the Soviet Union in 1939, and then in1941 by the Germans. For over a year the Zeiger family of four and two orphan girls were hidden in cramped conditions under a root cellar by Anton Sukhinski, the "town's fool." Although harassed and threatened with arrest, Anton continued to supply them with food and water. Liberated by the Red Army in July of 1944, the family eventually fled Zboròw for the West, immigrating to the United States in late 1949. Despite language and cultural differences, Zeiger completed high school and later enlisted in the U.S. Army, becoming a citizen.

The years following were devoted to marriage and establishing a family and business. Invited to the U.S.S.R. as part of a détente delegation, Zeiger began importing Russian products and creating a network of business and government associates. This resulted in the first joint venture between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R in 1988. Because of Shelley's efforts to foster international development with the U.S.S.R, he was dubbed "The Unofficial Ambassador to The Soviet Union." Since 1989, Shelley, also known as "Mr. Trenton," for his efforts to revitalize the capital, has brought the Bolshoi and Kirov Ballet to Trenton and a number of art exhibits, among them Unseen Treasures: Imperial Russia and the New World.

In 1988, Shelley was reunited with Anton Sukhinski. Anton was honored by New Jersey governor Thomas Kane and by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, as Righteous among the Nations.

Zeiger's philosophy was, "Do good, and good will come back to you." Shelley did "good" in Trentonand the world. Shelley M. Zeiger died on November 10, 2013. May his memory be a blessing. This memoir is his legacy to his family and readers of all ages.

First Edition, 2012. Second Edition, 2016. 248 pages. ISBN 978-1-941501-30-6

From the Carpathian Mountains to the New Jersey Seashore

Rose Pinkasovic Zelkovitz  and Maryann McLoughlin

From the Carpathian Mountains to the New Jersey Seashore

Rose Pinkasovic Zelkovitz wrote her memoir, From the Carpathian Mountains to the New Jersey Seashore, especially for her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. However, Rose also wanted to share her story of surviving the Holocaust with school children of all ages.

Rose was born in Czechoslovakia in the Carpathian Mountains, one of eight children. In the 1940s, Rose and her family were driven from their village and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Rose eventually was imprisoned in three concentration camps—Auschwitz-Birkenau, Stutthof, and Brumberg—and forced on a death march.

Along with two sisters and two brothers, Rose survived the Holocaust. After liberation in 1945, Rose met and married her husband, Mayer, the only survivor of a family of ten. Rose and Mayer with their two-year old son, Herman, immigrated to the United State in August of 1950. They lived and worked in Baltimore, Maryland, until retiring, when they moved to Atlantic City to be closer to their son and his family.

Rose's memoir is a story of survival and resilience—of a courageous, hard-working, and loving woman.

First Edition, 2004. Second Edition, 2013. 122 pages.

Escaping the Nazis: 1650 Miles with Seven Children

Ida Belchatowski  and Maryann McLoughlin

Escaping the Nazis: 1650 Miles with Seven Children

An incredible journey! Ida Brandspiegel, age five, her parents, and six other children, ranging in age from fifteen years to two weeks old, were expelled by the Nazis from their hometown, Pułrusk, Poland, in late September of 1939. They walked or took trains on their journey to the U.S.S.R. Along the way the family slept in barns with the horses, cows, and chickens and staying temporarily—only steps ahead of the Nazis—in Bialystok, Poland, and Orša, White Russia. Eventually, in October of 1941, aided by the Soviets, they reach Magnitogorsk, an industrial city in Siberia—the end of a two year journey. The family had journeyed over 1650 miles to reach safety.

Escaping the Nazis: 1650 Miles with Seven Children tells the story of this journey, their five years in the U.S.S.R., and another journey, one from Siberia to the U.S. Settling in Philadelphia, despite coping with language, job, and school ordeals, ever resilient, the family prospers.

Ida Belchatowski’s memoir—part comedy, part tragedy—will be appreciated by readers of all ages.

 2017. 116 pages. ISBN 978-1-935232-99-5

A Hard Life Leavened with Love: A Memoir 

Anna Rosenberg  Edited by Michael Hayse and Maryann McLoughlin

A Hard Life Leavened with Love: A Memoir 

Anna Rosenberg recounts in her memoir the truly difficult circumstances in which she grew up. She was born in Germany at the close of World War II. Her pregnant mother had trekked from the Soviet Union. Soon after her birth, her mother and aunt were arrested by the Red Army in Germany and sent to labor camps in the Soviet Union. Anna was raised by her grandmother in communist East Germany, and later by an aunt in a small village in West Germany. After escaping an abusive family situation, the rest of her life was intertwined with the Rosenberg family, Jews from Warsaw who had survived World War II. In this memoir, she recounts not only her own life, but also the experiences of the Rosenbergs of Warsaw. The Rosenbergs survived the Warsaw Ghetto, service in the Red Army, and Soviet labor camps. She married Abraham (“Bolek”) Rosenberg, who helped her in a time of great need, and together they raiseda son, David, in the Jewish tradition, while Anna herself converted — a rare phenomenon in postwar Germany. After Bolek’s death, Anna found true love with his brother, Chaim, known to everyone as Hymie, in Atlantic City. Their lives, which began in the tragedy and pain of war and genocide, thus took a happy turn late in their lives.

2017. 127 pages.

In the Lion’s Mouth: The Holocaust Memories of Adele Grynholc Jochelson, Survivor of the Kovno Ghetto and Klooga Camp 

Adele Jochelson with Jennifer Dwork and Maryann McLoughlin

In the Lion’s Mouth: The Holocaust Memories of Adele Grynholc Jochelson, Survivor of the Kovno Ghetto and Klooga Camp 

 

We could say that Adele and her sister went out of the lion’s den into the lion’s mouth.

Adele née Grynholc and her sister, Tola, lost their parents to illness just before the Germans occupied Vilna, Lithuania, in June 1941. Only teenagers, the sisters were invited by an uncle to come to the Kovno Ghetto where he would look after them. After various mishaps on their way to Kovno—for one, all their possessions were stolen—they arrived at the Kovno Ghetto. There for twelve hours a day, Adele was forced to labor for the SS, unloading bricks and heavy cement bags from freight trains and working for the Luftwaffe repairing and expanding the military airfield.

During the fall of 1943, Adele and Tola were deported from the ghetto via cattle cars to Klooga Labor Camp in Estonia where the conditions were brutal. Food was scarce and even water was rationed. Adele worked at various jobs in Klooga; the worst was in a factory making cement blocks that were needed as fortifications. No easy work!

Adele Jochelson’s memoir, In the Lion’s Mouth, describes the liquidation of the camp and how she and Tola survived—two of only eighty survivors. The sisters survived because of Adele’s courage and wisdom, qualities manifest even at her young age of nineteen. Readers will be inspired by her memoir, a testimony to resilience and grace.

 2017. ISBN 978-1-935232-98-8

Transformations: The Memoir of Rella Ehrlich Roth, A Holocaust Survivor 

Renée Carfagno  Edited by Michael Hayse and Maryann McLoughlin

Transformations: The Memoir of Rella Ehrlich Roth, A Holocaust Survivor 

Renée Carfagno earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from St. Thomas University and her Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies (MAHG) with a Genocide Prevention Certificate from Stockton University.  Renée wrote and illustrated this children’s book as a fulfillment of the MAHG’s capstone requirement. On a number of occasions, she interviewed Rella Roth, a local Holocaust survivor and an acquaintance of Renée’s and her husband, about her experiences during the Holocaust.

Rella Ehrlich, along with her sister, Elizabeth, and cousin Rose, was deported from Munkács to Auschwitz-Birkenau and then to Stutthof and Bromberg-Ost. At Bromberg Concentration Camp, Rella worked in an underground munitions factory, carrying heavy rolls of munitions to trains. After liberation, she returned to Munkács where she met her husband, Joseph Roth. The two married and eventually immigrated to the U.S.

Rella’s story is delicately told and the lovely pastel illustrations work well with Rella’s narrative; thus, the memoir is appropriate for children in grades 5 and above. Adult readers too will appreciate the memoir and will be inspired by Rella’s determination to survive while retaining her  humanity despite the Nazis’ efforts to turn her into an animal.

2017. 41 pages. ISBN 978-1-941501-27-6 

It Was Fate—A War, A Massacre, A Romance: The World War II Memoirs of Nick Venturella

Gina Venturella  Maguire  with Maryann McLoughlin

It Was Fate—A War, A Massacre, A Romance: The World War II Memoirs of Nick Venturella

"Long lives yield many treasures: pictures, keepsakes, property, or savings,  . . . passed from generation to generation. But there is another precious legacy, one that is often lost: memories, the closely held images of people, places, and things that are the blueprint of life."  —Greene & Fulford

Nick Venturella ensured that his memories of people and places were not lost. He entrusted a narrative of his life along with letters, photographs, documents, and newspaper articles to his granddaughter Gina, who, like a memorial candle, through his memoir, lights the way for future generations. Because of Gina’s work, Nick’s memoir will be a “precious legacy” not only for his descendants but also for the general reader.

Nick Ventrella’s memoir of WWII provides readers with a window into war, from both a personal and historical perspective. Readers will applaud the service and sacrifices of these soldiers and recoil at the atrocities they encountered during their slog through Germany. These atrocities are memorialized by Nick’s unit, the 102nd Ozark Infantry Division.

Nick’s memoir, It Was Fate—A War, A Massacre, A Romance, is more than war and massacres. Readers will witness the blossoming of love between “enemies,” between a German Fräulein and an American soldier, and will follow the two along the rocky road to the U.S. Army’s marriage permission. Along this road too readers will learn about the war from a German perspective, for example, an anti-Nazi’s treatment by the Third Reich.

Most of all, readers will be inspired by Nick Venturella. Nick is a thoughtful and caring man, compassionate and kind. He certainly belongs among “the greatest generation”!

2017. 172 pages. ISBN 978-1-935232-47-6

Farewell the Chestnut Trees, Blossoming Pink and Whote: The Memoirs of Latvian Holocaust Survivors Eva and Rudy Gutman

Eva Gutman and Maryann McLoughlin

Farewell the Chestnut Trees, Blossoming Pink and Whote: The Memoirs of Latvian Holocaust Survivors Eva and Rudy Gutman

Eva Gutman was only sixteen years old when WWII began in 1939. Born in Latvia, one of the Baltic States, Eva grew up in a beautiful city, Liepāja, an ice-free port, a health resort, a source for amber. Eva especially remembers the chestnut trees, many of them over seventy-five feet tall. When she was a child, Eva would sit under these trees during a rainstorm and not feel one drop of rain. She recalls that it was especially heavenly to sit there when they blossomed. She would look through the pink and white blooms to the blue sky. Their lovely fragrance surrounded her. By 1939, Eva had met the love of her life, Rueben (Rudy) Gutman. She used to watch him in synagogue when he sang in the choir. A watchmaker like his father, Rudy was engaged to Eva.

All this loveliness was destroyed when first the Soviets and then the Germans occupied Liepāja. The Soviets sent Latvians to the Gulag; the Nazis sent them to the dunes north of Liepāja where they were murdered. Eva and her mother were moved to smaller and smaller homes and forced to work for the Nazis—sometimes cleaning toilets at a military base. In 1943, the Liepāja Ghetto was liquidated and Eva, her mother, and Rudy were transported to labor camps. These labor camps were illheated; hair would freeze to the ground where they slept. Sanitary conditions were atrocious; the stench, suffocating. The work, back-breaking. The family survived the labor camps. They even survived Bergen-Belsen where Eva witnessed cannibalism before it was liberated by the British in March 1945.

Eva’s and Rudy’s experiences during the Holocaust are important to be told.

Comparatively few Latvian Jews survived. The USHMM states that “the horrendous losses sustained during the Nazi Holocaust utterly devastated Latvian Jewry.” Their memoirs should be read.

2015. 98 pages.

From a Wine Barrel and Chicken Coops to Silicon on Sapphire: Memories of Woodbine Holocaust Survivor

G. Eugene  Gottlieb  with Maryann McLoughlin

From a Wine Barrel and Chicken Coops to Silicon on Sapphire: Memories of Woodbine Holocaust Survivor

 

Child Holocaust survivor, immigrant, farm boy, St. Louis Cardinals fan, Ph.D., scientist, international consultant—G. Eugene Gottlieb was only five years old when he witnessed the horrors of Kristallnacht in a small German town, Venningen. He saw his father arrested and experienced the family’s exile from their home where his ancestors had lived for generations, since the 1700s. He and his parents were then forced to leave Germany, immigrating to the U.S. in February 1939, and eventually settling in Woodbine, New Jersey, a community that had welcomed immigrants since the late 1800s. After WWII the Gottliebs had to cope with revelations about the loss of their many family members in death camps.

Despite the trauma he and his family had endured in Germany and after, they lived in the present, putting their past behind them and prospering in their new homeland. Readers will not only enjoy Dr. Gottlieb’s memoir, especially his boyhood adventures on the chicken farms, but will be inspired by his journey from Germany to Woodbine and to Princeton.

 2017. 310 pages. ISBN 978-1-935232-50-6

Once We Had A Country: Memoir of a German Holocaust Survivor

Ruth Heilbronn  Gottlieb   and Maryann McLoughlin

Once We Had A Country: Memoir of a German Holocaust Survivor

 

Ruth Heilbronn was born in Lahnstein, a town on the Rhine River. Her father, Hugo, a cattle dealer, lost his license because of Germany’s antisemitic laws. Realizing that he could not support his family, Hugo immigrated to the U.S. in October 1938, just weeks before the November 9-10 Pogrom of 1938, or Kristallnacht. During the first night of Kristallnacht, the Nazis broke into Ruth’s home terrorizing her and her mother, Else. The storm troopers, who wanted to arrest Hugo, ransacked and searched their apartment thinking that Hugo was hiding.  His crime—he was a Jew.  Fortunately, Hugo had already arrived safely in America.  From America, Hugo sent visas for Ruth and Else who arrived in New York Harbor on April 5, 1939, one day before Ruth’s fourth birthday.

“The little refugee girl,” a good, albeit talkative, student, completed her education, graduating from Olney High School and Temple University in Philadelphia. Ruth, who had always loved children, became an elementary school teacher in Central Jersey and even in retirement is involved in an intergenerational sociology class.

Ruth’s story of coming to the U.S.—not knowing the language, living in a foster home for a time, realizing that her relatives had been murdered in the Holocaust and yet coping and ultimately thriving—is motivational for readers of all ages but especially for children displaced by catastrophe and adjusting to new lives in the U.S., for them a foreign country.

 

2017. 176 pages. ISBN 978-1-935232-49-40