I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors

by Bernice Eisenstein

Book Overview

In this innovative memoir, Bernice Eisenstein combines her skills as a writer and illustrator to distill her memories of growing up in the 1950s in the shadow of the Holocaust. Drawing on the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594489181
• ISBN13: 9781594489181
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Riverhead Books
• Length: 187 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.7" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Just beginning and already enjoying the rollercoaster

I read the one star review saying that the author only sought to know what happened to her parents, not getting to know them personally. I would hate to presume to know what that persons experiences were, but as the child/grandchild of victim/survivors.... everyone is dead, my father made it impossible for me to get to know the "real" him because his desperate need prevented him from being a parent to me, his needs so desperate that manipulation was his means. I will never know these people because alive, they were cold and distant. She nails my feelings on the head, the desperate need to find the story, so I can remember what they needed to forget. So I can understand that the things I hated about them, it wasn't really them. It was what was created for them.

Great Service

I received my order in a few days and it was in perfect condition. Very reliable seller.

Illuminating and moving book

this book is both illuminating and moving, I have already lent my copy to two other people. An important new voice on the Holocaust and it's survivors and descendants.

In one reading -- an Amazing Book -- Mazel Tov

I too am a child of Holocaust survivors. I read this book (picked up by surprise in a bookstore) in one several hour reading. It is touching, moving, eloquent, great art, and deeply personal. Life and death, of all sorts. Happiness and sadness, of all sorts. I'm deeply appreciative for the author's letting the world in on her (my) life. David

Insightful yet tragic... the Holocaust continues to shape people

The Holocaust occurred over six decades ago, and the survivors of this episode are aging and dying. In fact, calling the Holocaust an "episode" seems to be trivializing one of the darkest periods in human history. I apologize for any such characterization. The Holocaust was a monstrosity, an aberration, a blot on the record of humanity. Millions died. Yet some lived. And these survivors had a life, children, a home. This book, I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors, is author Bernice Eisenstein's recollections of growing up in a family that had both mother and father with tattooed arms. Even as a youngster, Eisenstein grappled with the knowledge of her parent's past, the stigma of being defined by this past, and the responsibility of maintaining memories without adding more pain to the world. I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors is not a first person account of experiences during WWII as you can read in Night, by Elie Wiesel, although some of her parent's stories are recounted. However, Eisenstein's experiences and memories are also real. She hungered to understand what her parents experienced. She cried harder than her parents when she watched films about the Holocaust. The Holocaust has shaped members of a succeeding generation. She exists because of the Holocaust, with her parents finding each other at liberation, and shaping her through their language, actions, and social life. The book has illustrations throughout... haunting depictions not of life in concentration camps, but how a child (and later a young woman) came to view her heritage. We all come from some place. Eisenstein comes from a place darker than we should ever have to see. I hope this book is picked as one to discuss in high schools and colleges. Never forget.