The First and Final Nightmare of Sonia Reich: A Son's Memoir

by Howard Reich

Book Overview

Until February 15, 2001, Howard Reich's mother, Sonia, had managed to keep almost everything about her experience of the Holocaust from her son. That night, she packed some clothes and fled her house... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1586483625
• ISBN13: 9781586483623
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.4" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 14 to 18 years
• Grade Range: Grade 9 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

The Lady who survived

This book was very well written and I was enlightened from the author's perspective. I am a granddaughter of a survivor, and can appreciate reading what I have only imagined all these years. My family didn't speak of what any family member went through in Nazi Germany. My mother came over in 1937 with her mother. As I grew up, little information came out in the family, and I was still not well informed unless I read from someone else's memoirs.

The lingering psychic impact of the Holocaust

A touching memoir from the son of two Holocaust survivors, this book describes the author's childhood, setting the stage for his mother's eventual deterioration into severe PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) following the death of the author's father. Hoping to understand his mother's delusions, the author sets out to research the past that his parents only mentioned briefly on rare occasions. His search takes him to Eastern Europe and the scenes of a number of the Nazi atrocities during WWII, and leads him to a deeper appreciation for his heritage, the magnitude of the suffering in the Holocaust, and an richer appreciation for his parents' accomplishments. Unlike most books about the Holocaust, this one doesn't focus so much on the events during the Second World War themselves, but instead is more focused on the impact these events had on those who managed to survive the terrible suffering of the period. The psychic wounds suffered by the survivors would stretch throughout their lives, often crippling them decades later, and even crossing the generational lines to impact the lives of their children born after the war. Definitely an important book for anyone interested in the long-term impact of the Holocaust on those who actually survived it.

A Powerful Memoir

"The First and Final Nightmare of Sonia Reich" by Howard Reich is a very powerful memoir. Author Howard Reich writes about his mother Sonia Reich suffering from late-onset Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. As gripping as the first part of this book is, (which talks about his background and the PTSD) I was shocked and upset when reading the second part, when Howard Reich goes to Dubno to find out what happened to his mother as a little girl growing up in the Holocaust. As a reader on books of the Holocaust, his description of the dead bodies and mass graves in Dubno was very upsetting. When he writes about Dubno, I felt as if almost I was there with him. This was one of the best memoirs I have read in a long time, and I encourage readers of Judaica, history, etc., to go out and get a copy of this book. Put it on your reading list.