Memory Is Our Home - Loss and Remembering: Three Generations in Poland and Russia, 1917-1960s

Memory is Our Home is based on Roma s Talasiewicz-Eibuszyc diary, her writings about Warsaw Poland during the years following the First World War and the six long years of World War WII, and how she and refuges like her were able to survive throughout the vast territories of Soviet Russia and Uzbekistan. Interwoven with her journals are stories she told to me throughout my life, as well as my own recollections as my family made a new life in the shadows of the Holocaust in Communist Poland after the war and into the late 1960s.§The book is a rich, living document, a riveting account of a vibrant young woman`s courage and endurance. A forty-year recollection, of love and loss, of hopes and dreams for a better world, narrated in a compelling, unique voice, through two generations, that conveys the historical background and a personal story in an accessible format for modern readers. Roma`s richly-textured descriptions of the physical and emotional lives of Jews in Warsaw after the First War and candor about surviving World War II throughout Russia, and her daughter`s own story about a childhood after the war in Communist Poland in the shadows of the Holocaust aftermath make this book a deeply moving and a universal story.§With this book the author pays tribute to the chapter in history that is now almost forgotten. This very personal story is told on the background of twentieth-century European history so that this book can be used as an educational tool, especially at the high school level. Leading scholars in US, Europe and Israel, have responded with praise, noting its historical value, its ability to inspire and teach readers young and old, and the important contribution it will make to current and future generations.§The book encourages people to learn about their ancestors` history and traumas. Science as well as experience shows us again and again that we carry in our genes not only our parents` blue eyes or the color of skin, but their memories as well. Trauma affects the nervous system of the mother, and this change is passed down to the next generation. Memoir like this tells the story of so many people so that reading it can help heal the generations who carry this unbelievable tragedy in their lives.§It is said that in every survivor`s family, one child is unconsciously chosen to be a memorial candle, to carry on the mourning and to dedicate his or her life to the memory of the Shoah. That child takes part in the parents` emotional world, assumes the burden, and becomes the link between past and future. Transmitting the memory of the vibrant culture before the Holocaust is just as important just as the memory of the Holocaust, to combat ignorance and prejudice and sharing of cultures and knowledge of history. Memory is Our Home; the story of the vibrant Jewish culture that flourished in Poland, the account of its demise, connecting it to the present, makes the book the memorial candle.