Losing the Dead

by Lisa Appignanesi (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1999

  $3.28

  Lisa Appignanesi was born Elsbieta Borenztejn in Poland. Unlike other holocaust survival memoirs, hers is the story of how the nucleus of a family survived outside the camps, beyond the ghetto and eventually made it to the new world, where Lisa's mother found that her years of masquerading as an Aryan stood her in good stead in anti-semitic post-war Catholic Quebec. As her mother's memory fails, Lisa finds herself trying to unravel the truth about family myths and memories, searching not only for signs of her mother's lost brother - a Jewish Schindler character, making money and saving Jews in Warsaw - but also for the truth about how her parents managed to survive, and for her own birth certificate. It's above all the compelling story of one woman's determination not to go under - a pretty, blonde Polish Jew with nerves of steel who spent so many years flirting with unreality that it was hard for her daughter to uncover the reality; and the story of a man, her father, who learned to make himself invisible and hide behind silent rage. What she unearths is a remarkable tale of terror, courage, deprivation, persecution, survival, and Jewish family life.

• Used

  Paperback
  2000

  $3.28

  Lisa Appignanesi was born Elsbieta Borenztejn in Poland. Unlike other holocaust memoirs, hers is the story of how the nucleus of a family survived outside the camps, beyond the ghetto and eventually made it to the new world, where Lisa's mother found that her years of masquerading as an Aryan stood her in great stead in anti-semitic post-war Catholic Quebec. As her mother's memory fails, Lisa finds her self trying to unravel the truth about her family, searching not only for signs of her mother's lost brother - a Jewish Schindler character, making money and saving Jews in Warsaw - but also for the truth about how her parents managed to survive, and for her own birth certificate. It's above all the compelling story of one woman's determination not to go under, and the story of her father, who learned to make himself invisible and hide behind silent rage. This is a remarkable tale of terror, courage, deprivation, persecution, survival, and Jewish family life.