Amanda, Elizabeth, And Victoria
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After much contemplation, we have all (Amanda, Victoria, and Elizabeth) come to the realization that our connections to this memoir are exactly the same, in every way and in almost all details. Thus, for this particular response, we thought it would be best to collaborate on one response, rather than to echo one another with the same information.
Eisenstein’s memoir I was a child of Holocaust survivors (2006) does connect to all of us in many ways. to begin, we found connected with the people in her memoir, as though they were members of our own family. Eisenstein’s memoir made us want to know if others had felt more inclined, like we did, to look more into their own families and family histories. Her memoir made us particularly interested in our own grandfather: who he was when we knew him, who he was before we knew him, and who he is now (to all of us, especially 5 years after his passing).
Eisenstein's memoir made us feel as if the people in it were like our family, like my grandfather. We can not possibly be the only ones who has felt this after reading her memoir. For example: Naves (A daughter tries to understand, A review of the book I was a child of Holocaust survivors) states that " I found myself pursuing the drawings of these emblematically Jewish faces with wistful affection, as if they were people I knew" (2006). Another author, Tousignant (Review of I was a child of Holocaust survivors), also states: "The answer Bernice Eisenstein offers... is to build, nurture, observe and revisit relationships with one loved one at a time. Whether they are a child of the Holocaust or not" (2006). In response we did look into who our grandfather really was (which was done through a great deal of information from our mother and the very little records that actually exist. Finding information on him is very hard, as he changed his last name after he was released from force labour.)
We knew our grandfather (Frank) for about 15 years (give or take a few). My grandfather would always stay with us when he visited for Christmas, and his cigarette smoke would follow close behind. As odd as it sounds, every time we smell cigarette smoke, its hard not to think "Christmas". He would sit at the dining room table from the moment he woke up and until he went to bed. He would smoke the entire time. My grandfather wasn’t a big TV watcher. He would sit a stare off or stare right at you for the longest amounts of time. Often when he stared at you, the moment you got up from your seat he would call you over to come and talk to him. He talked to anyone who would listen (and you had to listen because his accent was really, really, really, heavy). We often overheard my grandfather talking about some of his experiences and of the sights (one in particular) he saw during WWII to my parents, but we never truly understood them in context. He did talk to each of us directly, once about his experiences (though he usually kept more gruesome details to a minimum. Not to our parents, but at least to us) and what he told me still really disturbs all of us to this day. It was only recently when we asked our mother about him that we actually learned some background information on him, and were able to put his story into perspective.
Before reading Eisenstein’s memoir, we had never really asked who my grandfather was before we knew him as "Grandpa", but now we have a better understanding. My grandfather (on my mother’s side) was captured and taken prisoner by the Germans during WWII. He was Russian, but lied and said he was Polish to the Germans in hopes that he could somehow avoid death. He was put in a forced labour camp and saw many horrible sights. The story he would always tell was about how he had to bury bodies in mass graves. Later on he was used as slave labour on a farm. He suffered quite considerably during this time (barely any food, sickness, etc). However he managed survived these hardships. He had a Jewish friend and they made an agreement: The Jewish friend (we don’t know his name, nor does my mom) promised my grandfather that he would work in Canada and send money back to him so he could come to Canada. That is how my grandfather eventually arrived in Canada.
We all often use to think that our grandfather was a person who was more than willing to talk about his experience, but we realize now that is not totally true. The only part of his story my grandfather would repeat (about burying the bodies) was the one that disturbed him the most . It difficult to imagine what it must have been like to have those images in your head, and to relive these experience for the rest of your life, over and over again. There are so many questions we wish we could have ask my grandfather. Unfortunately, my grandfather is has passed, so we'll never know the answers to these questions. In many ways we feel we now know who he was a person, and how he suffered. Through it all, he found the strength to keep going, and all that we wish now is that we could have understood him more. Eisenstein's memoir inspired us to find out more about my grandfather as a person. I think it can connect to anyone in that way, just as Tousignant suggests (2006), no matter who you are.
Naves, K.N. (2006, May 6). A daughter tries to understand [Review of the book I was a child of Holocaust survivors].The Gazette . Retrieved from http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/filesNews/a445ead5577b83.pdf
Tousignant, I. (2006). I was a child of Holocaust survivors: wondering Jew. Retrieved from http://hour.ca/2006/06/15/wondering-jew/
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