Introduction

This is the story of my mother's life, woven from fragments of her memories as she told them to me over the years. Hers was a life caught in the turbulent currents of the twentieth century in which Communism, Zionism, Fascism and anti-Semitism all played their part. It was a life scarred deeply by the Second World War.

This book stems from a desire to reassure her that her experiences as a young Jewish mother fighting to save the life of her new-born infant (myself) in Nazi-occupied Poland will not be forgotten.

Mothers story, told and filtered through her daughter's eyes, inevitably becomes the daughter's story as well, particularly in the final, post-war section of the book when the daughter is no longer just a listener but a participant in the events described here.

For her, the writing of this book opened a way to explore the complex legacy of the second generation, of being born to parents who were Holocaust survivors.