MY MOTHER'S WAR

A memoir examines the trials and triumphs of a family of Holocaust survivors.

Born in Poland in 1936, Fryd was the only child of Jewish parents who ran a sporting goods, bicycle, and radio shop before war came and the family had to move to the Wolomin ghetto in 1939. The author explores the time the family suffered in the ghetto and the ensuing years spent in hiding in the root cellar on the Pashnick family’s farm. But the bulk of his memoir follows the Fryd family’s experiences after World War II. Rather than a story about the Holocaust, it is a survivors’ account. The author explains that he decided to celebrate survival “because each Jew who survived the Holocaust represented a victory over the Haman of our generation.” The postwar parts of the book are the most substantial, tracking the family’s activities in Poland, Paris, and eventually the United States. But the hero of the story is Fryd’s remarkable mother. For all her faults, she was the consummate survivor: the one who outsmarted the Nazis to smuggle items into the ghetto as well as a businesswoman who ran a handbag factory out of a Paris apartment. The author’s frank memoir is a testament to his mother’s bravery, presenting a complex account that takes the family right up to 1961, after the Fryds settled in America and embraced new lives. Though sometimes the methods employed by the author’s mother were questionable—for instance, she and her husband were once arrested for their involvement in the black market—readers will find this an engrossing and immersive family story with rich historical details. The book raises important questions about the lengths people will go to—not only to survive, but also to thrive in the face of horrific adversities.

A candid and compelling multigenerational account that honors Holocaust survivors.