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Fragments of Memory: From Kolin to Jerusalem (English Edition)

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Sometimes in life, people are placed in circumstances and situations that should never happen to anyone. Hana Greenfield lived through such tragic events during World War II. With great courage and faith, she survived forced imprisonment at Terezin, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. This book contains true stories of her life during these very difficult and trying times. Most importantly, the author sheds light on how difficult it is for a survivor to live with these memories. In 1946, after making her way to England to live with an uncle, she was told to try to forget it, to not talk about it, to put it behind her. The author formulated plans to leave Europe and eventually settled in Israel. World War II had robbed her of her parents and their love, it destroyed her family and the only home she ever knew. Her new goal was to move to Israel and start a new life. Fortunately, the author succeeded in achieving her goal ... As a caveat, the book is very sad in many ways and it is not suitable reading for those who can not deal with the subject of murder and the evil actions perpetrated on innocent people by the Nazis.

Overtime, rather than forget, the author's memories surfaced. She wrote down the incidents and experiences, initially as short stories then later they were expanded to become this book. They are true survival stories in every sense of the word. While the book is a mere 167 pages - the contents and information contained within it are huge and leave the reader stunned, almost in disbelief. One of the most unthinkable atrocities ever perpetrated on children occurred in Oct. 1943 on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Initially, in August 1943, hundreds of children ages 4 - 12 were brought to the Terezin concentration camp. They were deloused and asked to shower which they refused, when they evidently smelled gas. They refused to be washed or exchange their wet ragged clothes for dry ones. The children spoke only Polish and Yiddish and were from the Bialystok Ghetto. The author's mother was part of an assigned group who helped care for the children. At some point, the author managed to exchange a few words with her mother during this ordeal. Only much later did Hana Greenfield learn the horrible truth of what happened to these children and that her mother, too, suffered the same fate as the children. The inmates of the camp did not know the purpose of the new buildings at the time. The truth came out: a deal had been struck between Adolf Eichmann and the Mufti of Jerusalem, who had convinced Eichmann the children must not live because they would become adults who would likely move to Palestine and increase the Jewish population.

The true events described in this book are told as "fragments of memory" by the author and the stories flow one chapter after the other. At times it is difficult reading because of the subject matter. The author begins telling her story as new laws were being enforced around 1942 which limited the freedom of Jewish people. She was a normal teenager with high hopes and aspirations which were cut short and changed forever. The time she spent at Auschwitz is described with intimate details that brings tears to this reader's eyes. There are actual photographs of people, some of whom did not survive, which gives more depth and breadth to the true stories. There are many superbly done drawings by artists, most of whom were themselves prisoners in one of the camps mentioned in the book. As time progressed, the author assimilated the harsh treatment and suffering she experienced while a prisoner and was able to create something good from it. She is a member of the board of the Terezin Ghetto Museum and teaches Czech children about tolerance. She educates them about the events of the Holocaust. Hana Greenfield was the first to research what happened to the children of Bialystok ... and to discover the truth. She presented her findings in 1988 at a conference at Oxford University. This book is highly recommended for those who desire to read a courageous survival story. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]

This is a powerful testimonial by a teenage girl who survived Terezin, Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. Her eyewitness account of the fate of the Bialystock children is particularly sad.

This book, which can be devoured in a day, is a rarity among Holocaust stories. These short stories are all tied together in a beautiful, almost unspoken manner. If you have never cried reading a book, you may cry here. If you have never felt touched by a Holocaust story, you may feel touched here.

After reading this book, I was fortunate to travel to Kolin last year, and visit the temple where Ms. Greenfield grew up. I, along with 10 teenagers from the temple youth group of which I am the advisor, helped to clean the Jewish cemetary in Kolin. I also had an opportunity to meet Ms. Greenfields' sister while I was there.

Having read the book, and then traveling to the Czech Republic to see these awful and beautiful sites, really just drove the book home for me that much more.

While this in no way should be the only Holocaust book you read, it should be a part of your library.

This collection of stories written by Greenfield over a period of years, and collected from various publications, is divided into three sections: "A World Disintegrates," "Pieces of the Shattered Puzzle," and "The Need To Remember." Greenfield, who lives in Israel, was born in Kolin, Czechoslovkia, from where she was deported first to Terezin, then to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, and finally to a slave labor camp in Germany from which she was liberated. As memories struck her over the years, she wrote about them. The brief vignettes that precede the Bialystock episode are so poignant--the parting from friends: "Alice," a friend known only because their normal world had fallen apart, and Vera in "Saying Goodbye" whose letter reflects her intuition that they will never meet again; and "Pen Pals," when Michael, a first love whose arrival in Terezin she waits for anxiously, only to find soon after his family arrives, he will die from a burst appendix; and her friend, the fragile Esti, for whom she finds extra food in Terezin, but who dies in Auschwitz. Greenfield's description of Auschwitz as "The Gate to Hell" in unforgettable as is her story of her last day in Bergen-Belsen when, on the day her group is destined for the gas, she wants to be loved before saying goodbye and climbs up to a top shelf where five men are sleeping and makes love with the young doctor who was kind to her when she first arrived. The most heartbreaking is the story of the 1,196 children from the Bialystock ghetto who were being nursed back to health and nourished in the Terezin ghetto, since they were going to be sent to Palestine in trade for German prisoners. They are accompanied by the camp's doctors and nurses, including the author's own mother, for the trip--except that the mufti of Jerusalem told Hitler he didn't want them growing up to populate Palestine, and Himmler had them all gassed. Greenfeld has the talent to catch the affecting, telling and heart-breaking moments in each of her true stories. This previously published but now revised, slender paperback (most stories are only 2 1/2 pages) is one of the most significant books on the Holocaust I have read. Illustrated with drawings from Terezin and photographs.

"Fragments of Memory" was a surprising used bookstore find. An avid reader of Holocaust accounts and literature, I had never heard of Hanah Greenfeld's book. It is a short account of her time during the Holocaust, when she survived the concentration camp and daily saw the true atrocities that human beings are capable of.

This book is aptly named. It is a short collection of recollections that fluctuate in time and place as Greenfeld recalls what she experienced and witnessed. Her stories are poignant with emotion, pain and sympathy. I've used this as a supplement to teach my students about the Holocaust.

Hana Greenfeld's stories will stay with you long after you have finished. Her recollections are evidence to the role memory plays in all of our lives...lest we forget.

Ms.Greenfield bravely recalls a time of horror. How shocking that human nature includes the potential for such mass sadism. Ms.Greenfield's book serves as a reminder that we must be vigilant to prevent such perversion of power even on the smallest scale. This book should be required reading!

A great short book describing a survivors life through numerous concentration camps. It gives the reader a good feel of coming from a life such as any readers to the hell she was forced to endure. A great engrossing quick read!