The Girl in the Red Coat: A Memoir [Hardcover]

Roma Ligocka (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 18, 2002

When she first saw Schindler's List--to whose premiere in Germany she was invited--Roma Ligocka suddenly realized she was witnessing a part of her own life. She felt instinctively that the little girl in the red coat--the only spot of color in the film--was her. When she had lived in the Krakow ghetto during the Second World War she had worn a strawberry-red coat given to her by her grandmother. Unlike the girl in Spielbeg's film, however, Roma survived the war. Startled by this eerie conjunction of art and reality, Ligocka determind to write the story of her own life, to find out what had become of the little girl, and to measure who she now was.
From a harrowing childhood under the Nazis, described with a simplicity and innocence that lends it even greater power, through the trials of living in Communist Poland, to a career in the theater and film (an artistic struggle paralleling that of her cousin, Roman Polanski), Ligocka traces her struggle for self-defiition and happiness. The Girl in the Red Coat is a courageous and moving story of survival and triumph.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As a young child, in the Krakow ghetto, Ligocka was known to everyone by the strawberry-red coat she always wore-an image that Steven Spielberg would use in Schindler's List, without knowing anything about Ligocka herself. Determined to tell her own story, Ligocka gives a harrowing, impressionistic account of her early memories of the ghetto: the men in shiny black boots with snarling dogs, the endless waiting in lines, people shot indiscriminately and her grandmother's seizure by SS officers while Ligocka hides under a table. Ligocka and her mother sneak out of the ghetto and are taken in by a Polish family; her father, taken to Auschwitz, escapes several years later. In a poignant episode, the little girl doesn't recognize this haggard specter who wants to embrace her. The memoir also describes Ligocka's youth in Communist Krakow: her career as an actress in theater and films, her struggle as an adult to confront her frightful memories and the weathering of new crises, from the passing of her parents to political turmoil in Poland. Though Ligocka's rendering of her early childhood voice isn't quite seamless (it sometimes sounds forced and too knowing), this doesn't take away from the power of her narrative, and readers may be particularly interested in her experiences as one of a tiny handful of Jewish survivors in Communist Poland. 30 b&w photos.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Seeing herself as the "girl in the red coat" in the film Schindler's List inspired the author to undertake this painful journey into her past. In a fascinating work that reads like a novel, Ligocka, an acclaimed artist, set and costume designer, and cousin of Roman Polanski, confronts her memories as a young Polish Jew during World War II. Although Ligocka only spends about one-third of the book on her traumatic experiences "hiding in the open" between the ages of three and seven, her experiences obviously affected her entire life, leading to depression, addiction, and an existence of constant fear. As in Julia Collins's memoir, My Father's War, Ligocka's work is a testament to both the frailty and the strength of very young children who have experienced trauma. The remaining two-thirds of this work chronicle Ligocka's life as a career woman, wife, and mother and her struggle to come to terms with her past in the artistic culture of postwar Europe. This work, already a best seller abroad, should be purchased for both public and academic libraries. Maria C. Bagshaw, Lake Erie Coll., Painesville, OH
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (September 18, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312287941
• ISBN-13: 978-0312287948
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,253,678 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars She provides testimony, March 16, 2003

By 

Rebekah Sue Harris (West Haven, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Girl in the Red Coat: A Memoir (Hardcover)

While I still don't know why some people survived the Holocaust and others didn't, I do know why Roma Ligocka survived: she provides testimony.

Her story begins as a toddler tells her tale of fear in the Krakow Ghetto. Scarcely more than an infant when the Jews were forced to wear Jewish stars on their clothing, she absolutely knew no other way of life. When an aunt said that she'd have men at her feet because of her beauty, she wondered if they'd be dead; that's what she knew.

She watched the snatching of her grandmother before her very eyes, as she hid under a table. Her father was forced to go to Auschwitz. Her mother begged for places for them to stay throughout the war.

The first half of the book deals with Roma's life before the end of the war. The second half deals with her life after the war: how events, seemingly minor, during the war, left permanent scars in her mind.

While this memoir deals with topics such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, failed marriages, show business, prejudice, and addiction, this is not a book ABOUT those topics. This is a book about a woman who saw "Schindler's List" and recognized herself and her family as subjects, and who had the courage to reflect, document, and move on. This is a story of survival.

(purchased via my amazon.com wishlist)

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I read it all in one sitting, December 25, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Girl in the Red Coat: A Memoir (Hardcover)

A very moving book. I've read many books about the Holocaust. However, I don't think I previously read one that was written by someone who was so young during the war and that focused so much on the author's adult life. Even though intellectually one knows that war scars a soul forever, living the aftereffects through a single individual's perspective is emotionally stunning. Highly recommended.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not just another Holocaust book, October 24, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Girl in the Red Coat: A Memoir (Hardcover)

Because I read The Girl in the Red Coat in German, I cannot speak for the translation, although knowing the care with which it was prepared, I'm sure that it is a good one. Not having read any German in a couple of decades, I was apprehensive at taking on the work. But I could not put the book down. Roma Ligocka's story is so compelling, in part because it is told from the view point of herself as a young child, in part because of the amazing work the author has done in working through her trauma. Not just another book about the Holocaust, this is an example of the healing power of art and of literature.