Journey to Vaja: Reconstructing the World of a Hungarian-Jewish Family (McGill-Queen's Studies in Ethnic History) [Paperback]

Elaine Kalman Naves (Author)

Book Description

Series: McGill-Queen's Studies in Ethnic History | Publication Date: October 1996

Part autobiography, part family chronicle and part family saga, this work tells the story of the Weinbergers over the course of two centuries. From settlement in a Hungarian village in the late 18th century to the German occupation of Hungary in the spring of 1944, the author places her family's triumphs and tribulations against the backdrop of Hungarian history. The author's quest for her past began with her father, one of the few members of a vast extended family to survive the Nazi death camps. This work is her attempt to record the lives of these ancestors and reclaim their lives as part of her and her children's birthright. It incorporates myths and stories with family letters and detailed archival research to provide a look at the landscape of memory and a testament to the redemptive power of love and family.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A family history that is meticulously researched, rich in personal detail and an unusual resource for those seeking to build a bridge over the Holocaust between the world of pre-war European Jewry and contemporary Jewish life." Helen Epstein, author of Children of the Holocaust "Occupying a unique place between autobiography and fiction, Journey to Vaja is a haunting evocation of a world of the past and its presence in the present. It transcends time and place, moves back through centuries, and even transcends its own particular family to talk about the trials and pains of families, of people, of generations. It is a book about a daughter's love of her father and family and her ability to explore the past in order to understand the present." David Staines, Department of English, University of Ottawa. "Nowhere is the moral and political potential of the memoir form so well realized as in Elaine Kalman Naves's Journey to Vaja, in which she combines her personal memories of growing up the daughter of a holocaust survivor with the actual letters of her 'shadow family,' all of whom died in the wake of the last evil effort of the Nazi regime to destroy as many Jewish families as it could in the course of its own death throes. Naves's journey through her family's letters, more than any of the many fictionalized accounts I have seen or read of the holocaust, brought home to me the terrible individual suffering, compounded over millions of lives in a host of families, that has occurred in our times." Helen M. Buss, Prairie Fire. "A touching story of Naves's family history from the 1780s to our times. She travels through the emotional, historical-geographical terrain of two centuries, meticulously recording events and introducing family members, acquaintances, and the milieu of Hungary's historical times." George Gabori, author of When Evils Were Most Free. "A personal account of a kind that one encounters but rarely, this evocative story is told in remarkable detail and with empathy combined with a reassuring degree of objectivity. It complements usefully and poignantly the still-growing scholarly literature on the history of Jews in Hungary." Istvan Anhalt, Emeritus Professor, Music Department, Queen's University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Mcgill Queens Univ Pr; First Trade edition (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0773515348
• ISBN-13: 978-0773515345
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,793,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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