Love In A World Of Sorrow: A Teenage Girl's Holocaust Memoirs [Paperback]

Fanya Gottesfeld Heller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 2005

Important as both a family history and more broadly, as a contribution to the Holocaust record, this memoir, unflinchingly told more that four decades after it occurred, details what can happen in the most extreme and dire of human circumstances. "The unrelenting fear of death and gnawing pain of hunger led to acts of desperation among many who survived; some stole, others lied and schemed. Still others took comfort in intimate relationships that might be considered illicit or misguided in ordinary times. It was not all pure and righteous, but it happened."

Also a story of interfaith compassion, the author and her family were hidden by the efforts of a non-Jewish couple and a sympathetic Ukrainian militiaman at the risk of their own lives. Their developing relationship and the harrowing events that followed lend the book an immediacy and jolt so many years later. Fanya Heller's subtle depiction of her parent's knowledge that it was a non-Jew's love for their daughter that had moved him to hide them; their embarrassment and ultimate acceptance of the situation, leads us to wonder how we would have acted under the same circumstances – as father, mother, or daughter.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...exceptional eye for detail... giving an intimate sense of the day-to-day lives of her family under siege. -- Jewish Book News

...had to be written and it has to be read. Every library should have...it alongside Anne Frank's Diary. -- Dimensions--A Journal of Holocaust Studies --Reviewed by Abraham Foxman, National Director, Anti-Defamation League

About the Author

Fanya Gottesfeld Heller came to the United States after the Holocaust. She obtained a B.A. and an M.A. in psychology from the New School for Social Research and honorary degrees from Yeshiva University and Bar-Ilan University. She has also studied art history at Columbia University, philosophy and literature at the New School, and family therapy at the Ackerman Institute. In 1998 she established The Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Center for the Study of Women in Judaism at Bar-Ilan University. In that same year, New York State Board of Regents awarded Mrs. Heller the Louis E. Yavner Citizen Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to teaching about the Holocaust and other assaults on humanity. Mrs. Heller’s writings have also appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and Jewish newspapers nationwide.

To give other educators the tools to effectively teach the lessons of the Holocaust, Mrs. Heller commissions an annual conference on Holocaust education at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. She also lectures at universities and conferences to promote further awareness of the Holocaust.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Devora Publishing (February 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932687173
• ISBN-13: 978-1932687170
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #472,301 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #61 in Books > History > Europe > Ukraine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Survivors War for Love and Life, April 5, 2005

By 

Dr. Sondra Melzer (Stamford, Ct.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love In A World Of Sorrow: A Teenage Girl's Holocaust Memoirs (Hardcover)

"Love in a World of Sorrow" is Fanya Heller's true story of pain, suffering, death and love set during the hellish days of the Holocaust as her family struggled to survive against Nazi and Ukranian oppression.

The opening line, "They're coming!" like a death sentence announces the onslaught of the Gestapo and Ukranian militia in l942 as they move to stalk, persecute and ultimately annihilate an already desperate and starving family. And so begins Ms. Heller's narrative of the deepening descent into darkness and horror that had already begun. But an unexpected saviour appears to keep the family from certain death. "Be nice to Jan," her father says, "Be nice to him," never imagining the outcome. The forbidden affair between Jan, a member of the Ukranian militia and Fanya a beautiful Jewish seventeen year old girl proves to be the instrument of their survival as the persecutor and the persecuted are drawn inextricably to eachother and to the constant efforts to save her family.

The graphic images of torture, betrayal, rape, inhumanity and suffering are heart wrenching as the family seeks to survive in lice filled hovels and hidings. With the help of Jan and a good man existing in the midst of evil, Fanya struggles to stay alive with unwavering spirit to "live" regardless of the price.

The book is a unique contribution to Holocaust literature.
It is a compellling rendering of the crushing effect of Nazi infamy, of painful choices, of unending sorrow, but it is also a strangely uplifting story of the power of the triumphant spirit during a time when a piece of the world had gone mad.

Every year my college students choose this book as their favorite piece of work and Ms. Heller's annual visits to my class as the "most memorable experience" of their academic life.
Everything about this book marks it as a stunning choice for academic or personal readings. Ms. Heller has written an inspiring and illuminating account about a time and place in history that cannot be forgotten.
-Dr. Sondra Melzer, Professor, Sacred Heart University,
Adjunct Professor, University of Connecticut Stamford

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful gift to readers, July 11, 2006

By 

Jeffrey A. Burt (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love In A World Of Sorrow: A Teenage Girl's Holocaust Memoirs (Paperback)

"Love in a World of Sorrow" is the best account of the Holocaust I have ever read and, I am sure, will ever read. Its real distinctiveness is the candor, the honesty, the openness, and the reaching out to the reader in sharing thoughts and feelings that are rarely (never?) shared. I felt that I lived a little of the experience with Fanya, albeit in the security of my living room. Her many months behind the chicken coop, her lying down on the pine needles in the forest during the mass killings, and her many intimate conversations with her parents and her rescuers brought a textual reality that is part of the fabric of my own memory forever.

Indeed, I had trouble sleeping last night as I relived Fanya Heller's words. Her memory of those horrific times - which is now a part of me as well - will always be unsettling. "Love in a World of Sorrow" is a rare volume, a story of the day-to-day emotions and feelings of survival, and a gift from an exceptionally talented, loving, and beautiful woman.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a very moving, compelling book, December 24, 2007

By 

Susan L. Kuwitzky (Scottsdale, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love In A World Of Sorrow: A Teenage Girl's Holocaust Memoirs (Paperback)

I have read many memoirs on the holocaust and this is one of the best I have read. It is well written and very moving in it's telling. It portrays the emotions and agonies that this young girl went through in the years of trying to survive the holocaust and the war years. It is a story of the triumph of the human will to survive and to move forward with her life. I don't think I will forget it for a long time, if ever. I highly recommend it.