My Bridges of Hope : Searching for Life and Love After Auschwitz [Hardcover]

Livia Bitton-Jackson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1999

Elli Friedmann was fourteen years old in April 1945 when American soldiers liberated her from her Nazi captors and the harrowing year she spent at Auschwitz and other concentration camps where Jews were mass murdered.

At the opening of this book, Elli, her mother, and brother, recently reunited, return to their home in Czechoslovakia, expecting to pick up the lives they left behind. Instead, they confront the harsh realities of a house stripped bare, a town occupied by strangers, and the news that Daddy will never return. The anti-Semitism that still remains makes life there so oppressive that Elli and her family decide to immigrate to America -- a journey that will take six harrowing years of waiting in one temporary shelter after another.

Along the way Elli builds bridges of hope for other Holocaust survivors. She rescues Jewish orphans from rioting Slovak partisans, smuggles Jewish refugees to Palestine, and becomes a headmaster of a Jewish school, all the while struggling with her nightmarish past and questions about her future. Her teenage years, which culminate in a daring escape from behind the Iron Curtain, are a dizzying merry-go-round of danger, excitement, and love.

Thrilling, touching, and thought-provoking, this sequel to "I Have Lived a Thousand Years" offers a firsthand glimpse into post-war Europe. Elli's indomitable spirit shines through every page, making this an inspiring memoir.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bitton-Jackson continues the memoir begun so searchingly in I Have Lived a Thousand Years. Now 14 and a survivor of Auschwitz, she returns with her mother and older brother to their once-Hungarian town in what has become Czechoslovakia. There they learn of her father's death; they find their house plundered, friendly-seeming neighbors reluctant to return their possessions and the local school, once a haven to Elli (as she is called here) completely re-staffed by the Communists. Readers will be awed at the bewildering maze of decisions facing Elli and her family. Should she apply for a visa to the U.S. or travel illegally to Palestine, as she, a member of an underground organization, is helping other Jews to do? When Elli and her brother get American visas, the family decides that her brother will go alone and try to expedite a visa for their mother. But years pass before they are reunited, and as the Americans close their embassy in Czechoslovakia, Elli dreams up and executes a breathtakingly daring escape for herself and her mother. It seems never to have occurred to Elli not to be brave; only once or twice does she express her agony at what she has witnessed in Auschwitz, and she resolutely works to make life better for those around her as well as her family. Bitton-Jackson's prose is not as fresh as in her previous book, and in some ways she is less personal, observing more and revealing herself less directly. But her story is utterly involving, and adds an important chapter to the ongoing attempt to understand the Holocaust and its consequences. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up-This touching memoir, the sequel to I Have Lived a Thousand Years (S & S, 1997), covers the years between the end of the war in 1945 through the author's emigration from Europe to the United States in 1951. These years were filled with many things for Elli, as she was then known. Chief among them was her desire to learn as much as she could about her Jewish heritage and her commitment to it. Part of this dedication was the work she did for the Briha, an organization that helped transport refugees to Israel. She also became a teacher and found a new identity as a learned young woman. Elli felt very strongly about joining the pioneers in Israel but her mother was not up to the physical challenge of moving to the developing nation. Instead, they escaped from Czechoslovakia into Austria and eventually Germany to await departure to join Elli's brother in America. The young woman's story recounts a time in her life that was filled with both anxiety and hope, tears and joy. More than the simple account of a Holocaust survivor and the often terrible postwar years in Europe, this book is also the tale of a young woman discovering who she is and how she wants to spend the remainder of her life-something to which every young adult can relate. A fine conclusion to Bitton-Jackson's autobiography of her youth.
Carol Fazioli, The Brearley School, New York City, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing; 1St Edition edition (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689820267
• ISBN-13: 978-0689820267
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,962,510 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Livia Bitton-Jackson, born Elli L. Friedmann in Czechoslovakia, was thirteen when she, her mother, and her brother were taken to Auschwitz. They were liberated in 1945 and came to the United States on a refugee boat in 1951. She received a PhD in Hebrew culture and Jewish history from New York University. Dr. Bitton-Jackson has been a professor of history at City University of New York for thirty-seven years. Her previous books include Elli: Coming of Age in the Holocaust, which received the Christopher Award, the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award, and the Jewish Heritage Award. Dr. Bitton-Jackson lives in Israel with her husband, children, and grandchildren.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great sequel, January 5, 2005

By 

Anyechka (Rensselaer, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Bridges of Hope (Mass Market Paperback)

This is one of the best sequels to a Shoah memoir I've read yet. Too many such sequels fall into the trap of simply recounting what happened next and aren't as compelling as the first book because there's no constant suspense and wondering what's going to happen next, which of these people being spoken about survived and who perished. In this sequel, though, there are a lot of interesting details about what happened next, such as Elli's involvement in the Bricha, the refugee house she liked to visit and hang out at, her work at a childrens' summer camp in the mountains, her training to become a teacher, and the long hard road she and her mother went through on their way from escaping from their home town to America before it was too late and the Iron Curtain closed permanently. It was also nice that each chapter was prefaced with the date or dates during which it transpired, so you had a real timeframe of things. The only minor complaint I have is about the languages used; in this book, the Friedmanns' town has returned to Czechoslovakian control and is in what is now the free nation of Slovakia, so they speak Slovakian, though in the first book, when they were in Hungarian hands, they seemed to be native speakers of Hungarian, and in the section of this book where Elli and her mother are being cross-examined when they're sneaking over the border with a transport of real Hungarians, Elli says they can make it, since they speak Hungarian as well as natives. I can't find any mention in the first book about the Friedmanns being Slovakians or speaking that language like their native tongue, but overall, apart from that minor unexplained detail, it's a really good sequel.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Review, January 27, 2002

By 

Dana (Lexington, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Bridges of Hope (Paperback)

This book is an amazing book, about a girl and her family that struggles after the Holocaust. I suggest you read I have Lived a Thousand Years, before you read this book. In the book, I Have Lived a Thousand Years it introduces you to the characters and tells about their life before and during the holocaust. This book, My Bridges of Hope: Searching for Life and Love After Auschwitz, is amazing book that tells the story of Elli Friedmann's life after the holocaust has took place, and the many adventures along the way. I suggest that you read this book, after you have read the first one.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Perfect Addition To Your Holocaust Collection, January 12, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: My Bridges of Hope (Mass Market Paperback)

My Bridges of Hope is a fascinating and well-written book that keeps you hooked from the first word to that last. Livia Bitton-Jackson gives you insight into what happened to those who were among the few to survive the Holocaust. The girl in the story is actually a younger Bitton-Jackson when she was growing up. This autobiography is more like a story than a recollection of one's past. The book is set in Czechoslovakia where before the war, Elli (Bitton-Jackson), her brother Bubi, and their parents lived. After the war, their beloved home feels abandoned and changed. Other settings of the book include Elli's apartment and various temporary homes that they live in on their way to finding hope in America.
They have survived the horrid concentration camps but return to find that their father and aunt both perished in the war. The book describes events that happened through June of 1945 to March 30 of 1951 to a young Jewish woman. Elli is 14 when the book starts out. While fighting her past, she helps out in a camp for orphans, helps refuges escape to Palestine, and continues her education. After her schooling, Elli becomes a teacher. Elli is strong-willed, confused, and hopefully. She is loving and smart. Elli's mother is a seamstress and wants to go to America because they can't stay in their homeland any longer. Her mother loves her children very much and is unfamiliar with the "newer" age. Bubi is Elli's older brother. He is a warm, caring, and affectionate. Elli looks up to him and often finds herself needing his comfort.
Although both her mother and brother want to go to America, Elli wants to join her friends in going to their "homeland" The dialog in the book was appropriate because she was the character. The words were probably even words she used herself. She keeps you interested because she adds in different languages and so it matches the period. Her style is wonderful and it flows and blends perfectly. She always made it so you understood what was happening. I think this book was written so she could move on and maybe start healing. I think she also wanted others to know what the Jews went through.
I think this is a wonderful book for young adults. It shows how a young girl changes into a confident woman while she is fighting her past and trying to live her future. It is a great book to add to anyone's Holocaust collection.