My Mother's Eyes: Holocaust Memories of a Young Girl [Hardcover]

Anna Ornstein (Author), Stewart Goldman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2004

Anna Ornstein is a Holocaust survivor. After emigrating to the U.S., she seldom spoke of the experiences she suffered while a young girl. Twenty-five years ago, at the family Seder gathering, her family asked for a story from her past. In an evocative, understated passage, she shared a bit of the tragedy she saw through the eyes of a child. Every year she has added to this tradition by sharing another chapter of the tragedies she witnessed and the small moments of grace in her survival. Through her family's support, Orenstein gained enough strength to share her experiences in My Mother's Eyes, in hopes of keeping the nightmare from ever happening again.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...beautifully designed, delicately illustrated, impressionistic narration, which conveys a child's acceptance if not comprehension of everything that is transpiring." -- Jewish Book World, Fall 2004

Some books that might be read in a single sitting should not be: My Mother's Eyes is one of those. -- Cincinnati CityBeat

About the Author

Dr. Anna Ornstein is an Auschwitz survivor, professor of child psychiatry at Harvard University, and professor emeritus of child psychology at the University of Cincinnati. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Stewart Goldman is an award-winning artist and teacher of international renown. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States, the Ukraine and Germany for over four decades. He retired from the Art Academy of Cincinnati in 2001, where he was a professor of painting. Born and educated in Philadelphia, Stewart has lived in Cincinnati since 1968.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Clerisy Press, Emmis Books; First Edition edition (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578601452
• ISBN-13: 978-1578601455
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #664,898 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anna Ornstein's Eyes, October 24, 2004

By 

Samuel L. Kent (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: My Mother's Eyes: Holocaust Memories of a Young Girl (Hardcover)

Anna Ornstein was my first psychiatry teacher in medical school, so that is my bias. When this short, powerful, articulate woman entered a lecture hall full of hypercritical American medical students like myself, what impressed me most was her courage. We were a tough audience of concrete-minded scientific reductionists, and she came with her heavily accented English and provoked us to think about feelings and the meaning of mind and emotions when we, lost and overwhelmed in a world of memorizing anatomical structures, metabolic pathways, and Nernst equations, were least ready for it.

As I learned more about the work of Prof. Ornstein and her equally impressive husband, I came to understand why she wasn't the least bit intimidated by our sophomoric arrogance (we were often merciless to lecturers).

The kindness and attentiveness of this short giant of a teacher, therapist, and theoretician, was equally as present, and most visually reflected in her strikingly bright, beautiful eyes that look like they miss nothing. (Yes, you detect the student's crush here.) What she and her husband have taught this poor student, as well as many good ones during their estimable careers, is the complexity and healing power of empathy. To have survived the holocaust and devoted a career to the study and teaching of empathy! Can there be a more powerful triumph?! Yet here is another; this wonderful little book.

This book is a gift of deeply personal remembrances. They are at the same time universal in their emotional power, because of Dr. Ornstein's ability to use words to bring her experience very near to the reader. She integrates in simple, eloquent prose the texture and emotions of the experiences. The imagery is as powerful as film, no, more so.

I cried my way through many of these memories. Though they were not my own, they were brought so close by Prof. Ornstein's words it felt as though they were. The tragedy that befell the Ornstein's and so many others, lost and surviving, uplifts and enriches as much is it hurts and warns. She has achieved her goal; those lost will not be totally lost because she has helped us to remember.

The illustrations are works of art, beautiful, powerful as well, and are a complement to the word pictures which nonetheless stand on there own.

Readers of this beautiful book will not forget these painful and beautiful pictures, seen through Anna Ornstein's eyes.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, April 27, 2009

By 

Cesar Soutullo Esperon (Pamplona, Spain) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: My Mother's Eyes: Holocaust Memories of a Young Girl (Hardcover)

I read this book a few years ago, and I still read chapters every now and then. I recommend it to my residents and people interested in child development. It is an excellent recall on resiliance, and how Dr. Ornstein survived, and what helped her. The chapter on the backpack is one of the best I've ever read. How to make a backpack when you don't know where you go, how long are you going to stay, and if it's going to be cold or hot?. Amazing work of art, because she describes it form the young girl's point of view!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From a Psychotherapist., May 17, 2007

By 

Elaine Cooper - See all my reviews
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This review is from: My Mother's Eyes: Holocaust Memories of a Young Girl (Hardcover)

This is a beautiful book where holocaust experiences are written in a simple and profound manner. It is not morbid. It is a very human story.