Remember Who You Are: Stories about Being Jewish [Paperback]

Esther Hautzig (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2000

This is a collection of 20 haunting true stories, each revealing the struggle for Jewish identity and the solace gained through faith. As a child, Esther Hautzig and her family were exiled to Siberia for being capitalists, thus inadvertently escaping the Nazis. After World War II, Hautzig began collecting the true stories of those who lived and died during the horror of the Holocaust: of Jews in Vilna, in the United States, and in Israel.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Born in the ancient, peaceful town of Vilna, then part of Poland, in 1930, Hautzig was deported to Siberia with her immediate family by Russian communists shortly before the outbreak of WW II, an experience she recorded in The Endless Steppe. This poignant sequel consists of 20 stories about survivors and victims of the Nazi Holocaust and Siberian imprisonment. There are moments of intense drama, as when Hautzig's 90-year-old grandmother deliberately willed herself to die in her sleep rather than being herded away by the Nazis, or when her governess miraculously rejoined her in Siberia in the mid-1940s. The story of a cynical friend, now living in Jerusalem, who was saved by a Nazi soldier during a death-march in the final days of the war underscores the terrible ironies of survival. These deceptively casual, gracefully written sketches reverberate with heartbreak and courage.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

YA-- As many people read these stories, the inevitable thought will arise: "there but for the grace of God . . . " For these are stories of Jews whose lives were fatefully altered because of where they happened to be in Europe during the 1930s. Readers of The Endless Steppe (Crowell, 1968) will remember that young Hautzig and her family were banished from their home in Poland and sent to Siberia for being "capitalists--enemies of the people." After the war, Hautzig became a collector of oral tales, true stories of the experiences of others who lived and died during the horror of the Holocaust. She records these stories faithfully, simply, with no attempt to idealize, judge, or moralize. The selections speak for themselves: young Mussik, Esther's childhood companion who was left to roam the streets of Vilna when his parents were killed; loyal and loving Margola, who sacrificed her own life so that her mother would not die alone--these and more are told with simple eloquence. --Jacqueline Gropman, Richard Byrd Library, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: The Jewish Publication Society; 1 edition (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082760694X
• ISBN-13: 978-0827606944
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,136,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #100 in Books > History > Europe > Lithuania

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, welcome contribution to Judaic studies., July 5, 2000

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Remember Who You Are: Stories about Being Jewish (Paperback)

As a young child, Esther Hautzig and her family were forced into Siberian exile by the Communists for being capitalists (and thereby inadvertently escaping the Nazi holocaust in Europe), which enables her to bring a personal passion to Remember Who You Are: Stories About Being Jewish. In this anthology of true stories of men and women who lived and died during the Holocaust, the reader is treated to a candid, informative, and occasionally inspiring exploration of the challenge and solace of the Judaic faith on the part of Jews living in Vilna, America, and Israel. There is Esther's vibrant young aunt who sacrificed her life so that her own mother would not die alone in the Shoah; the story of 6,000 Jews rescued in 1940 through visas given by Chiune Sugihara, a remarkable Japanese consul in Lithuania, the story of Barry, a drug-addicted musician who was transformed by Orthodox Jews, as well as Ada and Eddy, whose lives were saved by righteous Christians during the years of the Holocaust. Very highly recommended reading for students of Judaic studies and Jewish life, Remember Who You Are offers true life examples of finding life through faith, sacrifice, redemption, achievement, and community.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Rewarding Trip Down Memory Lane, May 23, 2011

By 

Arthur B. Shostak "Sociologist, Futurist" (Narberth, PA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Remember Who You Are (Hardcover)

If you are seeking a reader-friendly, engaging, informative, and often quite moving account of Jewish life in Europe during the Holocaust, along with related after-matters in Israel and the USA, this collection of 20 true stories is the book worth your attention. Offered in an intimate conversational style, the memoir introduces characters that only a now lost-forever culture could have hosted, even as it also illuminates life-guiding "lessons" we can take from their travails. Lives marked by harm, and yet also by honor; by loss, and yet also by integrity, the men and women you meet are well worth meeting - and the writer is a gifted teller of their story - and thereby of hers as well. Unique among the 120 or so Holocaust memoirs (direct or indirect) I have read as I finish writing an overdue account of the many ways Shoah Jews helped Jews in extremis, this is the book you want to give as a gift - to many - in their best interest.