To Tell at Last: Survival Under False Identity, 1941-45 [Paperback]

Blanca Rosenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1995

Blanca Rosenberg was a young wife and mother who escaped the brutality of the ghetto in Kolomyja, Poland, after her entire immediate family was killed. Though equipped with Aryan false-identity papers, she found life marked by daily threats and the danger of discovery - by the Gestapo, Polish police, extortionists, collaborators, hoodlums, and even former colleagues and acquaintances. Rosenberg's wartime trek took her to Polish cities, German military hospitals, and finally to Heidelberg, Germany, where she worked as a maid in a Nazi household from 1944 until her liberation by American forces. Her story is also a testimony to the power of friendship. Brought together in the ghetto, she and her friend Maria continued to support each other in their ensuing struggle for survival.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Searing... With an even hand and understated prose [Rosenberg] bravely depicts Nazi carnage in chilling detail." -- New York Times Book Review. "Her harrowing account of intrigue and danger has all the elements of a war movie adventure, but they are amplified and stripped of any veneer of entertainment by the constant reminder that real lives were at stake." -- The Forward

Product Details

• Paperback: 178 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press; F edition (September 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252065204
• ISBN-13: 978-0252065200
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #814,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and memorable Holocaust memoir, July 18, 2002

By 

Leucippe (new york, ny USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Tell at Last: Survival Under False Identity, 1941-45 (Paperback)

Blanca Rosenberg's story tells a remarkable (and often improbably lucky) story of a young woman, newly married, with a small child, who manages to survive through a series of hair-raising adventures as a disguised Aryan in wartime Poland. She loses the child, while still in the ghetto, but thereafter, she escapes and eventually ends up as the head housekeeper for a highly placed German officer in Warsaw. She saves her best friend too, who unlike Blanca, cannot pass so easily, and in the process, discovers that a number of the officer's staff are also Jews in hiding. She does her job so well that she is sent to Heidelberg to another family, where she ultimately survives the horrors of the end of the war in Germany. There is a wonderful love story at the end, once again beyond ordinary expectations, and having emigrated to this country, she becomes a distinguished Professor of Social Work at Columbia University. I knew Blanca personally -- and even at the age of 85, she has lost none of her unforgettable qualities. Well written and full of suspense, this memoir stands out from a host of others by the eventful series of circumstances, the resourcefulness of the author, and above all, the combination of sheer luck and personal ingenuity.