Customer Reviews

Through the Eyes of a Survivor

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More than 60 years have passed since the end of the Second World War, when the world first began to learn of the true scope of the evil perpetrated against the Jewish people of Europe. By now, most people have at least a general idea of the magnitude and nature of the Nazis' plan, but at the individual level, the story remains fuzzy. It is only through the unique stories of those who survived that we can have any hope of understanding what it was like for the millions of victims who died because of the accident of their birth as heirs of the Jewish faith and culture. So many families perished in their entirety, their stories lost forever, making the stories of the survivors that much more important in chronicling the power of unchecked evil to destroy innocent lives.

Unlike many survivors' accounts, this book describes life both before and after the war, so that we can better understand the scope of the personal tragedy suffered by Nina. Born and raised in an affluent family, Nina lost everything, only barely escaping death itself. Her ability to think quickly on her feet, to blend into the general population and most of all her instinct for survival somehow saw her through the terrible ordeal. However, while she went on to live the "American Dream", she never fully recovered from her experiences during the war. In speaking out and sharing her story, she is finally confronting the reality of what was taken from her, and helping to ensure that we learn from the past, so that we might never face such evil again.

[This review is based on an Advance Review Copy]

I started reading this book because the author is a friend. But I soon found myself captivated by Nina Moreki's story. This tale of day-to-day life as the Nazi threat closed in brought the Holocaust to life for me as nothing ever has before. I couldn't put it down.

Once in a while, a person with an amazing story is quite literally stumbled upon. This is what happened when author Colette Waddell heard Nina Grütz- Morecki speak about her experiences during World War II as it raged through Poland. It was because of Nina's talk, that the author discovered an interest in helping Nina tell her story to a wider audience.


Nina Grütz was born during the winter of 1920. Her parents were a well to do Jewish couple who owned a soap factory in L'vow Poland. She grew up knowing prosperity, and led a life sheltered from the anti-Semitic outlook held by many of the Polish Catholics. All that changed the year Nina was getting ready to leave home to attend University. Nina's family faced the Russian invasion of Poland, followed by the German invasion of Russian-occupied Poland. With the Russian occupation, the Grütz family faced socialism and being separated. With the German occupation, Nina watched her family members disappear, and finally faced internment in a work camp herself.


Expanding on the story that Nina tells to high school students as a guest speaker, Through the Eyes of a Stranger, follows Nina as she escapes death at the work camp. She was rescued from death of starvation in the forest by a kind Polish couple, and afterwards she joined the Polish resistance movement. As a member of the resistance Nina infiltrated a German occupied town, and worked in a position that allowed her to learn of the German's plans and send the information and vital papers needed to move around Poland to her underground contacts. However when the Russians retook the area, Nina once again found her life in upheaval. It was during this time that Nina met Josef, her future husband. When the war finally ended, they joined up with a group of displaced Jews all trying to leave the country. Nina and her husband eventually made it to America, and the book follows their lives as they make a new home and family for themselves in a new country.


It took me a little while getting used to the writing style of the book. The alternating styles between an oral history and a study of the effects of the war seemed to be a little at odds to each other. This book is an attempt to educate the public on the effect of the war on Poland's Jews. It is an extraordinary example of the resiliency of the human spirit, and our ability to live through unthinkable horrors and to emerge from them stronger, even though we will be changed forever.

Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (3/07)

"I have told this story to Colette for many reasons. I want people to understand what happened during World War II, to know what was done to us Jews for no reason at all, other than that we happened to be Jewish. I also want young people to learn from the things I did in my life that allowed me to survive. But my greatest hope in sharing this story is so that my parents and other family members did not die in vain. I truly believe that telling others about their murders and speaking out against genocide, racism, and hatred can and will make a difference."

Nina Grutz's family was successful in business in Poland. The community respected them. Nina's life was one of wealth. "The Grutz family was part of a Jewish population that thrived at a time when almost three-quarter of the Jews in Europe called Poland home." "It seems to me now that my life before the war was so very happy and full. My own little world was regulated and small, but this was how my parents raised me and it felt very secure. I had a good family life, I loved my sisters, and I even began to spend time with boys in a social way. We did not go out on dates like young people do today, but spent time in groups with relatives or together with adults present."

Then came the day when Nina's father felt it was no longer safe. One day Nina attended a lecture with a companion. He realized Nina was Jewish. "I walked in with him and found that there were older students directing people where to sit. They yelled out, "Jews on the left side and Poles on the right!" I was proud to be a Jew, so I started to go to the left when my companion pulled me by the hand and asked, "Where are you going?" Nina was proud to be Jewish and never tried to hide it but she spoke fluent Polish and dressed like everyone else.

When the bombings began, the Grutz family decided it would be safer to separate. Nina went to live with her aunt. Life was never the same for Nina but she didn't give up. Nina assisted with the Underground by smuggling travel papers. She met and married Josef Morecki. Nina's story is one of triumph.

This is a story that has to be told. This is a heartrending story, but it is more. "This is one survival tale that is neither enduringly sad nor depressing. It is, in fact, a story of hope and endurance and, ultimately even prosperity in a new life in a new land."

Colette Waddell is an extremely talented writer. She successfully paints a picture of words that tells Nina's life. It is an honor to read Nina's story. It is told with humor, which testifies to the character of Nina. I'm glad I read this book. It should be required reading for everyone. For only when we come to understand what happened during the Holocaust will be make sure it never happens again. It is with great honor that I highly recommend "Through the Eyes of a Survivor" to all readers.

Book received free of charge.

Nina Gruetz-Morecki was a gentile-looking well-to-do Polish Jew from Lwow (Lvov, Lviv). She describes prewar life, the Soviet occupation, the German occupation, the Nazi extermination of the local Jews, her disguise as a gentile, her work on behalf of an unidentified branch of the Polish Underground, her escape and peregrinations, and her eventual travels to postwar western Europe and the USA.

Books of this type begin with leading questions, as Morecki recognizes: "I know that many readers will expect me to write of the anti-Semitism I experienced as a child." (p. 53). In fact, Morecki repeatedly states that, based on her parents' experiences as well as those of her own adult life up until about the late 1930's, she did not experience Polish anti-Semitism (p. 9, 17, 23, 53)--something which she attributes to her assimilated state. [Adding refutation to the claim that assimilation made no difference in this regard.]

Her first direct experience with anti-Semitism was verbal in nature, during an argument with a colleague. (p.55). Later, one of her colleagues was beaten by Polish hoodlums. (p. 74). As she describes the late-prewar and war years, Morecki often makes assertions against Poles. It is usually difficult to figure out if this is what she experienced herself, or if it is something which she had heard from someone else. The reason for this is elaborated in the next paragraph.

A major problem with Holocaust testimonies, especially those written decades after the events such as this one, is the tendency of Holocaust survivors to graft what they heard or read about the Holocaust into their memories, and thus to mistake it for their own experiences. This tendency is exacerbated by the style of this book, wherein readings by Holocaust authors (notably Polonophobic ones such as Alina Cala and Leo Cooper) are interfingered with Morecki's testimony.

The author mistakenly calls Copernicus an astrologer. (p. 15). Some of Morecki's statements, especially considering the fact that they come from an assimilated Jew who should have familiarity with the Polish experience, are so bizarre that the informed reader may wonder on what planet Morecki is walking on. She actually writes: "The Poles thought at first that when the Germans came it would be paradise." (p. 193). She also denies the existence of Polish-gentile forced laborers at the Janowska concentration camp. (p. 198).

Other statements by Morecki are rational. She realizes the fact that it was very difficult for Poles to hide Jews because the Germans used dogs that were trained to sniff out those in hiding. (p. 188). Poles who denounced fugitive Jews often did so out of fear of German retribution for aiding Jews (p. 216). This included Poles who initially hid Jews. (p. 218). Those Poles who later refused to return Jewish properties did so because "hard times bred a selfish mentality" (p. 313).

After the war, in a D.P. camp, some Jews, mistaking Nina for a gentile, faulted her husband for "marrying a Shiksa." The author points out that Shiksa nowadays means a non-Jewish girl but, at that time, it carried the connotation of a girl who did not come from a good family. (p. 368).