‘The Birds Sang Eulogies: A Memoir’ by Mirla Geclewicz Raz is an emotional and powerful exploration of The Holocaust and its effect on, not just the first generation of the authors family, but the ensuing generations also.
This is not the first book I read about the generations of Jewish people that are emotionally scarred, and I doubt it will be the last. The difference is that the author has blended dialogue, prose and also poetry into this book creating a unique and poignant book. Let’s have a look at the synopsis:
In this poignant memoir, The Birds Sang Eulogies, Anna and Danny Geslewitz’s incredible stories of survival are told by them, their daughter and their granddaughter, three generations affected by the Holocaust. Danny’s harrowing story began the moment the Germans invaded Lodz, Poland in 1939. His harrowing story of survival begins in the ghetto where starvation and death were rampant. When the Germans liquidated the ghetto in 1944, Danny and his remaining family members were sent to Auschwitz. Danny’s account of hell on earth leaves the reader horrified. After enduring Auschwitz for three weeks, Danny and his brothers began nightmarish journeys to seven forced labour camps where they endured inconceivable deprivations. After witnessing two brothers perish, Danny is near death when suddenly the Germans disappear.
Living in the eastern Polish city of Lvov, Anna vividly describes life and death in the Lvov Ghetto. When it becomes clear that the Germans will kill every remaining Jew in the ghetto, she and her sister flee into Germany. There, Anna works as a maid in a German household. She lives a life of constant terror fearing that her Jewish identity will be discovered.
The mayhem of liberation brings its own challenges to Anna and Danny. Barely alive, Danny struggled to regain his health. Anna scrambled to find a way to survive in the chaos and find her sister from whom she had been separated. As Danny and Anna worked to find their place in life, they meet in Germany. Together, they begin a memorable new chapter. Years later, their daughter and granddaughter travel to Poland. Their personal accounts of their trips are riveting.
Anna Geslewitz was a poet. One can feel her sorrow, terror and angst as one reads her poems. The poems are included in The Birds Sang Eulogies: A Memoir.
This book touched me in a way that I will not easily forget. The pain of reading the harrowing, vivid descriptions of day to day life of Danny and Anna. The horrors that the inmates just had to face every day are so brutal, but they survived and met after they were liberated and began their life together. We also see the author and her daughter return to Poland years later to the country her parents left.
A memoir that brings the Holocaust closer to the people who were lucky enough NOT to experience it. Just make sure you have tissues handy when you read this.
Thank you to Mirla Geclewicz Raz for the gifted copy of this emotional, poignant and very personal story.
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