Holocaust novel braces the human spirit

We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter; Penguin Books; © 2017; ISBN 9780399-563096; 398 pages plus acknowledgments; $16.

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO – Having already achieved New York Times best-seller status in hardback, this novel of survival has now been issued in paperback, hopefully to acquaint an even wider audience with the remarkable story based on the Holocaust-era experiences of author Georgia Hunter’s Polish-born relatives.

Through taped family conversations and painstaking archival research, Hunter was able to reconstruct the lives of eight principal Kurc Family members, as well as those of their in-laws, through World War II.  Their experiences, well told by Hunter, spanned the globe, with the action taking place in such countries as Poland, Russia (Siberia), Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran, British Mandate Palestine, Italy, France, Spain, Senegal, Morocco, Brazil, and the United States.

In one way or another, all the Kurc family members defied the Nazis, resisting them in the ghettos, the work camps, killing fields, in hiding, and in the military.  Their stories are interwoven, with attention not only to the events that shaped their lives, but also to their emotions – and most importantly to their enduring and inspiring devotion to their family.

As various family members face what appears to be certain death again and again, readers will shudder with foreboding.  When family members are reunited, few readers will be able to keep tears of joy from springing to their eyes.

In short, this is a wonderful novel, filled with courage, honor, and uprightness, even in the worst of times. For anyone who wants to be uplifted by the nobility of the spirits of honorable human beings, , this is a book well worth reading.

Mazal tov to author Hunter.

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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com