Memory is Our Home by Suzanna Eibuszyc; Ibidem Press (c) 2015; ISBN 978-3-8382-0712-4; 250 pages.
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO–The voices of first generation and second generation Holocaust survivors are interwoven in this family remembrance covering pre-war life in Poland, escape from the Nazis to the Soviet Union and its eastern Republics; a return to Poland after the war, and finally immigration to the United States and adjustment to a new life.
Author Eibuszyc, who is the second-generation voice, found her mother’s memoir, translated it into English, and combined it with her own reflections on what it was like growing up under the influence of her parents’ memories of their World War II suffering. In doing so, she provided some juxtapositions that might otherwise have escaped the reader’s notice. The cost, for some readers, at least initially, was confusion as to which family member is narrating. I would have preferred a straight chronological account, going from the mother’s story to that of Ms. Eibuszyc.
However, writers have their differences, and my approach is not necessarily more valid than that of Eibuszyc. More important than the style of presentation is the substance of presentation, and on this score, I was very impressed. Although Eibuszyc’s mother wrote matter-of-factly about her experiences, I don’t think that I will ever be able to say the words, “I’m hungry” again, without accusing myself of chutzpah immediately thereafter
Eibuszyc calls her memoir Memory is Our Home. Inside that “home,” people were near starvation. After being exiled to a village in the endless stretch of the Soviet Union, it became clear that while the Soviets didn’t murder their prisoners in assembly-line fashion as did the Nazis, death at the Soviets’ hands was all too common. To get out of the freezing cold, one must have a shelter. To obtain a shelter, one must get a job from the state. But these jobs paid starvation wages. People were always hungry. The less scrupulous stole food or money from other people. The more scrupulous tried to supplement their incomes by buying goods in one locale and selling them in the other. In the United States, we call admire the latter approach as private enterprise. In the Soviet Union, it was known as criminal black marketeering. Steal it or buy and sell it, you were considered an economic criminal.
So, often people had to endure long periods — we’re talking days at a time — with very little or no food at all. That was frequently the situation of Eibuszyc’s mother, the former Roma Talasowicz. If people were fired from their jobs for even a minor infraction, they could lose their homes. In one instance, Eibuszyc’s mother had no place other than a shed in which to huddle with others during severe weather.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. You may comment to him at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com or post your comment on this website, provided that the rules below are observed.
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