Sara's Children : The Destruction of Chmielnik
by Suzan Esther Hagstrom
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Book Summary Information
Author: Suzan Esther HagstromEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-02-15
ISBN: 1887901280
Number of pages: 300
Publisher: Sergeant Kirkland's Press
Book Reviews of Sara's Children : The Destruction of Chmielnik
Book Review: "What will I possibly do with two dresses?
Summary: 4 Stars
It is a simple question asked by a teenage girl who for six years of her life did not have two pieces of bread, much less two dresses. Yet, this example of Regina Muskowitz' searing memories of life as a Shoah survivor is but one of many that make it impossible to put down Susan Hagstrom's Sara's Children. Five siblings from the Polish town of Chmielnik survived a nightmare during World War II, and miraculously were able to document their story with Ms. Hagstrom. While there are some aspects of her writing style that detract from the power of her story -- e.g., she repeatedly cites a person's entire name, or a reference work's entire title and author --, the reader is never able to ignore how carefully she weaves the horrors of the Holocaust with the personalities of her heroes. Sonia, Nathan, Regina, Bela, and Helen Garfinkle, each provide their own unique courage. Suffering, as a word, cannot possibly describe their experiences. Whether it is Nathan almost losing a hand, Regina almost being pulled into a bullet making machine, or Sonia lying in the snow with corpses, these scenes of pain do not approach the reports of World War II Polish teenagers as they describe how, for them, death would have been welcome. Yet, they did not die. And, in their survival, they provide us all an incredible sense of hope -- even in the midst of a story where hope so often died. I once met Regina Muskowitz. She told me a story of sitting alone one day and deciding that she could not hate the Nazis because if she did, she would only destroy herself. At the time I was amazed. But, now that I read how as a 12-year old girl she was beaten, starved, and forced to work incredibly long hours at difficult and dangerous work, I am convinced that she is a saint. There are many saints in this story. Saints who resisted the Nazis, only to die slow and agonizing deaths; Saints who never gave up hope, even when they knew they were about to die; Saints who never stopped using their minds, as when Nathan talked his way out of an execution (for stealing a piece of bread), by asking that he at least get to eat the bread before he died. Children and adults who know everything, or nothing, about this history should read this book. Why? Because not only does it remind us that Shoah can and did occur, but that even after the collective guilt of a world has been exposed, we can once again become insensitive. I do not know which scenes disturbed me more -- that of a six year old boy clinging to his father's pant leg and begging not to be taken to his death at Treblinka, or of Polish Holocaust survivors returning to their homes, only to be killed by anti-Semitic neighbors who were sorry the Nazis had not completed their task. Yet, as one survivor said, when asked by a school child if she believed in God, 'of course she believes in God; while the person next to her was dead, God had let her live.' Susan Hagstrom helps these five incredible souls teach us that we can believe in hope; God has let them live, and we, too, can survive. This work does not have the polish of Elie Wiesel's Night; nor does it have the insight of Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. But, as a 12 year old blonde haired Polish girl tells us how we can survive ordeals we cannot fathom, or a teenage Polish boy reports his excitement about coming to America, after his release from the camps, because of the freedoms in the U.S. Constitution, then we can see just as profoundly that we, too, have purpose and meaning, if only to assure that their ordeal can never occur again. I have purchased three copies of this book for my friends. I will have my sons and family read it. And, I will always be thankful that I once got to speak with a woman who introduced me to a kind of forgiveness I did not believe was humanly possible.
Summary of Sara's Children : The Destruction of Chmielnik
Full of love, joy and hope, Nathan Garfinkel's wedding portrait captures one of life's turning points. The occasion, however, was more momentous than anyone could ever imagine. Only six years earlier Nathan and his sisters, who surround him in the photograph, were reduced to living skeletons, victims of anti-Semitism that raged out of control during World War II. Nazi Germany and its sympathizers brutally murdered more than 6 million Jews across Europe, wiping out entire families and, in some cases, villages. Through sheer luck and by helping each other, the Garfinkels overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to evade death. Sara's Children records how the five siblings survived slave labor, starvation, beatings, typhus, exposure, and fatigue. The starkly written narrative relies heavily on the Garfinekls' own words and interviews with other survivors from their hometown of Chmielnik, Poland. The nonfiction work begins with what they lost: loving parents, an extended family, loyal friends, and a simple, but vibrant, lifestyle. Nonetheless, disturbing signs of anti-Semitism mar their happy childhood. Violence and hatred escalate as Germany razes Poland and sweeps Europe. Each chapter explodes with details of the Garfinkels' terrible ordeal. More than just an individual's memoir, Sara's Children expresses a community's destruction via heartbreaking testimonials from numerous other Holocaust survivors. Written documents from Germany, photographs from the late 1940s, and maps reinforce and verify their account. Places like Czestochowa, Kielce, and Skarzysko-Kamienna, where the Garfinkels were imprisoned and exploited, may not be as familiar to readers as Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, but they were just as deadly. With its vivid descriptions of lesser-known camps, Sara's Children sheds more light on Nazi Germany's vast network of evil. The Garfinkels provide a rare, uplifting footnote to an era of incomprehensible cruelty and unprecedented genocide. While their experience is rooted in the Holocaust, their story of rising above degradation and despair has universal appeal.Jewish Books
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