by Lorraine Blatt, Librarian
Alicia: My Story by Alicia Appleman-Jurman
This is a memoir of a spirited, valiant, and uniquely courageous young girl who survived the nightmare of the Holocaust in Poland. Alicia’s story begins in 1938 in Alicia’s city of Buczacz, Poland where the Jews made up about a third of the total population. Being a Jew in Poland meant learning to live with anti-Semitism but until the late 1930s it was possible to live one’s life in relative safety within the Jewish community.
As a young child she did not face Jew-haters since she was born in a remote mountain area. Alicia then moved to Buczacz with her parents and four brothers, and slowly things began to change. By 1938 many things were changing and Jews were experiencing persecutions. By the time she was 13 all of her brothers had been murdered and her father also had been killed. Alicia survived with her mother from the age of 13 to 15.
In the book, Alicia hides with her mother in the fields or woods surrounding small villages, posing as an orphan. She gets daily work in the farm fields earning small amounts of money and food, enough to keep her mother and herself alive. She encounters fellow refugees and even finds her mother. She helps those she encounters stay free. Alicia helps to save the lives of many other Jews offering them her own courage and hope. Her cleverness and willingness to work hard help her survive living in the woods and in small villages where she earns the tacit help of the villagers. She finds support in her faith and her belief in the goodness of people.
At one point she helps Russian soldiers escape from the Nazis. She earns their gratitude and a Russian officer awards her a commendation as a Hero of the Russian people. The papers he gives her help protect her and others as she flees Russian-occupied Poland and crosses borders leading other survivors through the Zionist underground. Alicia makes a number of trips from Poland to other parts of Eastern Europe leading others on their way to Palestine.
She finally gets to the mountains of Austria in an area controlled by the Americans where she was sent to recover from TB. There she attends school and finds a way to continue her journey to Palestine. In Israel in 1949 she meets an American volunteer where they marry and make their way to America. Over the years Alicia shares her stories with groups from synagogues, schools, and any communities who are willing to listen and learn of another aspect of the Holocaust that, in its own way, was as brutal as the camps. Her story is a testament to courage and faith and is an inspiring look at how Jews did fight back.
Sale Book Cart: Books for Bucks
Check out the new Books for Bucks book cart in the Sha’are Shalom lobby. We will sell used paperback and hardcover books as a continuing fundraiser for the synagogue. Paperbacks are 50 cents and hardbacks $1. Put your cash or check in the container on the cart.
Donations to Books for Bucks will become the property of the Congregation. Please donate books only in good condition and in quantities of fewer than 25. Leave your name, phone, email, and the date of your donation in a note with any books you donate.
Contact me, Lorraine Blatt, at 242lorraine@gmail.com or by phone at 772-359-7370.
Please do not drop off books in the library without leaving a note with your name and contact information. Thanks!