Question of the Week: Which conductor/composer would
kiss his cuff links for good luck before every performance?
W661-8161) uralsulag preuoal LiaAksuv
After
Auschwitz
Family's post-war life traced
through teen's eyes.
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AppleTree Editor
My Bridges of Hope: Searching for Life and Love After Auschwitz,
by Livia Bitton-Jackson. Copyright 1999, published by Aladdin
Paperbacks. Paperback. 258 pages. $8.
This intriguing book is the follow-up to Bitton-Jackson's popular I
have Lived a Thousand Years; as with her previous book, My
Bridges of Hope is written for teens and more mature children who
can deal with such topics as the post-Holocaust generation, anti-Semitism
and what it takes to rebuild a life at a very young age.
This true story (the author, along with her mother, were dragged from
their home in Budapest and taken to Auschwitz, which they miraculously
survived) tells what happens to "Elli" and her surviving family after the war.
It is the tale of a teen who has lived through the most profound horror of
modern history, yet who yearns to be just ordinary, who, understandably,
wants to be a typical teen now This doesn't happen as Elli faces political tur-
moil in her own country (such as the Communist take over of
Czechoslovakia and the murder of the beloved foreign minister Jan Masaryk),
looks to immigrate to the new State of Israel, which itself is immersed in bat-
tle, under attack from the Arabs, and dreams, finally, of life in America,
which is not always as eager to accept these new immigrants as they are to
come to the Golden Land.
Bitton-Jackson is a writer of great restraint, which is to
her credit. She also tenderly captures small moments, which makes her "Elli"
all the more endearing.
Elli takes a job as a camp counselor, for example, where she is afraid
(because her Jewish knowledge is lacking compared to that of most of her
students), but dares to go ahead anyway. She finds a sweetheart, Sruli, and
looks forward to climbing the highest mountain: As I lie in my berg the crisp
night air ruffles the satin curtains. Anticipation of the climb, the excitement of the
challenge, the sense of responsibility — and the thought ofspending the day in
VIM
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2001
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