arts & life

M

Udi

A new book by an

Ann Arbor author

gives a fictionalized

account of her

great-aunt's saga

through two

world wars, a

concentration camp

— and love.

I

Suzanne Chessler

Contributing Writer

B

arbara Stark-Nemon
deepened her under-
standing of the
Holocaust after connecting with
a great-aunt.
The two first became
acquainted during the woman's
visits to Michigan. Later, as
Stark-Nemon was able to travel
to Europe, their visits took place
in Germany.
The Holocaust survivor, who
died in 1995, had revealed
feelings about loss of fam-
ily, devastation sustained at a

Barbara Stark-Nemon

concentration camp and her
re-emergence through bonding
with a Catholic priest.
Those conversations motivat-
ed Stark-Nemon to learn more,
and her search for information
prompted a book.
Even in Darkness (She Writes
Press; $16.95), a fictionalized
version of what Stark-Nemon
learned, evolved to safeguard
family privacy and compensate
for information gaps.
"I admired my great-aunt's
resilience and her capacity to
create a meaningful life out of
the horrors she suffered," says
Stark-Nemon, 65, who grew up
in Huntington Woods and now
makes her home in Ann Arbor.
At a time in my life when I
felt things were falling apart,
she provided inspiration. If she
could find meaning, a truly
productive life and a loving rela-
tionship, anybody can:'
Stark-Nemon, always con-
sidering herself a storyteller,
seriously began work on Even
in Darkness after retiring as a
speech pathologist in 2006. It
became her first large project
following articles, such as one
about an uncle who served as a
World War II spy.
A central motivation for
starting the book was what the
author considered an unusual
survival story. She believed the
experiences of her great-aunt
and the priest would interest
readers and morphed the two
into the main characters, Klare
Kohler and Ansel Beckmann.
"The priest was half the age of
my great-aunt," she says. "Their
relationship was part mother-

ac4az

son; he lost his mother, and she
lost her sons. It also had them
as intellectual sparring partners
and soul mates. In finding each
other, they had a victory over
pain and suffering:'
Stark-Nemon traveled
throughout Europe and Israel
doing interviews and collecting
personal papers for translation,
disguising the facts she wanted
to include in the book, which
was released in April.
The author's investigation
spanned 15 years for a storyline
moving through a century. She
read historical accounts of the
period to provide a realistic
setting.
"I created a character to
match the person I really knew,"
says Stark-Nemon, a Jewish
Book Council Network author
preparing for book festivals
around the country. "My great-
aunt was able to redefine herself
in a way that was positive and
connect by reaching across gen-
erations and language.
"I learned German from my
parents and later studied it in
school. She learned English
because her son lived in
England. Between her English
and my German, we communi-
cated quite well:'
Stark-Nemon, who graduated
from Berkley High School and
was active in Temple Emanu-El,
had other relatives who were
strong sources for Holocaust
information.
Her late grandfather, Ernest
Gans, was a restitution law-
yer helping survivors receive
German pensions to compensate
for property confiscations. Her

parents, Margaret and Walter
Stark, were founders of Temple
Emanu-El and supporters of the
Holocaust Memorial Center.
Stark-Nemon earned both
undergraduate and gradu-
ate degrees at the University
of Michigan. She majored in
English literature and art his-
tory before moving into speech
and language pathology. Her
career went from teaching
English to working with deaf
children.
The author, married to emer-
gency physician Barry Nemon,
has made a point of passing
along family information to her
own three children and three
grandchildren.
While working on the book,
she decided it was important
to share her own background
and experiences with future
generations of her family. When
addressing book groups, the
author urges audience members
to find ways to record family
history for their descendants.
"It's extremely satisfying and
a wonderful way to leave a lega-
cy," says the author, active with
Beth Israel Congregation and
formerly on the board of Jewish
Family Service.
Even while promoting this
first novel, the author is finish-
ing another. It explores the life
of a middle-aged woman who
starts a business in northern
Michigan.
"I still keep in touch with the
priest, who suffered huge losses
in his own life she says. "The
relationship he shared with my
great-aunt became a positive
force for both of them:'

❑

May 28 • 2015

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