Only Hope: A Holocaust Survivor's Memoir - Inspiring True Story of Courage & Resilience | WWII History Book for Students & Educators
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SKU:38071833
Product Description
From the book's introduction:"The world was not prepared for Auschwitz. It was, in fact, a place unbelievable even for its inmates. No words can adequately describe this weird world -- unlike anything the world had ever known. In order to understand its implication, you actually had to be part of it.I'll have to be autobiographical, but follow me if you will into Auschwitz and spend a day there, and meet some of the people in the nameless mass of bodies. Try, if you will, to feel, even for a moment, that you could have been one of them, that in fact you were one of them."= = = = = =What would you have done? A simple question asked in countless contexts. Add the word “Auschwitz” and it becomes a searing, soul-searching challenge. In her compelling book, Only Hope, Holocaust survivor Felicia Bornstein Lubliner asks the reader to travel back in time, to follow her into the Nazi death camp, and to wrestle with this question, just as she did when faced with that reality.— George Conklin, Project Director, Worldwide Faith News, National Council of ChurchesThe gripping stories in Only Hope: A Survivor’s Stories of the Holocaust, told from the tender, first-person perspective of Felicia Lubliner, will transfix the reader from start to finish. Middle and high school students, as well as adults of all ages, will absorb the impact of the Holocaust in new and unforgettable ways through these remarkable, personal accounts. The legacy of this heroic woman will indeed live on, not only in her words, but in the hearts that are changed by the hope they inspire.— Kathleen A. Cepelka, Ph.D., Superintendent of Catholic Schools, Archdiocese of MilwaukeeThe narrator in these remarkable stories speaks with two voices. At times we hear the voice of the teenager Felicia Bornstein, as she describes her life in the Pabianice Ghetto and her imprisonment in Auschwitz. This is a voice of loss, anger, and immeasurable sadness. And we hear the voice of adult Felicia Bornstein Lubliner, as she looks back on the terrible events of her youth, trying to find meaning in them. Hers is a voice of hope. With both voices, the narrator tells tales of courage and of faith: the courage to bear witness; faith that someone will listen.— Kenneth Ehrlich, Rabbi and Former Dean, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of ReligionThrough a personal, unique and diverse lens, Felicia Lubliner conveys the raw emotional experience of a young woman trapped in the unimaginable depths of despair, yet through whose written words we find hope. Felicia Lubliner’s Only Hope guides the reader through a Holocaust story that is much deeper than a number—6,000,000—giving us a human touch in the midst of inhumanity.— Dennis J. Eisner, Senior Rabbi, Peninsula Temple Beth ElThese stories vivify the horror of the Holocaust and the redemption of the human will. Felicia Lubliner makes us realize in Only Hopethat the spark of life cannot be extinguished even in the darkest of times.— Dennis M. Read, Professor Emeritus of English, Denison University
Customer Reviews
Only Hope was personally satisfying and enriching. The author relates experiences that were shame and anxiety inducing and painful. I heard similar stories from my late mother, whose history and timeline in the Lodz ghetto, the Auschwitz/Birkenau camp, the Zeilsheim displaced person’s camp near Frankfurt, immigration to America, and settlement in the San Francisco Bay Area were similar to Felicia’s. I admired her courage to speak publicly about her experiences as early as 1967, a mere two decades after liberation. My mother related her own history privately to family members and over drinks and cigarettes with the survivor crowd – lots of smoking – but never to strangers and certainly not in a public forum. What bravado! I can only imagine Felicia’s nervousness in anticipation of such presentations and the catharsis she must have experienced while speaking and afterwards in contemplation of her talks. Felicia was more articulate in English less than 20 years after immigrating to America than was my mother ever, who lived 89 years. Felicia’s command of English was impressive and her willingness and ability to share shameful and painful feelings laudable.I feel this book is valuable both to the Shoah crowd, who know the stories of the survivors, and to the general public, who will access details of painful stories too raw to display in video entertainment. There is no comparison between a personal narrative, such as Felicia’s, and any Holocaust/Shoah movie I have viewed.My favorite chapter was The Reunion, a story of returning home after the war. In light of the protagonist being named Dora, rather than the author’s own name of Felicia, her editor son wonders whether or not the story was real or imagined. I feel it doesn’t matter. The feelings described of finding a stranger in one’s childhood home after having been violently wrenched from it years earlier were moving and rich with pathos. This chapter brought tears to my eyes. Some of the most touching conversations between my parents were those about not having returned home. To this day, my father at 97 speaks wistfully of his regret at not having had the opportunity to return home after the war.I commend this book to anyone with an interest in history, human suffering, the Shoah, or the indomitable human spirit. I am grateful to the author for speaking and writing and to her son for laboring to gather and publish Felicia’s memories. I’ll remember her always.I bought a Kindle edition and found no defects or omissions. All the photos were clear and easy to enlarge for close viewing on my Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 (3rd Gen).10/29/2021
