Bitter Freedom By Jafa Wallach
Bitter Freedom by Jafa Wallach describes the wrenching, firsthand experience of a small group of Jews caught up in the Nazi atrocities as they struggle to survive with the help of an even smaller number of sympathetic Poles.
During World War II, Jafa Wallach, her husband Naton, a physician and Jafa’s two brothers were concealed in a grave-like space, less the five feet across and about four feet high. They lived in that hole less than twenty feet from Gestapo headquarters in a small town in occupied Poland. They were unable to emerge and were entirely dependent in one man, Jozef Zwonarz, who risked his life and the lives of his own loved ones to save theirs.
Bitter Freedom was originally written in 1959, but remained unpublished. Jafa’s daughter Rena Bernstein self published it in 2006.
Jafa Wallach, her husband Naton and the others survived. Jafa, Naton and Rena came to the United States in 1947. Naton studied English and got his license to practice medicine and Jafa again work for him as his nurse. They immigrated to Israel in 1968 and lived there for 28 years. They returned to the United States in 1991.
Jafa lived in Brooklyn NY and died August 19th 2011 at the age of 101. Her daughter Rena is an artist and also lives in Brooklyn with her husband Vlad.
—————————————————————————————————————————-
Ursula’s Prism By Anna Block
Anna Block
“Growing up and living with a Holocaust survivor is a humbling experience. I had the desire to write my mother’s story when I was in my early twenties, but she was not receptive at that time. Then one day, decades later, she was talking to a man who told her that he didn’t think the Holocaust ever happened. She was angered, and she cried, and now out of that saddening confrontation, an incredible story has emerged.”
The author lives in Pennsylvania and is employed at a local area hospital as a Medical Lab Technician. Ursula’s Prism is her first book.
—————————————————————————————————————————-
SILENCE NOT, A LOVE STORY By Cynthia L. Cooper
CYNTHIA L COOPER is an award-winning playwright, journalist and author. She writes about women’s issues and human rights. As a playwright, Cooper’s works have been produced in New York, throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe. As a two-time Jerome Fellow, she has written 16 additional plays and six nonfiction books, in addition to numerous articles.
“Rooted in early twentieth century Europe and strikingly similar to contemporary struggles all over the globe, Cynthia Cooper’s Silence Not, A Love Story offers readers and audiences the always necessary integration of art and politics. She’s a skillful playwright who uses history, with its relentless examination of our lives, as a rich source for theater.”
-Judy Arcana poet, writer and scholar. She is the author of What If Your Mother, 4th Period English and Grace Paley’s Life Story, A Literary Biography
Also By Cynthia L. Cooper
Plays
How She Played the Game • Slow Burn • Strange Light • Sisters of Sisters • Beyond Stone • The Outermost House • Go, Girl, Go • Sentences and Words • Strange Bedfellows • Works of Art • The Dwelling Place • Intervention • Sor Juana • Saving Grace • Dirty Laundry • Braille: The World at Your Finger Tips (co-author)
Nonfiction
Mockery of Justice (Penguin) • Who Said It Would Be Easy (co-author, Liz Holtzman) (Arcade)
The Tattered Prayer Book by Ellen Bari
Ellen Bari is an author, educator and creator of award-winning multimedia, exhibits and programs for children and adults. She has worked with a wide array of clients including Sesame Workshop, PBS, Nickelodeon, American Express and Harper-Collins. An early pioneer of new media, Ellen was instrumental in developing the multimedia Learning Center for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Ellen’s other children’s book titles include Jumping Jenny, a PJ Library selection and Bank Street Best Children’s Book, and Ten Little Houses, an interactive ebook app.
Miriam M. Brysk is a Holocaust child survivor from Warsaw, Poland. She was interned in the Lida ghetto in Belarus, then escaped with her parents and joined the nearby partisans in the Lipiczany forest. She came to America in 1947 with no previous formal education, yet went on to obtain her Ph.D. from Columbia University, and had a career as a scientist and medical school professor. After retiring, she became an artist and writer depicting the plight of the Jews during the Holocaust. She has created three major art exhibits: In a Confined Silence in 2005 (partially funded by a grant the WK Kellogg Foundation), Children of the Holocaust in 2008 and Scroll of Remembrance in 2013. She has had some 25 solo exhibits. Three of her works are part of the permanent art collection at Yad Vashem, and one is included in a book published by the museum in 2010— Virtues of Memory: Six Decades of Survivors’ Creativity.