“Fascinating . . . A tragic saga, but at the same time it often reads like a thriller filled with acts of extraordinary courage, descriptions of dangerous journeys and a series of secret identities.”—Chicago Tribune“To this day, I don’t even know what my mother’s real name is.”Helen Fremont was raised as a Roman Catholic. It wasn’t until she was an adult, practicing law in Boston, that she … adult, practicing law in Boston, that she discovered her parents were Jewish—Holocaust survivors living invented lives. Not even their names were their own. In this powerful memoir, Helen Fremont delves into the secrets that held her family in a bond of silence for more than four decades, recounting with heartbreaking clarity a remarkable tale of survival, as vivid as fiction but with the resonance of truth.
Driven to uncover their roots, Fremont and her sister pieced together an astonishing story: of Siberian Gulags and Italian royalty, of concentration camps and buried lives. After Long Silence is about the devastating price of hiding the truth; about families; about the steps we take, foolish or wise, to protect ourselves and our loved ones. No one who reads this book can be unmoved, or fail to understand the seductive, damaging power of secrets.
Praise for After Long Silence
“Poignant . . . affecting . . . part detective story, part literary memoir, part imagined past.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Riveting . . . painfully authentic . . . a poignant memoir, a labor of love for the parents she never really knew.”—The Boston Globe
“Mesmerizing . . . Fremont has accomplished something that seems close to impossible. She has made a fresh and worthy contribution to the vast literature of the Holocaust.”—The Washington Post Book World
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The book was an excellent read. It told a tale of an unresolved tragic soul scarring for the generation of survivors and at the same time a redemption for their daughters.
There is an important place for the crypto Jews of the holocaust in this genre of literature.. It is important they not be judged as traitors to their faith. The stance I …
This book reminded me that life doesn’t happen in a vacuum with a clear beginning and end to the causes and effects of an event. This is one family’s story of the hundreds of thousands of stories that were impacted by the German rampage in Europe. The Truth is never completely known or understood but each new piece gives us a fuller picture of …
The determination of these people was inspiring. The dedication to their beliefs was monumental. I would liked to have known them.
This is a true story which slowly unfolds the past and mixes with the present. It is generally centered around two sisters who discover their Catholic parents were Jewish.
Told beautifully.
It was an interesting account of one couple’shandling of their experiences in the holocaust and how their actions affected their children. It was different than other books I have read about the holocaust .
A book of a painful experience but an important one.
A person’s reasons are a person’s reasons. Respect them.
The book details the efforts of two sisters to find out their family history despite their parents’ and aunt’s resistance and reluctance to talk about their experiences as European Jews during WWII. The body of the book was extremely interesting to me and I really did not want it to end.
An amazing book telling an amazing story. I have read many stories of life during WWII, but this is completely different and incredible.
Good read!
Real life family experience with anti semitism and its effects for generations.
Good read, tragic family history. I wish the author had not embellished with her fantasies of what happened. The minute, made up details detracted from the actual story.
Good book.
Very moving memoir.
Very good, couldn’t stop reading it
I found this book hard to put down. I think the author did a remarkable job writing the story of her family. I liked the way she wrote about her parents horrific times during the holocaust interspersed with the lives of she and her sister.
These survivors were resourceful mixed with amazing acting. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the story of how they made it through the Holocaust.
A book that needs to be read by those who grew up during WWII. It gives the true inside story of how families were fractured and re-formed just to survive in the world in which they were forced to live. It is well presented, honest and both sad and victorious. Thank you to the family by whom it was written by your grateful readers. My
The tragic story of a post Holocaust survivor family
Some live through excruciating tragedy to tell about it. Some experience the same tragedy and do everything to forget. This autobiography tells of the search for truth by the daughter of two Holocaust survivors who chose to forget. A twisted story of the the Holocaust, prejudice, and …