NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARDS FINALIST • “Part personal quest, part testament, and all thoughtfully, compassionately written.”—The Washington Post “Esther Safran Foer is a force of nature: a leader of the Jewish people, the matriarch of America’s leading literary family, an eloquent defender of the proposition that memory matters. And now, a riveting memoirist.”—Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief … memoirist.”—Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR
Esther Safran Foer grew up in a home where the past was too terrible to speak of. The child of parents who were each the sole survivors of their respective families, for Esther the Holocaust loomed in the backdrop of daily life, felt but never discussed. The result was a childhood marked by painful silences and continued tragedy. Even as she built a successful career, married, and raised three children, Esther always felt herself searching.
So when Esther’s mother casually mentions an astonishing revelation—that her father had a previous wife and daughter, both killed in the Holocaust—Esther resolves to find out who they were, and how her father survived. Armed with only a black-and-white photo and a hand-drawn map, she travels to Ukraine, determined to find the shtetl where her father hid during the war. What she finds reshapes her identity and gives her the opportunity to finally mourn.
I Want You to Know We’re Still Here is the poignant and deeply moving story not only of Esther’s journey but of four generations living in the shadow of the Holocaust. They are four generations of survivors, storytellers, and memory keepers, determined not just to keep the past alive but to imbue the present with life and more life.
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I felt like I was having a favorite experience: sitting with someone in their home, my senses filled with all I can take in, getting a glimpse of what perspective someone else can offer me. I loved the intimate nature of the tone of the writing. I loved knowing that while yes, the names were key, my reading the book and learning their stories and having patience as the names came to embody meaning–that was REALLY key. I don’t know that I’ve felt an inner smile after reading a Holocaust book, but my soul shifted. I learned from Foer that there ARE ways to bring memories to literal ‘life’. That’s what brings my soul the honoring smile, because not only did I get to sit in Foer’s home, partake of her food, appreciate her clothing and her mannerisms and life experiences, but I also partook of her fore bearers. Beautiful. A treasure. I am so glad I read this book. For a subject matter so heavy and deep, the writing is surprisingly light, clear, and easy to take in. I appreciate that. I loved being there, in a way that wasn’t wrapped up in a movie or a museum. This was a very fitting representation.
I Want You to Know We’re Still Here
A Post-Holocaust Memoir
Esther Safran Foer
Tim Duggan Books, Mar 2020
288 pages
Memoir, Historical, Holocaust, Genealogy
Provided by Edelweiss
The cover is perfect for this story. It looks like an old photograph, which I’m sure it was taken from. The subtle font in pale gray and the ragged-looking edge like an old document all add up to the telling of an old story, which this is. A story that hasn’t been told completely. Too many of its parts have been lost, covered up to be kept secret or simply lost to time and death of those who carry the story.
The Jews of Europe had to keep things secret. Where they were. How many of them there were. What they had. Their very existence had to be kept secret. For if they were discovered, their lives were forfeit to torture or death. Families were separated, to begin with. Husbands from wives, parents from children, siblings from each other even, mostly by gender. Shipped off to different camps and most never to find each other again if they lived through the war and what they were put through in the camps.
Esther records her family’s personal history of changed names and birth dates and many more secrets. She shares her hunt for information, confusing as it was. Europe’s boundaries changed many times and so many records were lost, moved to different locations, or destroyed since then. What was once a governmental record is now in the hands of each parish and such. But these countries, states, and towns are very different from what they were at the time of the war. What once was Germany might now be another country. What once was Ukraine, might now be Germany. Where do you apply to find records of that time? And what name do you look for when people were trying to hide who they really were and using aliases? Changing their birth dates? Denying their family ties? Yes, the author provides a confusing number of names and such in her book that seem superfluous to those not familiar with a family search. However, being familiar with the ways of genealogists and what happens when you go looking for your ancestors, I understand why there are so many names. The story is written as it happened to the best of Mrs. Foer’s ability. It’s a story that needs to be told so that it won’t be forgotten. I highly recommend this book.
This memoir by Ms. Safran Foer is a fantastic and haunting book about the search to find who the author is by finding her past.
The author’s investigations and exhaustive research that included many friends and relatives was stunning. To be able to follow along with her as she learned more about her father, her mother’s childhood, her mother and father’s families and their extended relations in an effort to find out all that was horrifically stolen from her family (as well as millions of others) during the time of the Holocaust, as well as after, is nothing short of being given a window into her soul. This personal and sacred journey was as times fascinating, terrifying, tragic, and surprisingly heartwarming at times.
There were times that I smiled through misty eyes when the author was able to find a piece to her long-finished puzzle (I loved that she was able to meet with descendants of the family that helped save her father from the Germans and find the names and identities of her half-sister that died when she was so young), and there were times I just downright cried for the loss and tragedy that echoed through generations. The utter destruction and senseless that took away so many innocent souls is devastating.
Still, resilience of a close-knit family that surrounds the author today goes beyond words to show the fight, love, perseverance, and determination that resides within radiates from every page. Being Jewish myself, all of this drew me in and gave me a connection to the author and her family that I will treasure forever. (I loved the photographs that were added as well.) This is the type of book that will stay on my bookshelf and will be read many times in the future.
My favorite quote is by the author’s late mother: “If nothing matters, there’s nothing to save”. Beautiful.
A stunning memoir of loss, hope, love, and life.
5/5 stars
Thank you GR Giveaway and Tim Duggan Books/Random house for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.
*I received this ARC in exchange for an honest and fair review*
I Want You to Know We’re Still Here is the author’s experiences as she hunts for the truth about her family. Her father and mother were both survivors of the Holocaust. Like so many of the Jewish communities during Hitler’s reign, the shtetls where her parents were raised were devastated, the Jewish people executed. Esther and her sons travel to meet surviving relatives and to search for clues that lead to where others may be buried. At the forefront of her and her sons’ investigation, is always the search for her unknown half sister to whom she doesn’t even have a name. The book is not only about this search for what happened to the lost loved ones, but also a memoir that describes her mother and father’s journey to safety.
In all honesty, I cannot describe this book and do it any justice without repeating what has already been included in the description. I felt like I was in this book with Mrs. Foer. I was invested. Like her, I had to know what had happened to these people, her family. The Jewish people were/are brave, they have a strength and resilience that is unbelievable. I have read so many books and watched so many documentaries about the Holocaust. It was a time of so much cruelty. I just don’t understand why…..to know that Mrs. Foer was able to get some closure…I just can’t imagine.
I love the title of this book. Yes, they are still here. They (the author and her family) searched for the truth of her family’s history. They left reminders that their lost family members are not forgotten. I just can’t express how beautiful, and at times, heartbreaking, this memoir is and how thankful I am that I have been allowed to review it.
This beautifully written book flowed so smoothly I felt was having coffee with Ms. Foer as she told her story. I have read countless stories of the Holocaust yet from each I learn something new. The biggest “take-away” for me from this book was that “life was all about moving forward” which may explain why many survivors did not talk about the past. The book is filled with many truly memorable and heartfelt statements. There are stories of heroism and stories of shame (such as how the survivors were so poorly treated in American DP camps that President Truman actually ordered an investigation of the problem). The Jewish people have many traditions of which many we do not know why the tradition exists. I loved Ms. Foer’s take on why we leave stones on a grave instead of flowers, and the significance of a mezuzah on our doorposts.
One of the most poignant parts of the book, at least to me, is the statement “Jews are concerned more with memory than with history”. We believe that a person never really dies as long as someone remembers her/his name. This is why Foer was so determined to learn the name of her half-sister that was murdered by the Nazis. Someone, somewhere must know her name. A little girl who had barely lived must be remembered.
“History is public. Memory is private.” While Ms. Foer’s parents chose to keep their memories private, fortunately for us she chose to share the memories she uncovered and to keep these stories alive.
Thank you to Book Browse for an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own. I highly recommend this book.
This is a memoir of Esther’s family – four generations who are unable to pass her mother’s stories to each generation because her mother’s memories were so terrible that she refused to talk about them. She would occasionally give a small amount of information but would refuse to answer questions. When Esther finds out that her father had been married before and had a daughter, she know that she must travel to the Ukraine to find out all she can about her half-sister.
Esther’s mother and father were both the only survivors of the Holocaust in their immediate family. Since her mother refused to share information about this horrific time, Esther spent her entire life searching for answers. Armed with only a hand drawn map and an old photograph, Esther and her son travel to the Ukraine to try to get some answers to her lifelong questions about her parents’ lives. She wants to find where her father hid during the war and the people who helped him, she wants to find her mother’s village and anyone who remembered her and she wants to find out information about her half sister born before the war started. It was difficult to find out too many answers since so many people were dead but she was able to find children and grand children of the people she was searching for and get information. The town her mother grew up in was totally demolished but she was found someone who grew up there and was able to show her where her mother had grown up. As she and her son travel, they find mass graves where Jewish people were shot and buried. Many of the markers on these mass graves were falling apart and covered in weeds indicating that the newer generations memory of that time in history is being lost. At each mass grave and grave marker of family members, she left a picture of her family to let her ancestors know that part of the family had survived and was ‘still here’.
This was a beautiful and well written memoir about one person’s goal to find the memories of her mother and pass them down to future generations so that family history wouldn’t be lost.
Thanks to Book Browse for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.