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There are currently 34 member reviews
for I Want You to Know We're Still Here
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Colleen L. (Casco, ME)
An Amazing Read
Ester Foer's search for her family history is both inspiring and challenging. Her parents had lived through the Holocaust and were enigmatic about their experiences. Her father died and she was unaware of the circumstances until she was much older. Over the years, Foer did intense research across several continents to unearth her parent's history.
I have read many books about the Holocaust - both fiction and non-fiction. Most are written about survivors from the death camps and their horrific experiences. What I haven't read much of, nor has there been much written about, concerns the post-Holocaust. This was a time that was just as hard for the surviving Jews and one that people just assume had to be easier given that the death camps were closed. Foer's book highlights this difficult time period and opened my eyes to a situation I knew little about.
Foer's book is a true life detective story. Her writing is just as gifted as her three sons who are also writers. It takes her years to finally piece her family's past in place. You can feel her emotion when she finally arrives at her father's ancestral home land and meets the family that saved her father.
This is an important book that needs to be added to the catalogue of "must-read" Holocaust books. It covers a period that most readers know little about. I highly recommend this book and am grateful for the opportunity to read it and learn more about this terrible time in World War II.
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Chris (CA)
Read this book!!
What a wonderful book. I have read many books about the horrors of the Holocaust and its victims, survivors, villains, heroes, and yet I learned so much from this author's fascinating story. For those who believe that life went on normally after the survivors were rescued, this book is a must read. The author's family was in a displaced persons camp for years after the war. Many of these people were treated as badly there as they were during the war. Anti-Semitism did not end when World War II ended. Many survivors never spoke about the horrors they experienced and witnessed. And so, generations later, it is hard for their descendants, like this author, to uncover family histories and what happened to family members. So many memories locked away. Overwhelming losses. The reader accompanies the author on her journey of exploration to find out about her parents' lives and families before the Nazis came. The amount of research and interviewing she did is incredible. There is so much to discuss in this book. Book clubs, people searching for lost relatives, families of Holocaust survivors, students of history, and so many others should read and discuss this book.
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Susan R. (Julian, NC)
Family Memories
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 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 BookBrowse for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
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patty claire
Stories and memories are our history
Memories and the stories that make up her family's history are missing from Esther Safran Foer's childhood. When she discovers that her father had another wife and child she sets out to find out what happened to them and to learn their names. Her parents lost their entire family and all that was familiar to them during the Holocaust. The shtel's that they knew growing in Ukraine no longer exist, they were completely destroyed and burned to the ground. No Jews live there today. How did her parents survive and who risked their life to help them.
The author takes us along with her on her journey to find the spot where these shtels once existed and anyone who might have known any member of her family. Each mass grave site is located and prayers are said, songs are sung and a photograph of her family is left to tell the dead "that we're still here".
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Janine S. (Wyoming, MI)
Powerful and moving memoir
This book is a powerful and moving memoir of a woman's quest to keep the memory of her family alive after its near destruction due to the Holocaust. Beautifully written we the readers enter a journey along with the author to open up the silence of the past as she searches for a half sister killed by the Nazis in Ukraine. The importance of memory - never forgetting the past - is powerfully illuminated in this book. And the need to end the silence around the horrific event of the Holocaust is expressed in the author's journey to learn about her father's s life before coming to America. It was also sad to read about how the mass graves of Ukrainian Jews are falling into disrepair and forgetfulness as if the underscore that memory unless maintained can be lost. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. This is a must read for everyone!
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Maribeth R. (Indianapolis, IN)
In Search of Memories
Many stories have been, and will be told about Holocaust experiences and survival after. Esther Safran Foer begins her memoir by explaining the experience of memory. She delves into the effect memory has on someone who longs to know her past, but can't quite access it because stories can't be told. The tales may be too painful, too buried, or never even seemed available because those who could tell the stories were wiped out and their ability to produce memories snuffed out like a candle.
Esther takes us on a remarkable journey to retrieve that past. She introduces us to her amazing mother and sons, and allows us to experience her feelings as she returns to Ukraine to seek out those who may still tell stories about her family that will help mend the quilt's missing pieces.
This is a wonderful memoir that will be cherished by those who value family stories and the need to carry those tales on to future generations. Though the book is not long, it offers much food for thought for book groups, as well as for personal reflection on the true value of the history and importance of our own family recollections.
Readers would do well to also incorporate works by Foer's sons on their reading "to do" lists. I am sure Esther will not mind the plug for her talented brood.
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Janet O. (Beaverton, OR)
I Want You to Know We're Still Here
As a child, Esther Safran knew that her parents had been the only members of their immediate families to escape the reach of Nazi Germany during World War II. Natives of small villages in the Ukraine, they had survived due to their courage, some luck and the support of strangers and friends. She yearned to know more but her parents were reluctant to talk about their experiences and share the stories of loss those years represented. In an attempt to solve some of the mysteries surrounding her family and to unveil the many secrets kept from her, she has devoted most of her adult life to researching her family history. Not only did she study archival records and historical documents, she traveled to Brazil and the Ukraine to meet with survivors who could help her tell her story. This book is the account of her efforts. The first half of the book is devoted to telling how her parents escaped, spent time in displaced persons camps and ultimately emigrated to the United States. The second portion focuses on her research and discoveries. This too reveals heartwarming detail and allows the reader to understand how important it is to embrace and honor family histories.
Although the narrative would benefit from additional editing during parts dealing with the research, the book is an important addition to the genre of Holocaust literature. It could even be considered an essential read for those wanting to better understand the impact of the attempted extermination of the Jews not only on actual survivors but on their extended families for generations.
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