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I Want You to Know We're Still Here by Esther Safran Foer

I Want You to Know We're Still Here

A Post-Holocaust Memoir

by Esther Safran Foer

  • Critics' Consensus (2):
  • Readers' Rating (34):
  • Published:
  • Mar 2020, 240 pages
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There are currently 34 reader reviews for I Want You to Know We're Still Here
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Erica M. (Chicago, IL)

Remembering the past, assuring the future
"I Want You to Know We're Still Here" by Ester Safran Foer was a well-written love note from a mother to her children. The story felt like a fairy tale retelling, where you recognize the story in bits and pieces, but the names have changed and the details are different. I, admittedly, read this book because of Jonathan Safran Foer's books, but you can see from Ester's writing where her son got his strength for words. However, Ester truly has her own voice. Ester's way of formatting a story is like that of an earnest parent after the child has had its own baby and is now asking for advice. She admits that shemore
Susan B. (Rutledge, MO)

heart-rending and powerful
I found this post-Holocaust memoir a challenging but fulfilling read. The subject matter is often intense and horrifying, yet the book also has some heart-lifting and even humorous moments. I would have loved a list of names and places and their relation to the author and one another - I wasn't always able to keep them all straight - and a few stories and facts were repeated unnecessarily, but overall I found this a compelling and thought-provoking book I'm glad to have read.
Martha S. (Mentor, OH)

I Want You to Know We're Still Here
This story tugs at my heart. I was reading this book during the Thanksgiving holiday and it truly struck me at how blessed I am. My relatives did not go through the tragedies the author's family and extended family experienced during WW II. The author worked to uncover her family's background and their lives and deaths before, during and after WW II. At the beginning of the book, the family names were hard for me to remember and connect. As I read on, I realized the names were not as important (to me) as the story telling. The author struggled to discover where people lived, who were able to continue to live andmore
Marguerite K. (Vernon, CT)

In the end, good does win
'I Want You to Know We're Still Here' cannot be read easily or quickly. It is difficult to picture having to do painstaking research with scant leads to find your family's past when I have always known my own.

To me this is a story of determination and unwillingness to give up, both of a protagonist with the ability to track down leads and follow up clues with very little information and of people who fought to stay alive despite being caught up in the evils of a terrible time. It is heartening to read how willing people not closely related or not related at all were to help. Despite the horrors of the Holocaust,more
Becky S. (Springfield, MO)

Not just another book about the Holocaust
I have read so many world war 2 books and novels about the holocaust... one of my favorite genres, but this book was different from the rest in that it focused more on the post war effects of the Jews and how they were treated once they were liberated from the camps. Esther Safran tells her story, her families story, in a beautiful memoir which is full of sad truths and secrets, but also love and joy . I enjoyed this short read very much and it made me think of things I hadn't thought of before .. the post war effects of the Jews and how it effected them mentally.. not everyone lived happily ever after . Also,more
Janet

History is Memory; Memory is History
Like many other 12-year-old girls, I read The Diary of Anne Frank. I was deeply moved and saddened by the book, but I had no idea the magnitude of the terrible, horrific price paid by 6 million Jews with their lives during World War II. I never wondered what happened to the remaining Jews after their liberation from the Death Camps. I didn’t even think that there might be other Jews who were not in the camps, but had been displaced by the war as their villages had been razed and they had no place to go as entire towns were obliterated, first by the Jews and then by the Polish army.
I Want You to Know We’re Stillmore
Rory A. (Ventura, CA)

The Search for Clear Memories
This stunning, heartfelt, soul-soaring memoir is a testament to what dedication in family research can do, as Esther Safran Foer seeks to fill in the Holocaust-laden memories that her mother would not reveal. Too painful, too much.

What follows Foer's initial determination is a fascinating insight into what it means to expand the reach of a family, by way of seeking to sort out those pieces of history and find out their truth. Foer and her son travel to find out, and along the way, there are so many moments, such as with the mass graves that show completely that not only did this happen, but this is one waymore
Shawna (TX)

"History is public. Memory is personal."
World War II literature is one of my favorites. I've read many books, fiction and nonfiction, about the Holocaust, however I've never read anything like "I Want You To Know We're Still Here". What a powerful, thought provoking memoir. Esther Safran Foer shares her journey to discover more about her mother and father's experience during the Holocaust and the years just after. Like many whose experiences were too difficult to talk about, her parents didn't speak about the past. "History is public. Memory is personal." "Life was all about moving forward." Both heart-wrenching and heartwarming, her memoir willmore

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