Galician Memoirs - Personal Stories - Books

Books and Personal Stories
• A Match Made in Hell: The Jewish Boy and the Polish Bandit Who Defied the Nazis. Award-winning non-fiction book by Larry Stillman.
• A Rich Remembrance of Pre-War Sniatyn: An interview with Keila Adlerstein, born in Sniatyn, 1904. Interview conducted by her grandson, Luca Ascoli in 1998.
• From Lwow to Parma by Klara Rosenfeld. A young woman's escape from Nazi-Occupied Poland, the help given her by an Italian soldier, and her arrival in Palestine. Vallentine-Mitchell Publishers
• Light from the Shadows, by Mila Sandberg-Mesner, is a series of vignettes recalling family members, friends, and places of her childhood in Zaleszczyki, Galicia, now Ukraine. In English, with an introduction in Polish and French. Published online by the Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada.

  In her memoir, Mesner describes her happy youth in Zaleszczyki, a town of about 2,500 Jews before the Holocaust. She was one of three daughters of a well-to-do flour mill owner, but the family's life was shattered by the Soviet takeover and, later, by the Nazi occupation. She survived, first in a nearby ghetto, then, with identity papers provided by a priest, with a gentile family that sheltered her, by posing as a Catholic. Her parents perished in the Belzec concentration camp like most other Jews of the town.

• Light in Darkness, A Survivor's Story by Simon Sterling as told to Phyllis Sterling Jacobs. In English and also translated into Ukrainian. Simon Sterling tells about his life near Brody and Lwow during the Holocaust and as an immigrant to America living in Philadelphia. Included are his daughter's story and a photo gallery of family and friends. Sterling describes life in the Brody ghetto; escaping from a death camp; reuniting with his wife; being hidden in a Christian friend's barn; and hiding in the Polish woods. Scarred by the sorrows of enormous loss, but always able to appreciate the goodness in others, he lived a life filled with courage, determination and hope. His daughter, Phyllis, is grateful to share this book – his story told in his own words – with you.
• Lvov Ghetto Diary by Rabbi David Kahane. Out of print. Used copies available at Amazon.com. Gesher Galicia has obtained permission to place the entire book on our website. Read the 255 page book online. Introduction from Library Journal:

  This memoir covers the period from July 1941 to July 1944, during which the German army occupied the Ukrainian city of Lvov and murdered 135,000 Jews. The author, who went on to become chief rabbi in the Israeli Air Force, survived because the archbishop of the Uniate Catholic Church protected him, while Catholic convents hid his wife and daughter. Before he reached that shelter, however, Kahane suffered in a forced labor camp. He describes that experience, as well as the lonely period of hiding when he felt that he was the last Jew left alive, in a book notable for its intellectual and theological probing, its sensitive portraits of fellow Jews and the decent Ukrainians who sheltered him. Recommended for libraries with strong Holocaust collections.

• Memories of My Life in a Polish Village, 1930-1949. This memoir - told in Toby Fluek's own moving and beautiful paintings and drawings and her equally moving text - is the story of a young Jewish girl growing up in a Polish farm village, from the peaceful early 1930s through the tragic war years, and finding safe harbor at last. Available at Amazon.com
• Ordeal and Deliverance by Avraham Werner, describing his childhood in Sanok, escape from the Sanok ghetto, and how he survived. Originally published in Hebrew (1999), the full text has been reprinted in English on Google Books Partner Program.
• Podhajce – Five personal memoirs on the Podhajce (Podgaytsay, Ukraine) KehilaLinks webpage, including Jean Rosenbaum's story and photos of her trip to Podhajce in 2001.
• The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million. Best-selling non-fiction memoir by Daniel Mendelsohn. Photographs by Matt Mendelsohn.
• The Promise Hitler Kept by Stefan Szende. Gives a picture of what was happening to Lwow Jews during the war is a book. Based on the experiences of Adolf Folkmann, a Polish Jew, in Nazi dominated territories from September 1939 to October 1943, as told to Stefan Szende. Published 1945. Available at Amazon.com or on library loan.
• Witness to Annihilation - Surviving the Holocaust: A  Memoir by Dr. Samuel Drix, M.D. This autobiography not only chronicles his experience at the Janowska Camp,  but discusses pre-war life in Lwow including surrounding towns like Komarno,  Stryj and Szczerzec. Available at www.abe.com.