Unique and compelling, this husband-and-wife memoir of the Holocaust will move and inform generations. As we lose eyewitnesses to this ultimate horror, the Kuperhands present us with an elegantly restrained, yet hard-hitting, Kaddish to Polish Jewry. Miriam was the daughter of a prosperous furrier; Saul was the son of a poor shoemaker. Miriam was sixteen when she and her brother roamed the wild countryside of Poland, searching for food and shelter--and for their parents. Saul was only a few years older when he watched the smoke rising from the crematoria and knew that his parents, sister, and eight brothers were gone forever. Miriam lived by hiding; Saul lived by escaping from the camp. The authors emphasize the essential role that Polish Christians played in their survival and stress that wit, courage, faith, luck, and even a strong will to live were worthless without their help. The travail of their survival is wrenching yet comforting, tragic yet upbeat, cinematic yet intimate. Shadows of Treblinka will haunt and inspire its readers.
