By Planaria Price and Helen Reichmann West
Farrar Strauss Giroux 2018. 250 pgs. Young Adult Nonfiction
Helen Reichmann West tells the life story of her mother Barbara. Born as Gucia Gomolinska and in her early twenties when Poland falls to the Nazis, she and her family are confined to a ghetto. Eventually, she hides her Jewish identity and obtains an ID card under the name Danuta Barbara Tanska that allows her to work as a household servant in Germany. Hiding in plain sight, so to speak, she survives the war in spite of Allied bombing and the continual danger of discovery. In the devastating aftermath of the war, with few of her family members surviving, she tries to build a life with her husband in Germany but prejudice against the Jews remains a reality in Europe after the war. Eventually they obtain permission to live in the United States.
This is a very readable biography that brings to life the childhood and teen years of a happy Jewish teenager in a close family surrounded by a faithful Jewish community. The terrible changes brought by the Nazi invasion destroy their peaceful life forever. These events must never be forgotten so that they will never be repeated. SH
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