Book Review: “finished The Eyes Of A Survivor”
- Posted by Essays Blog in Essays Blog |
- October 18th, 2008 |
- Comments
“I have told this account to Colette for many reasons. I deprivation people to believe what happened during Class Action II, to know what was done to us Jews for no reason at all, other than that we happened to be Jewish. I also deprivation adolescent people to learn from the things I did in my life that allowed me to survive. But my greatest hope in distribution this account is so that my parents and other family members did not die in vain. I truly believe that telling others about their murders and address out against genocide, racism, and hatred can and will make a difference.”
Nina Grutz’s family was booming in business in Poland. The community respected them. Nina’s life was one of riches. “The Grutz family was part of a Jewish population that thrived at a time when almost three-quarter of the Jews in Europe called Poland home.” “It seems to me now that my life before the action was so real happy and full. My own little class was regulated and bantam, but this was how my parents raised me and it felt real assured. I had a good family life, I loved my sisters, and I even began to drop time with boys in a cultural artifact. We did not go out on dates like adolescent people do today, but exhausted time in groups with relatives or collectively adults present.”
So came the day when Nina’s father felt it was no longer safe. One day Nina attended a lecture with a companion. He realized Nina was Jewish. “I walked in with him and found that thither were older students directing people where to guard. They loud out, “Jews on the left broadside and Poles on the right!” I was proud to be a Jew, so I started to go to the left when my companion pulled me by the hand and asked, “Where are you going?” Nina was proud to be Jewish and never proved to hide it but she rung fluent Polish and dressed like everyone else.
When the bombings began, the Grutz family decided it would be safer to abstracted. Nina went to live with her aunt. Life was never the same for Nina but she didn’t give up. Nina assisted with the Subsurface by smuggling jaunt papers. She met and married Josef Morecki. Nina’s account is one of triumph.
This is a account that has to be told. This is a heartrending account, but it is more. “This is one survival fib that is neither enduringly sad nor depressing. It is, in fact, a account of hope and endurance and, finally even prosperity in a new life in a new land.”
Colette Waddell is an extremely precocious writer. She uccessfully paints a picture of words that tells Nina’s life. It is an honor to read Nina’s account. It is told with humor, which testifies to the character of Nina. I’m glad I read this book. It should be required reading for everyone. For only when we come to believe what happened during the Holocaust will be make careful it never happens again. It is with great honor that I highly recommend “Finished the Eyes of a Survivor” to all readers.
Finished the Eyes of a Survivor: A Living History of Nina Morecki from
Pre-WWII Poland to Modern America
Colette Waddell
Topcat Press (2007)
ISBN 9780979151804
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (3/07)