From the synagogues of nineteenth-century Vienna to Britain and the war years, the story of the Horowitz family reads like an epic novel. A wonderfully intimate family portrait, it follows the lives of four generations of Polish Jews who lived through - and mostly survived - the turbulent twentieth century. Full of tales of bravery as well as the comical anecdotes of everyday life, the book follows the family members as they are dispersed around the world - to European spas, tsarist prisons, Soviet war camps and the British RAF. One became an undercover agent, another a zoologist in France, another a leading Freudian psychiatrist. Amazingly only two members were victims of the Holocaust, though the Second World War left lasting psychological after-effects on all the survivors. However this is ultimately an uplifting story - of a family that never gave up hope and never gave in.
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'This book will delight anyone who likes to read of the past as seen through the eyes of the people living it...She tells her story with a tender matter-of-factness that makes it come alive, and displays a refreshing lack of hindsight: the narrative is not, as is so often the case, marked by the shadow of the impending Holocaust. Indeed, nothing in this wonderful tale is obvious, nothing is predictable.' (Adam Zamoyski THE SPECTATOR (8.1.04) )
From the Inside Flap
This book could not have been published in Poland even five years ago. A wonderfully intimate family portrait, it follows the lives of four generations of Polish Jews who lived through and mostly survived all the tumultuous events of the twentieth century. Joanna Olczak-Ronikier is the granddaughter of the owners of one of Poland's most prestigious booksellers and publishers. She is a highly acclaimed writer and journalist but it has taken her years to gain the courage to tell her story. Full of amazing tales of bravery as well as hilarious anecdotes of everyday life, In the Garden of Memory is a mixture of history and biography that reads like an epic novel. Many of the family were Communists or members of the Socialist Party and fought for the cause unstintingly despite being constantly imprisoned and sent to Siberia. Their escapes and evasions make fascinating reading - on one occasion they were exiled 'beyond the bounds of Russia' so they went to Europe for a year. Incredibly, partly through luck and partly through inspiration, they managed to escape the fate of many other Jewish families during the war. Whether hiding in cellars for months at a time or holding revolutionary meetings, escaping the burning ghetto or sending telegrams to the BBC they never gave in and never gave up hope. This is an extraordinary and hugely revealing memoir related with a lightness of tone and a sense of humour that make it a joy to read. ILLUSTRATED 18.99 in UK only Joanna Olczak-Ronikier was born in 1934 and is a highly acclaimed writer and journalist. She has also written a film scenario for Andrzej Wajda. Her grandparents, the Mortkowicz family, ran one of the best literary bookshops and publishing houses in Poland before World War II.
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On Tuesday, 28 October 1998, at the Jewish Cultural Centre in Krakow, I had a metaphysical experience, when my great-great-grandfather, or rather the shadow of his ghost, made a brief, unexpected appearance. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
On Tuesday, 28 October 1998, at the Jewish Cultural Centre in Krakow, I had a metaphysical experience, when my great-great-grandfather, or rather the shadow of his ghost, made a brief, unexpected appearance. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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A fascinating history of the Hurwitz family of Austria/Poland
18 Jan 2010
By Evalyn F. Segal
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book traces the origin of the Hurwitz/Horowitz/Hurvich family to a village in Moravia and then follows the branch that derived from the son of a Viennese rabbi Hurwitz who married a Polish Jewish woman of good family and settled in Warsaw. The couple founded a well-regarded bookstore and publishing house and prospered. The children were given excellent secular educations (the girls were educated at home with tutors). (I'm giving these details from memory. I read the book about a year ago.) We learn how the family coped under the Nazis, some surviving, some not; as well as under the Soviets (one ardent and loyal Communist Hurwitz was denounced as a traitor in the Soviet Union - a common occurrence; he died there). This book is a worthwhile contribution to the literature of Eastern European Jewry and the Jewish holocaust under the Nazis. It was written by a surviving member of the Warsaw Hurwitzes.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding Historical Memoir
7 Jan 2012
By Tiza
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This memoir is without question one of the best I have ever read and had a hard time putting it down. It is so well written and without reservation I highly recommend it. It is the epic story of one Jewish family in Poland from the 1800's to after WW11. Having just watched Nicholas and Alexandria and a mini-series on the royal families of Europe before and during WW1 this book was a great addition to what I watched. It dealt a great deal into the family's involvement in early communism in Poland and in Russia which was quite an eyeopener. From a historical standpoint the memoir was outstanding. It delves into the lives of a middle class Jewish family in Poland and then into the dreadful conditions members of this family lived in Russia. It followed the nine children, their children and grandchildren of a couple born in 1844, the author's great-grandparents. Fiction could not be more intense and fascinating.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Memories of My Mother's Memories
14 July 2012
By Olga
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
My parents came to the US from Poland in the 1920s. My mother grew up in Warsaw. She would have loved this book. She may have known the author's family, and she certainly would have visited the book store owned by the author's father. As I grew up, my mother told me many stories about her life growing up. This book has revived my memories of those stories.
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4.7 out of 5 stars
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