Eighteen For Life: Surviving The Holocaust

Description

In 1945, newly married Genia and Mietek Guttman emerge from the horrors of war and losses of both of their families, with a glimmer of optimism and a desire for a good life. Their aim is to get as far away from Poland as possible. With their baby daughter Lusia, they travel via Prague, Paris and Brussels, and eventually arrive in Melbourne where Franka is born.

 

For many years Genia and Mietek withhold their survival experiences from their daughters. They create a loving family environment and enjoy the successful life they sought, always trying to look forward, and avoiding looking back. Nonetheless fragments about the past emerge, including the tragic life of Genia's mother, Zosia.

 

Their daughters wrestle with how little their parents will tell them, hoping to uncover the secrets that are held so tightly. Lucy marries and moves to New Zealand but the trans-Tasman relationship between the sisters becomes ever closer as they continue to seek answers. Their determination to learn more about their parents' lives leads them to visit family birthplaces in what was then Poland. And as revelations of how their parents survived emerge, Genia's biggest secret is revealed.

Author description

Born in Poland, Helen Schamroth arrived in Melbourne with her parents in 1949 and has lived in Auckland, New Zealand since 1968. She has written extensively for national and international publications about craft and design, including her award-winning book "100 New Zealand Craft Artists". Her writing has evolved in parallel with her visual arts career, and she has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Triennale of Tapestry in Lodz, Poland.Working as an arts writer, arts consultant, curator and arts advocate, Helen has served on the Arts Board of Creative New Zealand and is a Life Member of the Designers' Institute of New Zealand. In 2005 she was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the arts.