Title: Jews In The Garden
Author: Judy Rakowksy
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Release Date: 11th July 2023
BLURB
Villages of Poland hide the lost secrets of World War II
1944: Heavy footfalls thud on the road on a rainy May night. A band of gunmen scour a hilltop farm, acting on rumors that it harbors a Jewish family. For 18 months, the Rozeneks have been hiding safely, but their luck is about to run out. Only one from the family of six will live to see the sunrise. Sixteen-year-old Hena Rozenek shelters in the woods until morning... and then she runs.
Forty years later: Holocaust survivor Sam Rakowski Ron has lived in the United States for decades, never thinking he could return to the Polish village he fled as a teenager. But now he's ready to talk about what he heard, what he saw, and what he knows about two separate families of cousins who were his neighbors, and presumably were killed during the war. The story Poland presents to the world is that Poles saved more Jews than citizens of any other nation, that any murders in Poland were committed by Nazis and Nazis alone. But Sam, while defending his countrymen, suspects a painful truth. The stories he shares with his younger cousin, Judy, an investigative journalist, send them off on a decades-long journey unlike any other to find out what happened to the Rozenek family and ultimately reveal the secrets the Polish government is still desperate to keep.
Jews in the Garden is a globe-trotting detective story that turns investigative eyes and ears toward the hidden events in Poland during the Holocaust. Judy and Sam, the unlikeliest of sleuthing duos, knock on doors, petition court documents, seek clandestine meetings, and ultimately discover what really happened to the "Jews in the garden next door."
REVIEW
The book cover features a treasured, rare, photograph that has survived the war of a once whole family, young and old living together. The cover also features a landscape underneath the photograph which becomes all the more poignant when you read the book.
Judy is a journalist and decides to write about her family history, she embarks on a journey and writing task that takes years and is filled with loss and horror but also great bravery, and survival against the odds. Judy discovers those that defied those around them that disagreed and hid her ancestors from the Nazis that still live with the stigma and sometimes feel the repercussions in the present day.
The historical part of the Memoir concentrates mainly on Hena & her family. During the war Hena & her family were hidden by a farmer, the allies were coming closer some would say they became a little more complacent, or a little braver and came out from their cramped hiding place in a barn to get some fresh air and see the sky. Unfortunately someone revealed were they were, reported them for being Jews. They are found and shot, all except Hena who sees what happens from behind a nearby tree. Hena's family, Sam's family were murdered by Poles, 'partisans' who sympathised & agreed with the Nazis getting rid of the Jews in Poland!
Judy travels back and forth many times both with Sam, (her older cousin), and sometimes alone gathering information, searching records when she is allowed to access them, if/when these documents still exist.
It's during a visit back to his home village that Sam and Judy discover that Hena's family were buried beneath the cherry tree, by the farmer who barely escaped with his own life. The tree itself reveals the place of burial by producing cherries that never ripen, they just turn black & rot. Sam and Judy are told by the descendents of the farmer that this is sign the villagers cannot ignore as they ignored the gunshots and what had happened that night. Sam and Judy visit and say a prayer.
Sam visits Poland again later and obtains permission and has a piece of bone belonging his family members that were murdered and buried, exhumed so he can take it back to the family burial plot in America.
At one point Sam visits a monument that has been 'forgotten' and vandalised, so he scratches his name on it, defiantly saying he was here, that he survived!
Theres another story told of the grandmother of the family too old and ill to flee with her fitter family members, she is left at home to face the Jewish 'round up'. Defiant to the last she ignores the call to gather at the square and has to be dragged there literally kicking and fighting to the very last moment of her life when she is shot along with the other Jewish people rounded up from the village.
Judy notices that when Sam visits what he still considers his hometown, Sam has a sort of spark of energy, an arrogant defiance when in Poland, He is back! They missed one! He survived! He escaped! He made it and is here to tell what happened! However during the many visits to Poland and the book Sam is getting older, at times it all seems too much for him, too upsetting. At times he becomes irritated translating for Judy as she doesn't speak the language fluently. Sometimes he shuts Judy out of his meetings and excursions, other times he welcomes her. Judy herself become frustrated when Sam wishes to rely on locals who say they have information and leads about Hena only to find that they lead to nothing. People are still reluctant to speak and reveal the truth about what happened. They prefer to distract with thing they find less uncomfortable to deal with. An example of this is when someone takes Sam to visit someone who has some furniture that was his families. It's quite strange, they even warn Sam he must not try to steal it!!
I was both devastated & disappointed for Sam, and Judy that they didn't really obtain the conclusion they wished for with their search for Hena. I was stunned, shocked and horrified in equal measure that they discovered what happened to the Rozeneks was so common place and that in today's society it is still being 'swept under the carpet' by so many. Why not openly admit these atrocities occurred then perhaps information could flow more freely for those still alive and their descendants who want to know more their deceased families? Why not lift all restrictions on paperwork to enable families to be reunited before it truly is too late? Maybe this book will bring out someone who knows/knew Hena or even Hena herself, or her descendants which would be truly amazing! For them to be reunited with Sam, and his descendants.
This book is not a light hearted, nor is it a 'happy ever after' read, it is quite facts & figures heavy in places. It contains details of the murder of innocent people of all ages. Though this is just one families true story there are so many branches of it to be told. The stark thing is that this is just one families story, how many more similar stories are there out there. It makes you think of the families with no one left alive to tell their stories, it really is thought provoking, and heart breaking too. There is so much information within this book about the people at the time of the war and the years following it, I feel like I could talk forever about it, my review just touches on certain parts of the book, there is so much contained in this biography/memoir. There were many times I felt like reaching out and hugging both Sam, Judy and the descendants of those that hid Jews from the Nazis and partisans. It's so difficult to fathom why did the farmers neighbours feel the need to give the Jewish family away so close to the end of the war? Why did the partisans that were fighting the Nazis could/would murder a Jewish family?
Having said all that I am glad I read the book, it tells a devastating true story from a horrible point in real history that should never, ever be forgotten.
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