Among the Reeds

by Tammy Bottner

  The Tide Turns: Brussels, 1944

  Tenenbaum, Marcel. 2016. Of Men, Monsters and Mazel: Surviving the Final Solution in Belgium. Xlibris.

  After Liberation

  Jewish refugees during and after the war:

  Gruber, Ruth. 2007. Witness: One of the Great Foreign Correspondents of the Twentieth Century Tells Her Story. Schocken Books. See especially Chapters 4, 5, and 6.

  Palmyam. “The Voyage of the ‘Theodor Herzl’.” www.palyam.org/English/Hahapala/hf/hf_Theodor_Herzl.

  Scrapbookpages.com. 2010 (January 27). “The Deportation of the Hungarian Jews.”

  www.scrapbookpages.com/AuschwitzScrapbook/History/Articles/ HungarianJews.html.

  The Cyprus internment camps:

  Palmyam. “The Cyprus Detention Camps.” www.palyam.org/English/Arrests/hfCyprus.

  Shoah Resource Center. “Cyprus Detention Camps.” The International School for Holocaust Studies. Yad Vashem. www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20727.pdf.

  Wikipedia. 2017 (March 18). “Cyprus Internment Camps.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprus_internment_camps.

  The British Mandate in Palestine:

  For Critical Thinkers. 2015. “IsraelPalestine for Critical Thinkers: #8 – The British Mandate.” www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3_5nTRu0O8.

  Toldot Yisrael. 2015. “By Air, Land, and Sea: Aliyah under the British Mandate.” www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0qviMZ4urg.

  Reflections on a Calamity

  JDC (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee) website. www.jdc.org.

  Epigenetics and the transmission of trauma to future generations:

  Carey, Nessa. 2012. The Epigenetic Revolution: How Modern Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease, and Inheritance. Columbia University Press.

  Francis, Richard C. 2011. Epigenetics: How Environment Shapes Our Genes. W.W. Norton & Company.

  Kellerman, Natan P.F. “Transmission of Holocaust Trauma.” AMCHA – National Israeli Center for Psychosocial Support of Survivors of the Holocaust and the Second Generation. Published in 2013 as “Epigenetic Transmission of Holocaust Trauma: Can Nightmares Be Inherited?” Israeli Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences 50(1).

  Mansuy, Isabelle M., and Safa Mohanna. 2001 (May 25). “Epigenetics and the Human Brain.” The Dana Foundation. http://dana.org/Cerebrum/2011/Epigenetics_and_the_Human_Brain__Where_Nurture_Meets_Nature/.

  Moalem, Sharon. 2014. Inheritance: How Our Genes Change Our Lives and Our Lives Change Our Genes. Grand Central Publishing.

  Rodriguez, Tori. 2015 (March 1). “Descendants of Holocaust Survivors Have Altered Stress Hormones.” Scientific American. www.scientificamerican.com/article/descendants-of-holocaust-survivors-have-altered-stress-hormones/.

  Shulevitz, Judith. 2014 (November 16). “The Science of Suffering: Kids Are Inheriting Their Parents’ Trauma. Can Science Stop It?” New Republic. https://newrepublic.com/article/120144/trauma-genetic-scientists-say-parents-are-passing-ptsd-kids.

  Thompson, Helen. 2015 (August 21). “Study of Holocaust Survivors Finds Trauma Passed On to Children’s Genes.” The Guardian. www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/21/study-of-holocaust-survivors-finds-trauma-passed-on-to-childrens-genes.

  Yehuda, Rachel. 2015 (July 30). “How Trauma and Resilience Cross Generations.” On Being. https://onbeing.org/programs/rachel-yehuda-how-trauma-and-resilience-cross-generations/.

  Yehuda, Rachel, Nikolaos P. Daskalakis, Linda M. Bierer, Heather N. Bader, Torsten Klengel, Florian Holsboer, and Elisabeth B. Binder. 2016 (September 1). “Holocaust Exposure Induced Intergenerational Effects on FKBP5 Methylation.” Biological Psychiatry 80(5). www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223(15)00652-6/abstract.

  Zhao, Roseanne. 2013 (July 3). “Child Abuse Leaves Epigenetic Marks.” National Human Genome Research Institute. www.genome.gov/27554258/child-abuse-leaves-epigenetic-marks/.

  What made the Holocaust possible?

  McLeod, Saul. 2008, updated 2016. “Stanford Prison Experiment.” Simply Psychology. www.simplypsychology.org/zimbardo.html.

  Children’s experience of the Holocaust:

  Silberman, Lili. 2015. “Beyond Secret Tears.” Anti-Defamation League. www.adl.org/sites/default/files/documents/assets/pdf/education-outreach/children-of-the-holocaust-discussion-guide-beyond-secret-tears.pdf.

  On Israel:

  Center for Israel Education. 2016. “Immigration.” https://israeled.org/themes/immigration/.

  JTA. 2015 (May 8). “Israel and Germany Mark 50 Years of Diplomatic Relations.” The Jerusalem Post. www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israel-and-Germany-mark-golden-anniversary-as-friends-402475.

  Further Holocaust Memoirs

  Amsterdam Publishers specializes in memoirs written by Holocaust survivors and their children. Holocaust stories need to be kept alive. Every year, survivors with unique testimonies are passing away. This means that we will soon no longer be able to hear first-hand from the people who survived the Holocaust.

  In case you enjoyed reading Among the Reeds you might be interested in reading some of our other titles. If you click on any of the book covers you will be directed to the Amsterdam Publishers website where you will find links to download these publications. Please note: We always welcome new manuscripts by other Holocaust survivors. Simply send them to info@amsterdampublishers.com.

  Outcry - Holocaust Memoirs by Manny Steinberg is available as paperback (ISBN 9789082103137 ) and Kindle eBook. This bestselling memoir has been published in English, French, German, Chinese, Italian and Czech.

  Manny Steinberg (1925-2015) spent his teens in Nazi concentration camps in Germany, miraculously surviving while millions perished. This is his story. Born in the Jewish ghetto in Radom (Poland), Steinberg noticed that people of Jewish faith were increasingly being regarded as outsiders. In September 1939 the Nazis invaded, and the nightmare started. The city’s Jewish population had no chance of escaping and was faced with starvation, torture, sexual abuse and ultimately deportation.

  Outcry - Holocaust Memoirs is the candid account of a teenager who survived four Nazi camps: Dachau, Auschwitz, Vaihingen an der Enz, and Neckagerach.

  The Dead Years - Holocaust Memoirs by Joseph Schupack is available as paperback (ISBN 9789492371164) and as ebook. Also available in German as Tote Jahre.

  In The Dead Years, Joseph Schupack (1922- 1989) describes his life in Radzyn-Podlaski, a typical Polish shtetl from where he was transported to the concentration camps of Treblinka, Majdanek, Auschwitz, Dora / Nordhausen and Bergen-Belsen during the Second World War. We witness how he struggled to remain true to his own standards of decency and being human. Considering the premeditated and systematic humiliation and brutality, it is a miracle that he survived and came to terms with his memories.

  The Dead Years is different from most Holocaust survivor stories. Not only is it a testimony of the 1930s in Poland and life in the Nazi concentration camps - it also serves as a witness statement. This Holocaust book contains a wealth of information, including the names of people and places, for researchers and those interested in WW2, or coming from Radzyn-Podlaski and surroundings. The book takes us through Joseph Schupack’s pre-war days, his work in the underground movement, and the murder of his parents, brothers, sister and friends.

  The Mission of Abbé Glasberg in the French Resistance during WWII by Lucien Lazare is available as paperback (ISBN 9781522840954) and as eBook.

  The Mission of Abbé Glasberg is the fascinating story of a priest - of Jewish origins - who dedicated himself to the task of helping the refugees who were streaming into France during the years preceding World War II. Together with Father Chaillet, Abbé Glasberg created the ecumenical Amitié Chrétienne in May 1942 with the full support of Cardinal Gerlier, archbishop of Lyon.

  See You Tonight and Promise to be a Good Boy! War memories by Salo Muller is available as paperback (ISBN 9789492371553 ) and as ebook.

  'See you tonight, and promise to be a good boy!' were the last words his mothe
r said to Salo Muller in 1942 when she took him to school in Amsterdam, right before she was deported to Auschwitz. She and her husband were arrested a few hours later and taken to Westerbork, from where they would later board the train that took them to Auschwitz.

  The book is, in his own words, “the story of a little boy who experienced the most horrible things, but got through it somehow and ended up in a great place.” Salo, at only 5 years old, spent his time during the Second World War in hiding, in as much as eight different locations in the Netherlands. The book tells the story of his experiences during ww2, but also explains how he tried to make sense of his life after the war, being a young orphan.

  Holocaust Memoirs of a Bergen-Belsen Survivor & Classmate of Anne Frank by Nanette Blitz Konig is available as paperback (ISBN 9789492371614) and as eBook.

  In these compelling ands award-winning Holocaust memoirs, Nanette Blitz Konig relates her amazing story of survival during the Second World War when she, together with her family and millions of other Jews were imprisoned by the Nazi's with a minimum chance of survival. Nanette (b. 1929) was a class mate of Anne Frank in the Jewish Lyceum of Amsterdam. They met again in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp shortly before Anne died.

  Hank Brodt Holocaust Memoirs − A Candle and a Promise by Deborah Donnelly is available as paperback (ISBN 9781537653488) and as eBook.

  A story of resilience, Hank Brodt Holocaust Memoirs - A Candle and a Promise makes the memories of Holocaust survivor Hank Brodt come alive. It offers a detailed historical account of being a Jewish teenager under the Nazi regime, shedding light on sickening truths in an honest, matter-of-fact way.

  Hank Brodt lived through one of the darkest periods of human history and survived the devastation of World War II. Born in 1925 into a poor family in Boryslaw (Poland), he was placed in a Jewish orphanage. Losing his family when the Germans invaded Poland, he waged a daily battle to survive. Moving from forced labor camps to concentration camps, one of which features in Schindler’s List, his world behind the barbed wire consisted of quiet resistance, invisible tears and silent cries for years on end.

  A Holocaust Memoir of Love & Resilience. Mama’s survival from Lithuania to America by Ettie Zilber is available as paperback (ISBN: 9789493056022) and as Kindle eBook.

  In her own words, Zlata Sidrer tells the story of how her life in Kaunas, Lithuania, changed forever with the Nazi occupation in 1940. Gone was her dream of becoming a doctor—instead she found herself trapped in the Ghetto along with the rest of the town’s surviving Jewish population, before being transported to Stutthof Concentration Camp and eventually taken on the infamous Death March through the freezing Polish winter.

  Lovingly compiled from recorded interviews by Zlata’s daughter Ettie, this is the account of a remarkable woman who raised herself out of the ashes after unimaginable hardship and sorrow. Finding happiness where none could be expected—like secretly getting married in the Ghetto—Zlata was a model to her children.

  In the second part of this book, Ettie analyzes the impact of Zlata’s experiences on her own upbringing in the US, discovering parallels with other Second Generation kids. Her quest for answers leads her to Eastern Europe to follow in her mother’s footsteps, honour the murdered members of her family, and amass evidence to corroborate the words of Holocaust survivors.

  Rescued from the Ashes. The Diary of Leokadia Schmidt, Survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto is available as paperback (ISBN 9789493056060) and as Kindle eBook.

  The diary of a young Jewish housewife who, together with her husband and five-month-old baby, fled the Warsaw ghetto at the last possible moment and survived the Holocaust hidden on the “Aryan” side of town in the loft of a run-down tinsmith’s shed.

  Remembering Ravensbrück - Holocaust to Healing by Natalie B. Hess is available as paperback (ISBN: 9789493056237) and as Kindle eBook.

  In her luminous and engrossing memoir, Natalie B. Hess takes us from a sheltered childhood in a small town in Poland into the horrors of the Holocaust.

  When her parents are rounded up and perish in the Treblinka concentration camp, a Gentile family temporarily hides six-year-old Natalia. Later, protected by a family friend, she is imprisoned in her city’s ghetto, before she is sent to a forced-labor camp, and finally, Ravensbrück Concentration camp, from which, at nine, she is liberated.

  Taken to Sweden, by the Swedish White Cross busses, she adapts to and grows to love her new home, becoming a “proper Swedish School girl”, until, at sixteen, she is claimed by relatives and uprooted to Evansville, Indiana. There, she must start over yet again, mastering English, and ultimately earning a PhD in literature.

  As a married young mother, she and her husband move to Jerusalem where they and their three children experience life as Israelis, including the bombing of their home during the Six Day War. Back in the States, they settle into life in Arizona until Natalie’s husband dies unexpectedly when a teenager runs a stop sign and hits his car. In her grief, Natalie moves to Philadelphia to be with her daughter and discovers that life still holds surprises for her, including love.

  Hess’s compelling portrait in which terror is muted by gratitude and gentle humor, shares the story of so many immigrants dislocated by tyranny and war. Through her experience as a child separated from her parents, a teenager, young woman, wife, mother, college professor, and later a widow, Hess shows the power of the human spirit to survive and thrive.

  My Lvov. A Holocaust memoir of a twelve-year-old girl by Janina Hescheles

  While still twelve years old, Janina Hescheles (b. 1931) wrote this harrowing report from her hiding place in Cracow. The notebook, filled with clear childlike writing, was fortunately preserved. She tells about the German occupation of Lvov, the loss of her parents, about the Ghetto and mass murder in the notorious forced-labor camp Janowska in Lvov. Thrown into the abyss of horror, Janina understood and sensed more than could be expected of someone her age.

  With the help of the Underground she managed to escape in the autumn 1943 shortly before the liquidation of the camp, and lived in occupied Poland with false papers and identity until the end of the war. Janina, who has been called "the Polish Anne Frank”, has given the world a moving and important report that has been presented here in its entirety.

  Amsterdam Publishers Large Print Library

  Vol. 1: Outcry Holocaust Memoirs by Manny Steinberg

  Vol. 2: Hank Brodt Holocaust Memoirs. A Candle and a Promise by Deborah Donnelly

  Vol. 3: Among the Reeds: The true Story of how a Family survived the Holocaust by Tammy Bottner

  Vol. 4: The Dead Years - Holocaust Memoirs by Joseph Schupack

  Colophon

  Title: Among the Reeds - The true story of how a family survived the Holocaust

  Author: Tammy Bottner

  ISBN 13: 9789492371294 (ebook)

  ISBN 13: 9789492371287 (paperback)

  Publisher: Amsterdam Publishers, The Netherlands

  info@amsterdampublishers.com

  Copyright text © Tammy Bottner, 2017

  Cover photo: Genek, Melly, Irene, and Bobby, after the war, c. 1946

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

  Dear Reader

  Having written these memoirs means a lot to me, and I feel grateful for the many positive comments it has received so far. Reviews are the most powerful when it comes to getting attention for a book. Honest reviews of my books help me getting more attention for what I write.

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/>   Tammy Bottner

  www.tammybottner.com