by R. D. Rosen
Traverso, Enzo. The Origins of Nazi Violence. New York: The New Press, 2003.
Valent, Paul. “Early Abuse and Its Effects: Anne, a Holocaust and Sexual Abuse Survivor.” Presentation at the Victorian Association of Psychotherapists Annual General Meeting, Melbourne, Australia, 1995.
———. “Resilience in Child Survivors of the Holocaust.” Psychoanalytic Review (August 1998).
Van Gelder, Fredrik. “Anne Frank Was Not Alone: The Hidden Child Congress in Amsterdam.” A paper delivered in 1999.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. Translated by Marion Wiesel. New York: Hill & Wang, 1972.
Wolf, Arnold Jacob. Unfinished Rabbi: Selected Writings. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1993.
LIST OF DOCUMENTARIES AND FEATURE FILMS
Documentaries
All My Loved Ones, directed by Matej Minac, 1999.
As If It Were Yesterday, directed by Myriam Abramowicz and Esther Hoffenberg, 1980.
The Flat, directed by Arnon Goldfinger, 2012.
Four Seasons Lodge, directed by Andrew Jacobs, 2008.
Generation War (Our Mothers, Our Fathers in the original German), directed by Philipp Kadelbach, 2013.
Hidden Children, directed by John Walker, 1994.
Hitler’s Children, directed by Chanoch Ze’evi, 2011.
Image Before My Eyes, directed by Josh Waletzky, 1981.
Imaginary Witness, directed by Daniel Anker, 2004.
Inheritance, directed by James Moll, 2006.
A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, directed by Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky, 1997.
The Nazi Officer’s Wife, directed by Liz Garbus, 2003.
Torn, directed by Ronit Krown Kertsner, 2011.
Triumph of the Will, directed by Leni Riefenstahl, 1935.
Features
Defiance, directed by Edward Zwick, 2008.
In Darkness, directed by Agnieszka Holland, 2011.
Inside Hana’s Suitcase, directed by Larry Weinstein, 2002.
The Pianist, directed by Roman Polanski, 2002.
Sarah’s Key, directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, 2010.
Schindler’s List, directed by Steven Spielberg, 1993.
A Year of the Quiet Sun, directed by Krzysztof Zanussi, 1984.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My greatest debts of gratitude are to Sophie Turner-Zaretsky, Flora Hogman, and Carla and Ed Lessing for letting me explore the world of the Holocaust’s youngest survivors through their narratives. Obviously, the existence of this book depended entirely on their courage in entrusting their stories to me, as well as their patience in humoring my ignorance and correcting various drafts of this book. I treasured their cooperation and now I cherish their friendship.
At a fairly early stage in the writing of this book, my wonderful agent, Victoria Skurnick—who combines publishing and literary savvy with a love of diners and a beautiful singing voice—made a suggestion that set this book on a far better course. As if that were not enough, when the time came she found it the perfect home.
Editor David Hirshey of HarperCollins was that home. With a degree of attention, brilliance, and diplomacy that is increasingly associated with a forgotten era of book publishing, David pushed me to revise and rethink a manuscript whose flaws I could no longer see. A few years ago, I edited one of David’s books and he much more than returned the favor. He has given fresh meaning to the adage that there’s no such thing as writing, only rewriting.
In addition, Susan Squire could not have been more generous with her time, or intelligence, in improving this book. Merci. Many thanks to Teresa Pollin of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for her explanations, translations, and scrutiny of my manuscript. I’d also like to thank Myriam Abramowicz, Abba Lessing, Dr. Vera Muller-Paisner, Henry Rozycki, Susan Sanders, Judith Sherman, Dr. Paul Valent, and Daniel and Jeffrey Zaretsky for sharing their stories and insights with me. Alice Herb, thank you for your help, for your interview with your cousin Sophie back in the 1970s, and for finding a place for me at your seder in 2010; and thanks to Gary Hoenig and Betsy Carter for sharing that seder, and so much else.
“Grateful” doesn’t begin to describe my feelings about the late Laura Turner, formerly Schwarzwald, née Litwak, without whose unbelievable bravery and resourcefulness in surviving the Second World War this book would not have been possible. Her seventeen-page memoir, which she delivered at college in New York City in the 1970s, helped immeasurably in anchoring the book in reality.
I am indebted to Flora Hogman for her beautifully written essay about her memories of the convent that hid her and her visit there in 1988 (in addition to several other papers of hers); to Carla Lessing for her essay on sexual abuse of hidden child survivors; to Ed Lessing for his essay on the First International Gathering in 1991; and Sarah Rozycki’s interview with her grandmother, Putzi Rozycki. Numerous personal accounts in The Hidden Child, the Hidden Child Foundation’s newsletter, edited by Rachelle Goldstein, as well as interviews conducted by Jane Marks for her book The Hidden Children, were very valuable.
Among my friends, no one helped me more with this book than Charles Dawe, who’s known me since kindergarten and has been a most thoughtful and generous sounding board and informal editor for many years. My sister Joyce Friedman, who’s known me exactly as long, was an extremely helpful early responder and supporter, as were old, dear friends David Bloom and Stephen Molton. To Sydney Pierce at HarperCollins, thank you for all your excellent curatorial help.
As always, I’m grateful to my late parents, Carolyn and Sol Rosen, for supporting my destiny and for setting so many examples of how to live, the wisdom of which impress me more and more each day.
I wish they were here to read the book that, in so many ways, they inspired.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
R. D. ROSEN has written numerous books, ranging from narrative nonfiction, including A Buffalo in the House: The Extraordinary Story of Charlie and His Family and Psychobabble: Fast Talk and Quick Cure in the Era of Feeling to mystery novels, including Edgar Award–winning Strike Three You’re Dead. He has worked as a book editor, television producer, and humorist and satirist on PBS, HBO, and NPR’s All Things Considered. For more, visit rdrosen.com.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
ALSO BY R. D. ROSEN
Nonfiction
Me and My Friends, We No Longer Profess Any Graces:
A Premature Memoir
Psychobabble: Fast Talk and Quick Cure in the Era of Feeling
A Buffalo in the House:
The Extraordinary Story of Charlie and His Family
Fiction
Strike Three You’re Dead
Fadeaway
Saturday Night Dead
World of Hurt
Dead Ball
COPYRIGHT
SUCH GOOD GIRLS. Copyright © 2014 by Richard D. Rosen. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rosen, Richard Dean.
Such good girls : the journey of the Holocaust’s hidden child survivors / R. D. Rosen.
pagescm
ISBN 978-0-06-229710-5
1. Schwarzwald, Selma, 1937– 2. Hillel, Flora, 1936– 3. Heijmans, Carla, 1931– 4. Jewish children in the Holocaust—Biography. 5. Holocaust survivors—New York—Biography. I. Title.
D804.48.R672014
940.53′18083—dc23
2014014200
EPUB Edition Sep
tember 2014 ISBN 9780062297129
1415161718OV/RRD10987654321
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