A World Erased
A Grandson's Search for His Family's Holocaust Secrets
by Noah Lederman
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Pub Date Feb 07 2017 | Archive Date Feb 17 2017
Rowman & Littlefield | Rowman & Littlefield Trade
Description
After college, Noah, a travel writer, roamed the world for fifteen months with just one rule: avoid Poland. A few missteps in Europe, however, landed him in his grandparents’ country. When he returned home, he cautiously told Grandma about his time in Warsaw, fearing that the past would bring up memories too painful for her to relive. But, instead, remembering the Holocaust unexpectedly rejuvenated her, ending five years of mourning her husband. Together, they explored the memories—of Auschwitz and a half-dozen other camps, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the displaced persons camps—that his grandmother had buried for decades. And the woman he had playfully mocked as a child became his hero.
I was left with the stories—the ones that had been hidden, the ones that offered catharsis, the ones that gave me a second hero, the ones that resurrected a family, the ones that survived even death. Their shared journey profoundly illuminates the transformative power of never forgetting.
Noah Lederman is an award-winning writer whose work has been published in The Economist, the Boston Globe, the Miami Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Chicago Sun-Times, Slate, Salon, the New Republic, Tablet Magazine, the Jerusalem Post, Tikkun, and elsewhere. He lives on Long Island.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781442267435 |
| PRICE | $24.95 (USD) |
Links
Featured Reviews
Rosemary S, Librarian
Lederman’s grandparents were Holocaust survivors from Poland, but they never really talked about their experiences, at least not in-depth. Noah learns that they stopped telling about the atrocities they faced when it scared their own children so badly, they couldn’t sleep at night. While Noah hopes for the real story, he feels he’s lost his chance to hear it when his beloved Poppy dies. Traveling Europe after college, Noah planned to give Poland a wide berth, but he somehow found himself there anyway. The things he saw, heard and read had a profound impact on him and when he returned home, he carefully broached the topic with his grandmother. Five years after the death of her husband, she was still in deep mourning when Noah approached her. Surprisingly, the topic seemed to bring his grandmother back to the world of the living and she shared, in-depth, her stories of the ghetto, Auschwitz and the other camps, and how she managed to survive.Lederman’s account is heartbreaking and terrifying, it is also uplifting and beautiful as he learns that his grandmother is more than a survivor, she is a hero
Jenny G, Librarian
Wonderful! I was half way through this book before I realized I was reading nonfiction. It read so fluidly that I got lost in the pages. This book is a wonderful tribute to the author's grandparents, and serves to remind the world "never again". Well done!
Reviewer 171957
A World Erased by Noah Lederman is a departure from most books about the Holocaust. Noah is the grandson of two Holocaust survivors, his Poppy and his Grandma. He wants to know about their experiences, but his grandparents do not talk about the Holocaust, except for a couple of vague stories, because of the adverse effect the remembrances had on their children, the author’s father and aunt. The author takes a journey, including trips abroad, urging information from his father and listening to tapes his grandparents provided to Steven Speilberg’s Shoa Foundation.
This is also a very personal account about his childhood and young adult years, and the love he has for his grandparents. His grandmother slowly opens up with her memories after Poppy’s death and years of mourning. It is a story of growing up Jewish and the effect of the Holocaust on generations removed.
I did find it a bit disjointed, moving around in time from childhood to adult and back, but it was extremely heartwarming and important.
C M, Librarian
Untold stories of survival should be told to family, no matter how painful. Families need to understand the trials their families went through by surviving the holocaust, and how their stories bind families together.
Terry B, Reviewer
The story begins by telling us about a little Jewish girl in 1942 who ran away from her mother into a barn to save her life. She grabbed a chicken and said "Jesus help me!" to a Ukrainian soldier that was hunting Jewish people and who had just killed her mother.
The soldier told her to be careful with the chicken and that there were Jews around.
Noah is the grandson of this little girl, Hadasa, who survived the horrors of Auschwitz.
However Noah does not know very much about his Grandmother, Hadasa or his Grandfather, Leon's experience as concentration camp victims because they do not want to talk about it and they distract him when he asks about it.
Noah knows the name of his grandparents village, and street name and house number, but when he visits them in Poland he is told everything has been changed since the war. He finally is given the Shoah Foundation Tapes that were recorded by Steven Spielberg in which his grandparents give their graphic testimonies of crawling through gutters to deliver food, losing close family members and suffering deprivation in Auschwitz.
You will discover the truth about what it was like to be Noah, a close relative of a Holocaust survivor, and how he discovered the truth about his grandparents' past and what their lives were like before, during and after the Holocaust.
Polly K, Reviewer
A touching book by Noah Lederman and his search for the secrets of his family's holocaust experiences. It is poignant that the grandchild would be the one to keep these memories alive and to be a witness, bringing the stories to light in order that we and the world will never forget. Highly recommended.
Reviewer 345619
This is one of my favorite Holocaust books. The fact that the author's grandparents survive, but are unwilling to share much, make the story an interesting quest to connect the past to the present. I have no doubt that Noah will continue to love and honor the memory of his grandparents and their stories that he worked so hard to get them to share.
Isaac F, Reviewer
I think you'll enjoy my review of A World Erased: A Grandson's Search for His Family's Holocaust Secrets. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1873108287
Michelle K, Reviewer
A World Erased
A Grandson’s Search for His Family’s Holocaust Secrets
by Noah Lederman
Rowman & Littlefield
Rowman & Littlefield Trade
History, Nonfiction (Adult)
Pub Date 07 Feb 2017
I am voluntarily reviewing a copy of A World Erased through the publisher and Netgalley:
His Grandparents were survivors of the Holocaust, his Grandmother witnessed her family murdereded for the simple fact that they were Jews, and she felt helpless to stop the monsters.
He hears stories of his Grandfather who beat up on Nazi’s in a Warsaw Ghetto.
On December 30th 1999 while Noah is finishing out his studies he learns his Grandfather (Poppy) died just after finishing his first Semester at College.
Both his Grandmother and Grandfather had survived Auschwitz-Birkenau.
This is a story of survival, of determination and strength and a story of the pain the Holocaust has put onto families even a generation or two later, but more than that it is a story of strength.
I give A World Erased five out of five stars.
Happy Reading.
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